Sprint Planning

A list of to-do tasks in the Sprint is planned during Sprint Planning. This planning is done by the team collaboratively.

What is the duration of Sprint Planning meeting?

Sprint Planning lasts for 8 hours for a one-month Sprint. The duration can be shorter for shorter Sprints. The Scrum Master is accountable for the event and makes sure that the team members understand its purpose. Also, the Scrum Master coaches the team to finish the task within the time-box.

Time box : 4 hrs ( 2 Weeks Sprint ) / 8 hrs ( 4 Weeks Sprint )

What happens during Sprint Planning?

Sprint Planning is an event where you can get answers to the following questions:

• What can be delivered in this Sprint iteration?
• How to achieve that work?

1. What can be delivered in this Sprint iteration?

The development team decides the functionality to be worked upon during Sprint. The Product Owner manages the product backlog items and discusses the project target that a Sprint should achieve. The Product Owner, Scrum Master, and the development team take part in Sprint Planning to understand the work or tasks to be performed in that Sprint.

The inputs to this meeting are:

• The Product Backlog
• The latest product increment
• Estimated capacity of the development team during Sprint planning
• Past performance of the development team

It is only the development team that not only chooses the product backlog items for Sprint but also evaluates what it can achieve in the upcoming Sprint.

During Sprint Planning, Scrum team also creates a Sprint goal. Product Backlog helps in implementing the Sprint goal through Sprint and it directs the Development Team on building an increment.

2. How to achieve the work?

Once the Scrum team chooses the product backlog items and sets the Sprint goal, the development team decides on building this functionality to a ‘Done’ product increment during the Sprint. The selected Product Backlog items and a plan to deliver them is called the Sprint Backlog.

Usually, the Development Team starts by designing the system and the work needed to convert the Product Backlog into a working product Increment. Tasks during Sprint may vary in size and are calculated during the Sprint Planning. Before the finish of the Sprint Planning meeting, the work is broken into the smaller chunks having a length of one day or less. This is to enhance the simplicity of work allocation and tracking the task completion. The Development Team may also invite other people to attend the Sprint Planning meetings to provide technical or domain advice.

By the end of the Sprint Planning Meeting, the Development Team should be able to explain to the Product Owner and Scrum Master how it intends to work as a self-organizing team to accomplish the Sprint Goal and create the expected Increment.

Output of the Sprint Planning meeting:

Sprint Backlog is the output of the Sprint Planning meeting. A Sprint Backlog is nothing but a list of the product backlog items that the team commits to deliver plus a list of tasks needed to deliver those product backlog items. Also, each task on the Sprint backlog is usually estimated.