Estimation Workshop Activities

Estimation Games are great for starting conversations and honing and tuning estimations before an estimation session. This exercise helps a team to get into the right mindset for estimating and planning for the sprint.

A timed estimation game that reveals why accurate estimation is so hard, and why asking the right questions matters.

Players are asked to estimate how many iterations they need to connect a given number of dots.

The task looks trivially simple, but there is hidden complexity: Time pressure, total number of dots, lines obscuring numbers. This makes it harder than anyone expects. The gap between "this is ieasy" and "it was actually hard" is the lesson.

Use it when stakeholders wonder why forecasts keep missing, or when you want to shift the conversation from "why can't you estimate better?" to "how can we change the way we work to make more accurate forecasts?"

🌐 Online A ready-to-run digital version of this game is available at https://facilitatorkit.co/connect-the-dots-online. The facilitator creates a session and shares a link — participants join in their browser and play on their own device. The game generates burndown charts automatically after each round.

Reach a consensus by grouping user stories according to scope.