Effective Agile Sprint Planning
Sprint planning meeting is a significant agile scrum event and must be conducted with utmost sincerity. It is not a “me too” event. Never do it just because it is prescribed by the scrum framework.
The general understanding of a sprint planning meeting is to plan the set of tasks that will be carried out as part of the sprint, assign tasks to the scrum team and set due dates etc.
It is just a very small part. The key idea and benefits of Sprint planning sessions are far more strategic than tactical.
At a high level you must cover the following aspects:
- Define the sprint goal
- Pick or prioritize the user stories that will be part of the sprint
- User story estimation and story sizing
- Task breakdown
- Bug fixes
- Adopt inputs from previous sprint retrospectives as applicable
- Review and agree on the definition of done
Define the Sprint Goal
As part of the 2020 Scrum update, Sprint goal has gained further significance. Hence, defining and ensuring the team understands the sprint goal and how it contributes to the overall product roadmap and goal is a must.
Unless, the team rallies and is excited about the sprint goal you are not going to get their 100%.
It is the Product Owner’s primary task to ensure the sprint goal is laid out before the team at the beginning of the sprint planning meeting.
Tip: Make the sprint goal very actionable, concrete and crisp
Picking up User Stories
Next logical step would be to identify all stories that contribute directly to the sprint goal and prioritize them.
This is where the teams collaborate on the identified stories, review them thoroughly, enhance or groom them if required.
Tip: One practical thing would be to hold an informal sprint pre-planning meeting where teams can review the stories, identify gaps or questions that can be addressed in the more formal sprint planning meeting.
This way the team has enough time to digest the sprint goal and the stories and be on top of their game to ensure they are all sorted for execution.
