During a planning session, four out five team members vote to include eight story points in a particular story, while the fifth member votes for five story points. How should this be handled?

Question

Options

• AThe story should be assigned eight story points as per the majority vote
• BThe story should be added to the backlog and reassessed later
• CThe story should be assigned points after a discussion with the fifth team member to see if a
• DThe decision for the number of story points should be made by the customer

• A
  3% (1)
• B
  7% (2)
• C
  77% (23)
• D
  13% (4)

Explanation

In planning poker, outlier votes-especially the lowest or highest-carry valuable information. The fifth member who voted 5 may have a simpler understanding of the work, have spotted a shortcut, or be underestimating complexity. The correct step is to discuss with that member to understand their reasoning before finalizing points. This may reveal insights that change the group's estimate. Simply assigning 8 by majority vote (A) suppresses potentially useful signal. Adding to the backlog (B) delays unnecessarily, and letting the customer decide (D) is inappropriate-estimation is a team responsibility.

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