Estimation meetings have always been time-consuming. To avoid useless discussions, Agilists are using Planning Poker game, which reduces technical conversations, and instead increases focus on what estimations are: « wild guesses ».
But using Planning Poker to estimate a backlog, filled with hundreds of items, will still take time. So, how can you estimate faster? Well… By pushing further, and by removing all useless discussions: formally during a Planning Poker game the PO has to present each item one by one, even if all team members will immediately agree on effort. Can we throw that away? Well… Yes, indeed…