What is Sprint Planning? : Sprint Planning is one of the five Scrum events, and it is the first one that we will do at the beginning of each Sprint.
In this meeting, we will plan WHAT we will do during the Sprint and HOW we will do it.
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What is the duration of the Sprint Planning?
Sprint Plans has a timebox of up to eight hours for a one-month Sprint. If we have shorter Sprints, the duration of this ceremony will be appropriately shorter.
What is the goal of Sprint Planning?
The objective is to create a Sprint Goal and a Sprint Backlog that includes all the elements of the Product Backlog required to achieve the Sprint Goal agreed by the entire Scrum Team.
How do we measure the success of this event?
At the end of this event, Developers should present how they intend to achieve the Sprint Goal. If they can express it clearly, we will have a good sign that they have discussed all the selected items in some depth and understand it. This increases their probability of meeting their estimates.
Who participates in Sprint Planning?
During planning, the entire Scrum Team intervenes with the Product Owner, the Scrum Master, and the Developers.
The Scrum Master must ensure that this event occurs and its objective is met. It will also act as a facilitator to avoid getting out of the assigned timebox or preventing certain people from monopolizing all conversations and decisions.
The Product Owner must ensure that attendees are prepared to discuss the most critical elements of the Product Backlog and how they relate to the Product Objective. Additionally, any member of the Scrum Team can invite other attendees to provide advice.
What are the three parts of Sprint Planning?
The structure of the meeting is divided in such a way as to address the following topics:
- Topic 1: Whyis this Sprint valuable?
- Topic 2: Whatcan be done in this Sprint?
- Topic 3: Howwill the chosen work be carried out?
Why is this Sprint valuable?
The Product Owner proposes how the product could increase its value in the current Sprint. The entire Scrum Team then collaborates to define the Sprint Goal that communicates why the Sprint is valuable to stakeholders. The Sprint Goal must be completed before Sprint Planning ends.
Set the Sprint Goal
After their discussions and analysis, the FULL Scrum Team agrees on a Sprint Goal. This goal will serve as a blueprint for Developers, marking the purpose of everything they will be building and visible throughout the Sprint.
What can be done in this Sprint?
Once the Sprint Goal has been established, Developers will analyze the Product Backlog, the performance or speed of their last Sprints, and the projected capacity for this Sprint. Based on this, they will select the number of items from the Product Backlog that they consider feasible to complete.
How will the chosen work be carried out?
Once the objective has been established, and the PBIs are selected for the Sprint, the Developers meet to decide and plan how they will build each element of the Product Backlog to arrive at a Product Increment that meets the Definition of Done Done.
The secret to getting ahead is getting started. The secret to getting started is breaking your daunting, complex tasks into manageable little jobs and beginning with the first one.
Mark Twain
Divide into tasks
Developers generally take the selected PBIs and break them down into smaller parts that we will call tasks. Tasks are all activities that must be completed for a PBI to meet the Definition of Done (DoD). When dividing the items into tasks, it is recommended to consider that a task should be able to be completed in one workday.
The way to decompose or divide the GDP is at the sole discretion of the Developers. No one else tells you how to turn Product Backlog items into Increments in value.
If the Developers find it impossible to finish the GDPs during the Sprint when dividing the GDPs into tasks, they can call the Product Owner to re-negotiate the scope.
In the same way, if they consider it necessary, they can call technical consultants or people with a lot of knowledge in a specific domain to help them clarify certain issues and establish a better plan.
It is unnecessary to have planned down to the last detail during this stage since during the Sprint, the context will probably cause things to change, and it will be time wasted. Instead, we want to have the plan ready for the first days of the Sprint and decide whether to complete it.
The Sprint objective, plus the set of PBIs selected for the Sprint, plus the plan to complete them, is called the Sprint Backlog.
Sprint Objective + Selected PBIs + Execution Plan = Sprint Backlog.
Conclusions
Sprint Planning is a significant event where the entire Scrum team works to establish a Sprint Goal and a work plan—having a clear Sprint Goal and an organized work plan promote Scrum’s values of focus and commitment.
