What is Fist of Five?

 

Intent

An Interesting demonstration of democracy that Agile teams often do in order to come to a consensus.

How is this done:

When conclusions have to be done the team is asked to do a fist of five. All the team members put out thier fingers ( five ) . They can show from 1 to five fingers as shown above

What does this mean

1 means you dont agree,

3 means you are not sure but you will go with the team

5 means you strongly agree

Even if one person is below 3 , the decision does not go through. A discussion / debate happens . If you can convince a person less than 3 to come up to a 3, then the decision goes through

Does this work

Not always. If done too much it loses its context. If done once in a few months it holds value.