Getting Started with Sprint Planning: A Guide to the Fundamentals
Key Concepts and Tips for Effective Sprint Planning Meetings
Sprint planning is an essential Scrum event, which initiates every new Sprint in an Agile software development process. During this meeting, the Development Team, the Product Owner and the Scrum Master collaborate to plan the work that will be performed on the upcoming Sprint.
The event is time-boxed to 8 hours for a monthly Sprint, while for shorter iterations it typically lasts for two to four hours. A successful Sprint Planning involves a series of discussions and activities to ensure that everyone is on the same page and understands the goals and objectives of the sprint.
Sprint Planning is composed from three different parts, where each part addresses a specific topic, as presented below:
- Part 1: Why is this Sprint valuable?
- Part 2: What can be done in this Sprint?
- Part 3: How will the chosen work get done?
Part 1: Why is this Sprint valuable?
The first part of Sprint Planning is focused on answering the question “Why is this Sprint valuable?”. This topic is critical because it sets the stage for the rest of the planning meeting and ensures that everyone on the team understands the purpose and goals of the sprint.
To address this question, the Product Owner proposes how the product’s value and usefulness could be increased in the new Sprint. Consequently, the whole Scrum Team defines a Sprint Goal that will describe clearly why the new Sprint is valuable to stakeholders.
Part 2: What can be done in this Sprint?
Following the definition of the Sprint Goal, the Developers collaborate with the Product Owner to choose which items from the Product Backlog to include in the ongoing Sprint. During the selection process, the Scrum Team can refine the relevant Product Backlog items either by adding new information, or updating the existing content in order to increase their level of comprehension and boost the overall Team’s confidence.
An important aspect while creating the new Sprint Backlog is the forecast of the Development Team’s capability for user stories’ completion on the upcoming Sprint. Although this can be a difficult challenge, if the Developers have a better understanding of their past accomplishments, the capacity they have for the future, and their Definition of Done, they can be more assured in their forecasts for the new Sprint.
Part 3: How will the chosen work get done?
During the last part, the Developers plan the work required to generate an Increment that satisfies the Definition of Done for each chosen Product Backlog item. Typically, this entails dividing the Product Backlog items into smaller work items that can be accomplished within a day or less. The Developers have complete freedom in determining how they will accomplish this task, and no one else is allowed to dictate the method of transforming Product Backlog items into valuable Increments.
Conclusion
To sum up, the sprint planning event is a crucial step in the Agile software development process. It is held at the beginning of every new Sprint and it is a time when the development team, the product owner, and the Scrum Master come together to plan the work to be done during the upcoming sprint.
A typical Sprint Planning agenda is composed of three different topics, where the first one aims at the definition of the Sprint Goal, followed by the creation of the Sprint Backlog and a plan of work that will be followed during the development process.
