Sample Sprint Planning Procedure

May 13, 2008 by Artem Marchenko

The adaptation mechanisms built into the Scrum process allow for many modifications and adjustments in the sprint planning procedure. Different variations work for different teams and environments. Here is one of the variations that I find useful:

Preconditions

Product backlog contains a set of user stories sufficient for at least 2-3 sprints, ideally - for the whole current release and more. The team together with the Product Owner and possibly with some stakeholders went through the top stories 2-3 days earlier. As a result for a sprint or two there are enough reasonably small and well understood top priority product backlog items.

Procedure

1. Product Owner reminds the vision or if it is the first sprint planning he states the initial vision.

2. Product Owner states the goal for the coming sprint and explains why it is of the biggest importance right now, what the value is in the coming sprint goal.

3. Product Owner goes over the top product backlog items one by one, explains what they mean for him and how he is going to validate the completeness.

4. The team led by Scrum Master clarifies the issues with the sprint content and commits to releasing a set of user stories during the sprint. It can be a separate step or the team can commit to items one by one as Product Owner is introducing them during the previous step. Technically it is the team that chooses the items to commit to and can skip some of the top items if some lower priority stuff has to be done e.g. because there is a highly specialized person in the team that can do only a specific type of tasks. However, if the preparation for the Sprint Planning went well, this kind of considerations should already be taken into account during the backlog prioritization.

5. Final words if any. For example, Product Owner can tell when there is a chance to meet customers during the sprint.

6. Scrum Master announces the time and place of the coming Sprint Review and the next Sprint Planning.

Your team

How does iteration planning go in your team? What ways do you find effective

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