Three Key Aspects of a Sprint Planning Meeting

Three Key Aspects of a Sprint Planning Meeting
By Faisal Mahmood
You should consider following three key elements if you want to have a fruitful Spring Planning meeting.

1. Preparation
2. Negotiation
3. Mechanics

1. Preparation
Well, the preparation occurs ahead of the Planning. However, it is of paramount importance.
Product Backlog grooming is the main ingredient of the preparation. The Product Backlog grooming helps the Team and the Product owner to

• Get a solid understanding of the Product Backlog items, especially ones at the top.
• Save valuable time in the Sprint Planning meeting. They can avoid long and often times painful discussions.
• Understand and prepare for the resource requirements

The Sprint Planning is a time-boxed meeting.The Team needs to discuss, understand and agree on the Sprint Goal within this time-box. It needs to devise an initial Sprint Backlog. The Scrum Team will find it hard to wrap up the discussion if it doesn't prepare well. It will struggle to agree on the scope of the Sprint.
This potentially can ruin the whole Sprint.
2. Negotiation
The Product Owner wants certain Product Backlog items completed during the next Sprint. She want to ensure that the project remains on track. The Product Owner puts her ideas and requirements forward during the Sprint Sprint.
But, this is the start of the discussion between the Team and the Product Owner. They negotiate on the items and the Sprint scope. The Team members ask questions to clarify the scope of the items. They want to reduce ambiguity.
Many times the Team finds out that

• The Product Backlog Items proposed by the Product Owner will require more work than the Team can do within a single Sprint
• The Team will need to do additional work to deliver items required by the Product Owner. This stems from technical, design, and feature dependencies.

So the Scrum Team negotiates the scope and many times the order of the Product Backlog Items. It adds more information to a few items. It reduces the scope of certain items to enable the Team to complete them in a Sprint. This is the negotiation that occurs during the course of a Sprint Planning.
3. Mechanics
Sprint Planning meeting is a critical meeting. So the whole Scrum Team participates in the meeting. This means the Scrum Master, the Product Owner and the (Development) Team. The Scrum Master facilitates this meeting.
The Team considers

• The amount of work it can deliver in a Sprint, called Velocity
• Planned vacations etc. calculate Team capacity and availability for the Sprint

The Scrum Master facilitates this meeting. Sprint Planning consists of two logical parts.
I: the Team and the Product Owner discuss and agree on the scope of the Product Backlog Items aimed for the Sprint. Then they agree on a Sprint Goal. The Team refines (or defines if they have just started the project) the Definition of Done. This is the what part. They have agreed on what needs to be done.
II: the Team creates a plan to deliver the selected work, the Sprint Backlog. This is the how part. The Team usually breaks down the selected items into small tasks.
And the Sprint gets going.
Faisal Mahmood is the author of the book Agile Adoption Mistakes. Faisal is Certified Professional Scrum Trainer and Agile coach. Faisal leads Agile Training and Scrum Certification courses in London, UK and around the world.
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