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Originally from http://blog.aslakhellesoy.com/2007/10/17/planning-poker-timer

A few months ago one of my colleagues, Christer Løvaas, brought a couple of old-fashioned hour glasses (minute glasses, really) to a release planning meeting. -A red one with one minute and a blue one with two minutes.

We used these to timebox the time spent on estimating each story. We had set a goal of spending maximum three minutes per story, including discussion and planning poker. We were estimating a huge backlog, so this was absolutely necessary in order to get through as much of it as possible in one day. (What a day).

A couple of weeks ago I was facilitating two all-day release planning/planning poker workshops, and I brought the hour glasses with me. This time we were facing exactly the same problem as the first time: It was so easy to forget turn the hour glasses or realise when the sand had run out! So we repeatedly spent more time on each story than we had decided.

So I sat down in the lunch and wrote Aslak Hellesøy’s Planning Poker Timer. Props to Kristoffer Dyrkorn for fixing some IE bugs.

It’s a big digital countdown clock that switches from green to red and plays a bell when time is up. Try it out and let me know how it goes.