Sprint planning offers a means of ensuring product development runs smoothly in many companies, especially those using the Scrum framework. It assists in making everyone be on the same page, thereby increasing the chances for success. What does sprint planning entail? We discuss that in this article along with what a session should cover and what it takes for planning to be efficient.
What is Sprint Planning?
A Sprint in Scrum is a short time-box during which a defined amount of work is completed, typically 2 weeks. Sprint planning is an attempt to determine what work will be completed during a sprint. It is an event for deciding the product backlog items to work on and how they will be achieved.
When companies make sprint planning part of their culture, they somewhat make it necessary for the product development team to review the product backlog frequently. This allows teams to see what’s more important to work on at a time. Since reviews are done together, team members are able to ask questions and thrash out issues.
Sprint Planning Meeting
The process of planning a sprint begins with a meeting. It is at this session that the team discusses what’s most important to work on next and develops a plan.
You need to have a good product backlog available for the sprint planning meeting. This will provide the team ideas from which to pick for the next sprint and facilitate incremental work. Experts recommend having a backlog grooming session prior to the meeting for even better results.
In addition, it will help to have the product roadmap at your sessions. This will enable the cross-functional team to have the big picture of what your company hopes to achieve with the product.
Planning sessions aim to produce two main outputs:
- The sprint goal – A short description of what the team intends to complete in the next sprint. It’s usually not longer than two sentences.
- The sprint backlog – A list of product backlog items the team has decided to work on along with tasks needed to develop the items.
The sprint goal is useful when reporting to stakeholders that are not within the development team. It gives them a quick idea of the work being done.
Some of the important things to do during a sprint planning meeting include:
- Deciding on the goal for the next sprint
- Assessing product backlog items to decide the ones to go on the sprint backlog as well as ordering
- Reaching an agreement among team members on the projected sprint goal and backlog
- Figuring out how to deal with anticipated issues that are capable of disrupting or hindering the sprint backlog’s progress
- Appraising the capacity of the team and assigning tasks according to expertise
- Approximating timeframes for tasks to produce something of the highest feasible value
Who Takes Part in Sprint Planning?
The planning session in Scrum usually has the ScrumMaster, product owner, and the entire Scrum team in attendance. In some cases, other members and stakeholders in an organization may be invited to play a part.
ScrumMaster – This is the role that sees to the team abiding by Scrum Agile values and principles as well as agreed processes. They help unblock when people become blocked, ceremonies are conducted efficiently, and teams commit to and achieve reasonable output each sprint.
Product owner – This individual explains to the team the items on the product backlog and the highest priority features. They answer questions from the team relating to the backlog and spearhead the definition of the sprint goal. This role is often played by a Product Manager for product development activities but it doesn’t always need to be a Product Manager.
The development team – This is responsible for making commitments to work. It decides how much of what the PM (or PO) proposes can be done in a sprint. The team estimates timeframes and discusses issues that could hinder success.
How Long Should a Sprint Planning Meeting Last?
You should aim to limit planning to two hours or less every week of the sprint. This is in keeping with the Scrum framework recommendation of making it time-boxed. The ScrumMaster has a duty of ensuring that meetings stay within the set time.
Let’s say your company works with two-week sprint cycles. Each sprint planning meeting should not be longer than two hours. However, while there should be a maximum amount of time, there is no fixed minimum. If your job is done before the allotted time is up, there’s nothing to worry about.
Focus on Outcomes Principally
The ultimate aim of effective sprint planning is to keep everyone motivated and make them work together for success. Having a defined outcome in focus will help greatly to this end. Care should be taken to not let your attention be on delivering the most complete work.
There’s a danger of slowing the work or reducing the efficiency of the team when you place too much emphasis on the details of tasks. Realize that there is a limit to what you can know at the beginning. You learn and work in increments.
Let your focus be on outcomes. Build only what you can of a sprint backlog and continue to iterate.
