Team backlog estimation inside Jira Cloud — user guide, privacy policy and support.
Read this before you configure your first game. It covers the roles, the card decks, the estimation fields and the terms used throughout the interface.
The app uses the current Atlassian vocabulary:
| Term in the app | Means |
|---|---|
| Game | One estimation session, with its own settings, backlog and participants |
| Work item | A Jira issue |
| Space | A Jira project |
| Backlog | The list of work items added to a game |
Roles are assigned by the person who creates the game, in step 1 of the wizard. Participants cannot change their own role.
| Role | Can vote | Can do |
|---|---|---|
| Facilitator | Yes | Runs the game: selects the current work item, reveals the votes, starts the timer, saves the final estimate, edits the game, finishes and deletes it |
| Estimator | Yes | Picks a card, adds an optional note to the vote |
| Spectator | No | Watches the game; the card deck is not shown |
Notes:
Choose the deck in step 1. It defines the cards the estimators see.
| Deck | Cards |
|---|---|
| Fibonacci | 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55 |
| Mod. Fibonacci | 0, ½, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20, 40, 60, 100 |
| T-shirt | XXS, XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL |
| Time estimates | 1h, 2h, 4h, 6h, 1d, 2d, 3d, 1w |
| Custom | Your own values, separated by commas (at least 2) |
Every preset deck also ends with two special cards:
| Card | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ∞ | Too large to estimate |
| ☕ | I need a break |
Special cards behave like any other card in the room: they count towards Voted N/M, they appear in the distribution, and they can even come out as Most Votes. What they cannot do is reach Jira — they have no numeric value, so choosing one as the final estimate keeps it in the game and report only, and the room says so explicitly.
The Estimation field decides where the final estimate is written in Jira.
| Option | Written to |
|---|---|
| Story point estimate | The Story Points field of the work item |
| Original estimate | Time tracking, as the original estimate, in hours |
Story Points is a numeric Jira field, so the app only offers numeric decks for it. The wizard enforces this: switching the estimation field to Story point estimate hides T-shirt and Time estimates, and resets the deck to Fibonacci if one of them was selected.
| Estimation field | Selectable decks |
|---|---|
| Story point estimate | Fibonacci, Mod. Fibonacci, Custom |
| Original estimate | Fibonacci, Mod. Fibonacci, T-shirt, Time estimates, Custom |
| Chosen card | Story point estimate | Original estimate |
|---|---|---|
A number (5) |
5 |
5h |
A time card (2d) |
not offered | 2d, as written |
| A T-shirt size | not offered | converted, then written in hours |
| ∞ or ☕ | nothing written | nothing written |
T-shirt sizes are converted on this scale before the write:
| XXS | XS | S | M | L | XL | XXL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.5 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 13 |
After a successful save the room reports what actually reached Jira, for example wrote 3h to Jira (M → 3h).
Once any estimate has been saved in a game, the Card deck and the Estimation field are locked for that game. Changing them later would make the values already written to Jira mean something different.
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Work items per game | 500 |
| Games listed on the Games screen | 500 most recent |
| Work item summary stored in a game | first 255 characters |