In agile project management, sprint planning is a crucial phase that sets the tone for a successful sprint. While the term is widely recognized, it is also a concept that is frequently misunderstood, leading to ineffective implementation and suboptimal outcomes. Here, I’ll attempt to demystify sprint planning. I’ll clarify its purpose and delve into best practices to maximize its potential for agile project success.
Sprint planning is a collaborative activity at the beginning (or the very tail end) of each sprint in Agile projects. It’s an opportunity for the team to define the sprint goal, select user stories from the product backlog, and plan the work required to accomplish those goals. This practice aims to establish a shared understanding of the work, prioritize tasks, and create a realistic plan for the sprint.
Debunking Misunderstandings
First, let’s talk about what sprint planning is NOT.
- “It’s is just a meeting to assign tasks.” A common misconception about sprint planning is that it is solely a task assignment session. However, its purpose extends beyond task distribution. Sprint planning involves in-depth discussions, collaborative decision-making, and identifying potential challenges and dependencies. It’s an opportunity for the entire team to align on the sprint goal, understand the scope of work, and determine the best approach to achieve the desired outcomes collectively.
- “Sprint planning must cover every minute detail.” While it’s essential to understand the tasks and their dependencies, sprint planning does not require an exhaustive plan for each detail. Agile project management values adaptability and embraces change, so it is impractical to plan for every scenario. Instead, focus on establishing a shared vision. This phase can involve selecting user stories, estimating effort, and (in the longer term) creating a flexible roadmap that can accommodate changes and refinements throughout the project.
- “Sprint planning must involve breaking down stories or the research needed to break down stories.” While sprint planning may occasionally uncover stories that require further refinement, this shouldn’t be the norm. A properly refined story is one a team can assign a point value to within five minutes of discussion. If you’re doing large amounts of unpacking and discussing technical details regularly at sprint planning, the user stories aren’t refined enough for this phase. You may need more refinement or even pre-refinement research. Teams that regularly attempt to combine pre-refinement, refinement, and sprint planning ceremonies often host long meetings teams don’t look forward to attending.
Best Practices for Effective Sprint Planning
Here are some best practices.
Prepare the product backlog.
Before the sprint planning meeting, refine, prioritize, and update the product backlog. This ensures the team clearly understands the available user stories and can make informed decisions during the planning session.
Collaborate on decision-making.
Sprint planning should be a collaborative effort involving the entire team, including the product owner, delivery lead, and development team. Encourage open discussions, leverage collective knowledge, and seek consensus on the sprint goal and the user stories the team should tackle.
Define the sprint goal.
Establishing a sprint goal is essential to provide focus and direction to the team. The sprint goal should align with the overall project objectives and be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). It acts as a guiding principle throughout the sprint. Teams should be empowered to improvise within the spirit of the Sprint Goal to achieve autonomous success.
Prioritize user stories.
Based on the sprint goal and the team’s capacity, prioritize user stories from the product backlog. Consider the business value, complexity, dependencies, and potential risks of each story. This helps create a realistic plan and ensures that the most critical features are addressed first. If the team runs out of time, the items remaining in the sprint will always be the lowest priority.
Break down user stories.
During the refinement phase, break down user stories into smaller, actionable tasks. This enables better estimation, improves clarity, and facilitates a more accurate assessment of the team’s capacity to complete the work within the sprint. If the point value of a single story is ~50% of the team’s average velocity, it is likely your stories are too large. Try investing some time in making the smallest stories possible. If stories must be large, consider making the biggest stories the highest priority where feasible. This will help reduce large stories rolling over across multiple sprints and avoid deranging velocity numbers.
Use timeboxing and estimation.
Timeboxing is a vital aspect of agile, and sprint planning is no exception. Allocate a fixed timebox for sprint planning to avoid excessive discussions and ensure efficient decision-making. Additionally, estimate the effort required for each task using techniques like story points or relative sizing to gauge the team’s capacity accurately. If your team is regularly going over time, consider timeboxing the amount of time your team spends discussing a single story. This can help teams learn an effective circadian rhythm for discussion length.
Set a solid foundation.
Sprint planning is often misconstrued as a mere task assignment meeting. However, it holds significant value in agile project management. By understanding its true essence and adhering to best practices, teams can set a solid foundation for successful sprints. Effective sprint planning fosters collaboration, ensures alignment, and empowers teams to adapt and deliver high-quality products in a dynamic and ever-changing environment.