Like Firefox 3.0? Need a quick and easy-to-use prototyping tool? Just download this add-on called The Pencil Project http://www.evolus.vn/Pencil/ for Firefox 3 and sketch away! I wanted a tool that is lightweight and unobtrusive that allows me to quickly sketch my prototypes without the need for visual studio or a similar developer tool. This add-on to Firefox was just that! I was able to get good looking interfaces within minutes of downloading the tool. It’s free, only 400 KB and it’s platform independent. If you (like me) find that other tools out there are too complicated or do too much for your simple prototyping needs then try this one!

I thought this would be useful “swag” for any teams out there starting Agile estimating techniques or any teams who want to improve at estimating development tasks.  I’m not going into the details of how it’s done, you can read for yourself http://www.planningpoker.com/detail.html. I first read about planning poker in Mike Cohen’s book Agile Estimating and Planning. You can also get actual planning poker cards from his company’s web site http://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/products/planning-poker-cards, what a great idea!

Back when our team was learning Agile estimating I had these documents made to help us play planning poker. I thought these would be useful to anyone in the learning phase or wants some tools that can help with the process. So here it is, FREE planning poker cards that you can take to your favorite print shop and get printed (download the attached PDF’s).

Planning Poker Playing Cards pg01_front – Planning Poker Page 1 Front

Planning Poker Playing Cards pg01_back – Planning Poker Page 1 Back

Planning Poker Playing Cards pg02_front – Planning Poker Page 2 Front

Planning Poker Playing Cards pg02_back – Planning Poker Page 2 Back

Then I took this one step further and made use of our company’s business cards which needed to be reprinted anyways! Instead of just getting new business cards printed, why not take this opportunity to make planning poker cards out of them? Dual purpose Agile business cards! The front of the cards have the generic company branding as well as the individual contact information. The back of the cards have our division brand (ThirdAngle) and a unique number used for estimating. It’s also a good conversation starter when you give out your business cards :-).

Next time you see the team you’ll have to ask for each of us for our business cards so you can have the set.