Introduction

Bucket Sizing session type by Agile Poker for Jira Cloud is a widely used feature. It is based on the Swimlane Sizing card game and similar to the Relative session, but with a fixed number of buckets and their values. 

Bucket Sizing is recommended for seasoned teams with proven estimation patterns and it is the fastest session type in Agile Poker. Here is the general gist of the session: 

1. A moderator starts the Bucket Sizing session and selects issues to be estimated.

2. The moderator defines buckets and their values before the session start. 

3. The moderator invites participants to the session via a sharable link. Alternatively, the moderator shares the screen with participants and interacts on their behalf. 

4. Participants drag and drop the issues into the labeled buckets based on their relative size. 
5. If required, the team can use the Voting option where participants can vote for a bucket for a specific issue.

6. The last step is to assign estimation values corresponding to each column (usually with the Fibonacci sequence).

7. The moderator saves the assigned values for the issues.

Check the detailed explanation below or see how it works for the similar Relative session here:

Session Configuration

Initial configuration

Onсe launched from the Classic or Next-Gen project menu, the Bucket Sizing session is configured in 3 quick steps:

1. Create session:
   
   • Choose the name for your session or go with a pre-set one;
   • Switch the Private mode on if you wish to limit participants' access and ability to configure the session. Check Public vs. Private sessions for more details;
   • Select one of the pre-set buckets from a drop-down list or customize it by editing buckets values;
     • Please note that values or values+labels can be used. To add labels simply use "LABEL=VALUE" format, for example, "Large=5".
       
       
2. Manage participants:
   • Add your team members to the participant list;
   • Select a dedicated moderator to facilitate the session or keep the Moderator field empty to give everyone full session control.
     
3. Select issues:
   • Use JQL to narrow the search;
   • Enable estimation of Epics and/or Sub-tasks;
   • Select issues you would like to estimate one-by-one or in bulk (for sprints or backlog)
     

Once ready, click the Start session button to proceed.

Session scope can be also re-configured from the main Bucket Sizing session window using Add issue, Create issue and Remove from the session (appears during card dragging process) options: 

Inviting participants

Once the session starts, you can share the session link with your team by copying it from the address bar, the breadcrumbs section, or from the participants management screen; click Participants button in the top right corner to open it:

The participant management menu can also be used for removing inactive team members from the session. Inactive participants have a grey indicator next to their avatars while active have a green one:

Moderator role

In the Manage participants screen, the moderator role can be assigned. It gives the user several privileges comparing to a regular participant: 

• Start and manage the voting process;
• Submit the final votes;
• Save estimates.

The moderator has a crown icon next to their pointer and avatar.

If there is no moderator assigned (default state), all participants have equal access to all the features. Please note that the moderator's role in a public session doesn't have an exclusive power to manage participants; every participant has full access to participants and moderator management settings. While for private sessions participants are managed by moderators only.  

Estimation session

Issue placement phase

While in the session page, drag the issues from the deck (left side of the screen) to one of the buckets on the virtual board (right side of the screen): 

Continue dragging cards from the deck to the board till no more user stories left. 

Voting option

The moderator can activate the voting option and ask participants to vote for a "column" for a specific issue or all the issue from the session scope. 

In order to enable the voting option the moderator has to expand the Voting panel using the arrow icon:

When enabled, the Automatic issue pickup for voting option will place the next issue from the session scope list to the voting area once the final vote for the current issue has been cast. When disabled, the moderator will manually control issues to vote for. 

Drag and drop a user story to the voting area.

Now participants can vote for the issue. The personal voting process options are:

• in order to cast a vote, a participant should click on a like icon or a header in the preferred column;
• participants can change votes an unlimited number of times before the voting ends;
• the voting process is unbiased, participants don't see votes or cursors of other team members;
• the voting progress might be monitored using status marks on participants' avatars;
• the voting is finished automatically when all the participants have voted;
• the moderator can finish the personal voting process at any time by clicking on the Reveal votes button;
• during the personal voting phase, the moderator or moderators can freely move cards around the board:

Once personal votes are revealed, the following options are available:

• the winner(s) will be highlighted with blue Accept buttons, other columns will have standard grey Accept buttons;
• the final vote is casted by the moderator by clicking on the Accept button inside the appropriate column or by dragging the issue there;
• the moderator can use the Reset voting option to restart personal voting process in case the team wants to come to a consensus;
• during the final voting phase, the moderator or moderators can freely move cards around the board and even add or remove columns, which might lead to a loss of personal votes:

Depending on a team and a flow, different session scenarios are possible, like voting for an issue or for the whole session scope. 

Saving estimates

• When happy with what you see, you can click 'Save estimates' button (bottom right) to conclude the session and update the issues' respective estimation field. 

  NOTE: all the estimations are saved to:

  • an estimation field specified in Board Settings for Scrum boards of Company Managed (Classic) projects;

  • an estimation field selected during session creation or configuration for Kanban boards of Company Managed (Classic) projects and all board types of Team Managed (Next Gen) projects;

• Then click on 'Save' to confirm the action:

• That’s it! Now you can go to the board, or get back to the estimation session:

In case of using the 'Finish session' button, the session will be discharged for all the participants without saving the progress. 

Limitations and caveats