Sprint planning is a time-boxed collaborative event where the team defines which items can be worked on and delivered in the upcoming sprint. It involves setting the sprint goal, selecting user stories or tasks to work on, and estimating effort.
The sprint planning meeting is the first meeting at the start of the sprint. It lasts one to two hours for every week of the sprint. If the sprint is two weeks long, the maximum length of the sprint planning meeting is no more than four hours.
Participants
The sprint planning attendees include the entire team: the Product Owner, Scrum Master, developers, testers, and any other relevant stakeholders.
Agenda
- Communicate the Sprint Goal to provide a unifying focus for the team.
- Propose and present product backlog items that will be considered in the Sprint Backlog.
- Ensure each user story meets the ‘Definition of Ready (DoR)‘ before development begins.
- Select user stories aligned with the Sprint Goal and bring them into the Sprint Backlog.
- Review each user story’s ‘Definition of Done (DoD)‘ and make any necessary updates.
- Estimate the effort required to complete user stories based on the team’s available capacity.
- Calculate the total story points for the upcoming sprint.
- Assess and compare the team’s capacity with the total proposed story points.
- Break down user stories into smaller, actionable tasks.
- Reach an agreement and commit to completing specific items by the end of this sprint.
Preparation
- Provide any new updates, feedback, or issues from the stakeholders.
- Ensure the product backlog item is kept current and refined to ensure clarity before adding to the sprint.
- Allow the team to review and refine the backlog before the sprint planning. Holding a backlog refinement meeting one week before the sprint planning can reduce the time limit.
- Describe the requirements in the user stories from the customer’s perspective. Focus on the outcome instead of the problem.
- Ensure user stories have clear and measurable results before adding to the sprint backlog.
- Consider all defects, bugs, or changes for the upcoming sprint.
- Collaborate with UX designers for mocks needed in the sprint stories.
- Valuate that all user stories include the critical components of the ‘Definition of Ready.’’
- Ask the Scrum Master for help.
