Align on task estimation with your team

Written by:  Ashley M
Last updated:  

Drive collaborative alignment on tasks with a team estimation activity. With this tool, everyone can individually estimate the effort for a task, view estimation results, and apply a final consensus-based estimation to a Lucid Card, Jira Card, or Azure DevOps Card. Read this article to learn how to set up and run an estimation activity with your team.

Plan availability: Free, Individual, Team, and Enterprise.
  • Available on FedRAMP accounts.
  • Any user can participate in a team estimation activity, but only those on a Team or Enterprise account can apply an estimate to a card. 
  • Read the Lucid Plans article for more information about what is available on your account or the Upgrade your Lucid account article for instructions to upgrade.

Set up a team estimation activity

Start by adding an estimation quick shape bank to your canvas and one or more Lucid, Jira, or Azure DevOps Cards.

There are two types of estimation quick shape banks you can use:

  • Story points work with Jira issues and Azure DevOps work items with story point or effort estimation fields, and Lucid Cards.
  • T-shirt sizes work with Lucid Cards only.

To add an estimation shape bank in Lucidchart:

  1. Select quick-tools-icon-in-lucid.jpg the Quick tools icon from the Primary Toolbar on the far-left side of the workspace.
  2. Scroll to the “Quick shape banks” section of the menu and drag Story points or T-shirt sizes onto the workspace.

To add an estimation shape bank in Lucidspark:

  1. Click more-tools-icon-from-lucidspark-primary-toolbar.png the More tools icon from the Primary Toolbar on the left-side of the canvas.
  2. Select quick-tools-icon-in-lucid.jpg the Quick tools icon from the menu that appears.
  3. Scroll to the “Quick shape banks” section of the menu and drag Story points or T-shirt sizes onto the workspace.

Learn more: Get more information about how to Use quick tools in Lucid by checking out our article.

Participate in a team estimation activity

Once you have an estimation shape bank and cards added to the canvas, you’re ready for a team estimation activity. Here are the steps:

  1. From the estimation shape bank, click and drag a point out of the bank.
  2. Hover the point over a card and drop it in the estimation dropzone that appears beneath the card.
    how-to-add-an-estimate-for-estimation-activity.gif
    • You need to add the point to the dropzone that appears beneath the card to participate in an estimation activity. If you drop it on the card itself, it will be directly applied.
  3. To view submitted results, click the estimation results preview beneath the card.
  4. Discuss the results with your team and agree on a final estimate.
  5. Select the agreed upon estimate from “Results” and click Apply estimate.
    how-to-apply-an-estimation-to-a-lucid-card.gif

Note: Any user can participate in an estimation activity, but only those on a Team or Enterprise account can apply an estimate to a card.

Change or delete results

Everyone participating in the activity can change their estimation before it’s applied by dragging and dropping a new estimation into the card’s estimation dropzone. 

You have two options to delete results. You can:

  • Automatically delete when you apply a winning estimate to a card.
  • Manually delete results on a card. 

To automatically delete results, check the box next to “Delete results on apply” in the Results window. The preference you set is specific to your account only and will persist on all future estimation activities.

how-to-check-box-to-delete-estimation-results-on-apply.png

To manually delete all estimations:

  1. Select the estimation results preview beneath a card.
  2. Click the trash icon in the upper-right of the “Results” window.
  3. In the pop-up that appears, click Delete.

All submitted estimations will be permanently deleted.

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