Sprint Planning Checklist

[Karleen Chura]

ASprint Planning checklist? How dare you: Agile is a mindset, not a methodology. It is a journey, not a destination. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, and what else could you possibly cover with a checklist, the mother of all standardized processes?

Some of you may be aware that checklists originate from an aviation accident. A new plane with a crew of most experienced test-pilots crashed during take-off. It turned out that the plane had no mechanical problems at all; the flight crew just forgot a simple step during the take-off procedure.

This Sprint Planning checklist is modeled after a former Scrum Team of a large multi-national, traditional utility company at the beginning of its Scrum journey. In other words, you will not be able to apply this checklist to your Scrum Team without inspection and adaptation. For example, they put a lot of effort into preparing the Sprint Planning during the frequent Product Backlog refinement sessions. (They continuously planned the next two Sprints during the refinement sessions.)

Practically, the Sprint Planning itself was most often a confirmation of what they already agreed on during the Product Backlog refinement. They probably adjust the scope of the planned Sprint during capacity planning. However, it rarely happened that they replaced the previously anticipated Sprint Goal for a completely different goal. A typical Sprint Planning hence took only between one or two hours.

Think of Scrum checklists as work in progress that needs to be revisited and adjusted regularly. In that respect, Scrum checklists are not much different from, for example, working agreements or a Definition of Done.

In Scrum, every project is broken into time blocks called sprints, usually two to four weeks long. A sprint planning meeting is when the team (including the Scrum Master, Scrum Product Manager, and Scrum Team) meets to determine which backlog items will be handled in the next sprint.

Sprint planning is an important and valuable, productive way of working because it involves all members of a team. Instead of working in isolated silos, team members are engaged in the rollout of a project or campaign, know their tasks and responsibilities within it, and have the ability to react to changing elements. Managing the work involved into sprints can help with focus and productivity.

Sprints are the backbone of any good Agile development team. And the better prepared you are before a sprint, the more likely you are to hit your goals. Spring planning helps to refocus attention, minimize surprises, and (hopefully) guarantee better code gets shippied.

But maybe more than that, sprint planning aligns the development team with the product owner. Like any relationship, the one between you and your team requires communication and clarity. And taking the time to sit down and make sure that your expectations are understood and can be done by your team is key to keeping everyone motivated and productive.

Are you building features that move your product vision forward? Do you even have a product vision or are you just reacting to loud customers? The first step in sprint planning is to know where you want to be not just at the end of this sprint but in 6 months, a year, or more. As scrum master and agile coach Robbin Schuurman writes:

First, you can create categories for issues, which will allow your team to quickly see the kind of work each task involves. You can also use sub-issues to break up larger user stories into the individual technical tasks needed to see them to completion and connect relevant tasks and stories together.

Lastly, you can start planning a new sprint with one click using the Sprint planning button in the sidebar. Simply name your new sprint, set the start date, and drag freshly groomed backlog issues into it.

Agile coach Mike Cohn uses the example of two runners talking about how long a 5km race would take to run. One says 25 minutes, while the other says 45. Regardless, they can both agree that 5km is shorter than a marathon.

Above all, your sprint goal needs to be realistic based on the scope of work and the size of your team. As ultimately, it will be what the success of the sprint is judged against during your sprint review. Not the individual tasks and stories completed.

This meeting is important for everyone on the team, and whenever possible, the entire team should be there. Each person has specific responsibilities and needs that they want met, and hearing from everyone is the only way to make sure you come to a consensus.

Most teams deduct 20-40% to give a more realistic number that represents downtime, overhead, and planning mistakes (like missing a crucial dependency between tasks). Whenever possible, be more realistic on what can get done rather than what should get done.

Lastly, use data from a tool like Planio to help estimate tasks and effort. You can look at your Velocity chart to see the output of your team during a sprint. This is a powerful tool for helping estimate how much can get done.

A good scrum master will help facilitate these questions and make sure that every angle is covered before you get to work. It might seem like a pain at this point, but the work upfront will pay dividends later on.

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A sprint planning checklist? How dare you: Scrum is a mindset, not a methodology. It is a journey, not a destination. There is no one-size-fits-all-and what else could you possibly cover with a checklist, the mother of all standardized processes?

Some of you may be aware that checklists originate from an aviation accident. A new plane with a crew of experienced test-pilots crashed during take-off. It turned out that plane had no mechanical problems at all, the flight crew just forgot a simple step during the take-off procedure.

So, from my point of view, checklists are not an evil means of imposing standardized processes but a helpful tool for the practitioner even if he or she is a scrum master using a sprint planning checklist.

This sprint planning checklist is tailored to the way my current team is working. In other words, you will likely not be able to apply this checklist to your team without modification. For example, we put much effort into preparing the sprint planning during the weekly product backlog refinement sessions. (We typically plan two to three sprints.)

Practically, the sprint planning itself is a kind of confirmation of what we already decided on during last backlog refinement. We probably adjust the scope of the sprint backlog during the capacity planning. However, it rarely happens that we switch the sprint goal, for example. A typical sprint planning #1 hence takes only between 30 and 60 minutes.

Think of scrum checklists as work in progress that needs to be revisited and adjusted regularly. In that respect, scrum checklists are not much different from, for example, working agreements or a definition of done.

Since new product development is complex, Scrum offers an iterative and incremental development approach. Scrum has three roles, namely, Scrum master, Product owner and the Development team of size 3-9. All three roles are empowered to do their job and have no authority over each other. However, they work as self-organizing teams to deliver a product with complimenting skills.

In this article, you will learn what Sprint Planning in agile is, why it is important, how and when it should be done, and more. You will get a high-level view of Sprint Planning, understand the core concepts involved, Sprint Capacity Planning, Agile certifications / Agile Training online and learn how to bring and implement Sprint Planning to life in your Agile projects so that you can get the maximum benefit from this technique.

It is a Scrum ceremony and is used to plan the work of sprint. The Sprint Planning meeting is the first event and occurs on the first day of a new sprint. The product owner collaborates to help the team select items (requirements) from the product backlog for the upcoming Sprint. The Scrum master facilitates the time-boxed Sprint Planning in Scrum.

Prioritized definition of the ready product backlog, the latest product increment, the capacity of the DEV sprint during the sprint, team velocity / past performance and DONE definition are the input criteria of the Sprint Planning in agile.

Sprint Planning can be done virtually using MS team meeting, Zoom, Webex etc., with Sprint Planning meeting agenda if the teams are globally distributed/collocated at different locations. In an office environment, a good location for Sprint Planning is the team room so that you have access to all the information about your product backlog and you can update any information radiators. Always organize Sprint Planning in Scrum with Sprint Planning agenda and Sprint Planning poker.

But a high-level recommendation is to involve business/customer in Sprint Planning so that the shared common Sprint goal and Sprint backlog are achieved by the end of Sprint Planning in sync with all key stakeholders, and thus we can avoid unnecessary product development silos.

Make sure the Product Owner is in sync with the business/customer. The Team can decide HOW they will complete the work that they are committing to for Sprint. In practical terms, the team looks at each of the Product Backlog Items (refined PBI, usually written as User Stories) and identifies all of the tasks that need to be completed for the PBI to be considered ready for production).

If you are in your early days of Agile adoption and have one or more symptoms of a poor backlog, try a two-part approach that can push the team in the right direction. The goal is to have the business and IT team work together and show agility to beat the competition and provide the best solution to customers.

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