Documentation

Last updated 03/11/2026. Planning Table runs planning-poker estimation sessions inside Jira Cloud and saves the agreed estimates back to your work items.

1. Install

1. A Jira administrator opens Apps → Explore more apps in Jira Cloud (or the Atlassian Marketplace website).
2. Search for Planning Table and choose Get it now (or start the free trial).
3. Choose your Jira site and approve the permissions. Planning Table asks to read work items and users, to write estimates you choose to save, and to keep its own session data on your site.
4. When the install finishes, the app is available to everyone on the site. There is nothing else to configure.

2. Open the app

1. In Jira, open the Apps menu in the top navigation.
2. Choose Planning Table - Planning Poker. The app opens as a full page in Jira.
3. You see the list of sessions on your site. Anyone who can open the app can see and join every session.

3. Create a session

1. Choose New session and give it a name.
2. Pick a voting mode: Interactive (live room, one work item at a time), Async (everyone votes the whole list at their own pace) or Bucket sizing (sort work items into buckets on a shared board).
3. Interactive only: turn on Auto-reveal if you want the cards to flip as soon as everyone estimating has voted.
4. Pick an estimation scale (see Scales).
5. Under Save finals to, choose the number field for the agreed estimates. Story Points is listed first. Choose Don't save to a field to keep results in the session only.
6. Pick the work items. Use the quick pick (choose a project, then Use current sprint or Open work items) or write a JQL query, which has autocomplete, validation and a preview. Untick anything you don't want to estimate.
7. Create the session, then tell your team its name. Teammates open Planning Table from the Apps menu and join it.

4. Vote

1. The room shows the current work item with its description, status, priority, labels and current estimate. Select the key to open the work item in Jira.
2. Each person picks a card. The room shows who has voted, never what they voted.
3. Not sure what a value means for your team? Open Compare with reference work items to see recently updated work items that already carry each scale value (numeric scales with a save field).
4. Want to watch without estimating? Turn on Spectate. Switching to spectate withdraws your current vote.

5. Reveal

1. The facilitator chooses Reveal, or auto-reveal flips the cards when everyone estimating has voted.
2. Everyone sees all the cards plus the distribution, average, median, agreement and a suggested final (the scale value nearest the median).
3. If the room disagrees, the facilitator can start a 1:00, 2:00 or 5:00 discussion timer so the outliers can explain. The timer never reveals votes by itself.
4. Choose Re-vote to hide the cards and run another round.

6. Save finals

1. Accept the suggested final or set your own.
2. Choose Save to your field. The estimate is written as you, so your Jira permissions apply: you can only save to work items you could edit yourself.
3. Choose Next work item and repeat until the list is done.

Run an Async session

1. Create the session in Async mode and share its name with the team.
2. Each person opens the session whenever their day allows, expands a work item to see its context, and picks a card. They can work through the list in any order.
3. Vote counts are visible so you can track progress. Values stay hidden from everyone, including the facilitator.
4. When the team is done, the facilitator chooses Close voting. Every work item shows its distribution and suggested final.
5. The facilitator confirms or adjusts each final and saves them. Reopen returns the session to voting if you need more votes.

Run a Bucket sizing session

1. Create the session in Bucket sizing mode. The board shows one bucket per scale value and the work items waiting to be sized.
2. Everyone sorts on the same board: drag a work item into a bucket, or select the work item and then a bucket header. Moves show for the whole room within a few seconds; the last move wins.
3. When the sorting settles, the facilitator chooses Set finals from buckets. Adjust any single final if the discussion moved it.
4. Choose Save to write every numeric final to your field in one go.
5. Close session freezes the board.

Scales and special cards

• Fibonacci (0-100), T-shirt sizes, powers of two, 1-10, or a custom comma-separated list of 2 to 20 values (up to 12 characters each).
• The ? (no idea) and coffee (need a break) cards are always available and never count toward the stats.
• Jira estimate fields hold numbers, so only numeric finals are saved to the field. T-shirt and other text finals stay recorded in the session.

Facilitator and spectators

• The person who creates a session is its facilitator. Only they can reveal, re-vote, move between work items, run the timer, set finals, save, close and delete.
• Everyone else votes, or turns on Spectate to watch. Spectators are not counted in the voted total and never hold up auto-reveal.
• Deleting a session removes its votes and bucket placements. Estimates already saved to Jira are kept.

Limits

• Up to 50 work items per session.
• Up to 100 sessions kept per site; the oldest drop off the list.
• Custom scales: 2 to 20 values, up to 12 characters each.
• Only numeric finals can be saved to a number field.

Messages and fixes

• Add a search restriction: Jira rejects JQL with no bounds. Add a project, sprint, assignee or date, for example project = ABC AND sprint IN openSprints().
• Pick at least one work item to estimate: the sprint or query selected nothing, or everything was unticked. Check the preview, widen the query or pick another project.
• Only the session facilitator can do that: reveal, re-vote, the timer, finals and saving belong to the person who created the session.
• Votes are revealed, ask the facilitator to start a re-vote: the round is over. The facilitator chooses Re-vote to open a new one.
• You are spectating, switch to estimating to vote: turn off Spectate to pick a card.
• Only numeric finals can be saved to a number field: T-shirt and other text finals stay in the session. Use a numeric scale if you want them in Jira.
• This session has no estimate field configured: the session was created with Don't save to a field. Results stay in the session; create a new session with a field to save to Jira.
• This session no longer exists: the facilitator deleted it, or it was one of the oldest sessions past the 100-session limit.
• Saving fails for one work item: you may not have permission to edit it, or the field may not be on its screen. Ask a Jira admin, or choose another field.
• Anything else: reload the page. If it keeps happening, contact support.

Questions or ideas? Report a bug or suggest an improvement.