Sprint Planning

Sprint planning ceremony, Scrum planning event, Agile sprint planning, Scrum sprint planning meeting

Sprint planning is a timeboxed event with a duration of 4 hours for a 2 weeks sprint that involves the entire Scrum Team, which determines what will be delivered in the upcoming sprint and how they will work, by taking into account the projected team capacity, team’s past performance, latest increment and the Product Backlog.

Sprint Goal and Sprint Backlog

At Sprint Planning, the Scrum Team describes what they want to accomplish in the upcoming sprint in a simple phrase that becomes the Sprint Goal. They also create the Sprint Backlog by estimating the user stories selected to be accomplished in the sprint and commit to deliver the items during the sprint in order to meet the goal.

Determining what to work on during the sprint is achieved by having the Product Backlog estimated and prioritized, initial Velocity estimated, team capacity calculated, checking if the user stories comply with the Definition of Ready and negotiating based on those what can actually go in the Sprint from the Product Backlog, while focusing on the Sprint Goal and on keeping a sustainable development pace.

Sprint Planning steps

  • Before the Sprint Planning:
    • Review the previous Sprint and update the backlog
    • Have a Retrospective with improvement actions as a result
    • Have Product Backlog Refinement meetings(s)
    • Have the backlog transparent and prioritized
    • Draft a version of the Sprint Goal for the next Sprint
    • Check team members’ planned availability
    • Calculate the projected team capacity
  • During Planning:
    • Clarify why the Sprint is important and why it matters
    • Create the final version of the Sprint Goal
    • Select the items from the backlog that will enable the goal
    • Establish commitment to reaching the Sprint Goal
    • Provide alignment and flexibility on how to work during the sprint
    • Create the plan and the Sprint Backlog
    • Build motivation to reach the goal
    • Add to the Sprint Backlog the improvement actions from the Retrospective
    • Start the sprint
  • After Sprint Planning:
    • Make the Sprint Goal visible
    • Adapt the product backlog
    • Continuously refine and prioritize the backlog

In Sprint Planning the Product Owner presents the goal for the next Sprint and uses the prioritized Product Backlog to present to the team the highest value user stories in the order of their priority. The team ask questions and clarifies the understanding of user stories and their acceptance criteria. The team checks the definition of done in order to identify all the work needed for delivering the user stories and if needed, they create tasks that describe the technical work required for each user story. The Scrum Team also checks the projected capacity and if they commit to delivering the stories in the next sprint and make the necessary adjustments until every team member can commit to the Sprint plan.

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