What do you feel when someone mentions the term “Planning”? Does the thought of making the plan give you anxiety or does it feel like an opportunity? Well, Sprint planning is an important part of the agile sprint planning cycle. It helps your team to be more interconnected and have one common and shared goal.
In this ultimate guide, we have combined everything related to sprint planning from what is agile sprint planning to how to prepare for the sprint planning meeting.
What is Agile Sprint Planning?
In the agile sprint cycle, the agile sprint planning is the most crucial part. Without planning the only result you can achieve is failure. Without planning anything there is a high risk that you will waste human and financial resources that is why it is considered one of the key pillars of the Agile Sprint cycle.
Effective agile sprint planning has three main components: the goal of the sprint, the team capacity, and the set of backlog items. These three components are interlinked and the success of each element depends on the success of the other component.
To turn your sprint goal into reality you must prioritize the work on the specific sets of backlog items based on your team's capacity to complete.
What are the 5 Stages of Agile Sprint Planning?
There are different stages of agile sprint planning. In this ultimate guide, we will only focus on the 5 most important stages of agile sprint planning to make any sprint successful.
1. Story Refinement
Before making any plan you must engage in the story refinement also known as backlog refinement. This process makes sure that while working on the same common and shared goal the team also includes the user stories in their products. Adding the user stories is the most important part of making any project or product successful as it involves the needs and requirements of the users. The story refinement involves important figures such as the product owner, the development team, and all the other important stakeholders. A successful story refinement involves three important steps, here they are:
- Reviewing and discussing the user stories with all the related departments.
- Make crystal clear acceptance criteria.
- Addressing any query or uncertainty on behalf of users.
2. Sprint Planning
For a successful sprint, the sprint planning session lays the foundation by gathering the team, identifying the important tasks, and creating the visual roadmap of the project. It makes sure that the team members are on the right track and aligned with the tasks.
- It estimates the efforts needed for smooth execution, the team carefully set the sprint goals and the right backlog items.
- The sprint goal helps the team members to stay focused. The effort estimation involves giving a story point or time estimation for the workload and investment distribution. This easy-to-follow process ensures that your team stays focused while working alongside your sprint goals.
- The team velocity, cycle time, and lead time are the most important things in sprint planning, as these metrics will help the product or project to be more optimized.
3. Sprint Execution
Once the project manager or the bug organizations complete their agile sprint planning then comes the most important part which is Sprint Execution. The primary and most important goal of the sprint execution is for the team members to focus more on the completion of the task. The completion of tasks demands different things such as the efforts required, effective communication, and teamwork among the different departments. This ensures that the task aligns with the sprint goals.
4. Sprint Review
The sprint review which is also called the post-sprint. The primary focus and aim during the post-sprint is for the team members to showcase their completed work to the stakeholders, supporting transparency and accountability. Once the project manager shows the completed work to the stakeholders then they provide a safe environment to them for the feedback and aligning expectations for future sprints. The project manager can also conduct anonymous surveys to improve their developer's efficiency and team capacity in which they should ask the questions that will lead them to success. The questions should be like:
- Did our recent sprints deliver value to customers?
- Did the last sprint alter the level of technical debt?
- Are you comfortable with your role in this sprint planning?
5. Sprint Evaluation
The reflective meeting or sprint evaluation is the last stage where the team looks back at their performance and starts looking for the loopholes and areas where the product or the project needs to be improved. Like sprint reviews, sprint performance reports also have a few questions where the team members or the project manager ask questions like “How is my sprint performing?” This makes the team members and the project managers stay focused on the completed tasks and the committed tasks.
The Right Sprint Length For Sprint Planning
We have said that you only need the sprint planning but here are some other important things that can make your project or product successful. As for any success, you do not need short planning, you need to think out of the box and think big. Generally, the ideal sprint length ranges from two to four weeks while two of these weeks are the most common one. This is the general draw of the sprint length. While choosing the sprint length keep these two things in mind.
- Complex and uncertain projects that need constant updates have a shorter sprint length. This helps the team members to modify their tasks well in advance. The other benefit of this strategy is it enables learning and collaboration among the different departments that are interacting for the first time. The internee or new hires can also get benefits if they aren't used to it.
- A longer sprint is ideal for the teams and departments that know about each other's strengths and weaknesses.
Pro Tip: It's up to the scrum master and team members which type of sprint length works best for them.
What are the Benefits of Sprint Planning?
The agile sprint planning meeting is a powerful tool that can help the organization and project managers to bring something most important and valuable to the table. Here are the opportunities that the agile sprint planning brings:
- Align the whole team and bring them closer to their shared and common goal.
- It identifies the potential risks before they occur.
- Bring the stakeholder's feedback into consideration.
- Learn from their past sprints by going through the past sprint reviews and sprint evaluation.
- Consider team capacity alongside the human resource and financial resources to ensure the goal is achievable and it's not overly time-consuming.
FAQS
1. What does a successful sprint look like?
When the sprint goal and the planned works are achieved that's how the successful sprint looks like. When the sprint shows the result and delivers something valuable to the users or stakeholders.
2. What is the agenda of the sprint planning meeting?
The agenda of a sprint planning meeting is to set a clear sprint goal, select tasks from the backlog, and plan how to execute them and the team will complete them. It helps ensure everyone knows what to work on and how to achieve it during the sprint.
3. Does Scrum master run sprint planning?
Yes, the Scrum Master facilitates the sprint planning meeting to ensure it runs smoothly and follows Scrum practices. The product owner, product manager, and developers actively participate in planning.
Final Words
In concluding remarks, agile sprint planning is the most powerful tool for making any product or project successful. It helps the organizations in achieving their goals and it brings the different teams and departments towards one shared and common goal by providing and supporting the collaboration among them.
