How Do We Run Our First Iteration (Sprint) Planning Meeting?

The purpose of Iteration (Sprint) Planning is to allow the team to commit to what they can deliver in the next Sprint - the committed Sprint (or Team) Backlog.

Iteration (Sprint) Planning occurs at the beginning of the Iteration (Sprint), after you have completed the Iteration (Sprint) Review and Retrospective of the current (or Iteration) Sprint (i.e. the (or Iteration) Review and (or Iteration) Retrospective are an input to the Iteration (Sprint) Planning). Note that there is typically no gap between the end of one Iteration (Sprint) and the start of the next Iteration (Sprint).

Iteration (Sprint) Planning may be divided into two sessions, be conducted as one session, or occur as a series of shorter incremental sessions. Typically, Iteration (Sprint) Planning is viewed as having two parts:

Iteration (Sprint) Planning 1 - Used by the Team to reach common agreement on Product Backlog items with the highest priority (including their Conditions of Satisfaction or Acceptance Criteria), to determine likely items for the Sprint (or Team) Backlog, and to discuss these latter items sufficiently so the Team can effectively conduct Iteration (Sprint) Planning 2, where they will commit to deliver specific items by the end of the Iteration (Sprint).

Iteration (Sprint) Planning 2 – used by Teams to determine in detail how they will make and meet their commitment for the Iteration (Sprint) including applicable Definition of Done criteria and considerations regarding individual Team Member availability during the Iteration (Sprint). Most Teams do this by taking each Sprint (or Team) Backlog item and detailing it in terms of the tasks required to complete the work. Each task for an item has an estimate in hours (or, for some Teams, story points) that would take into consideration potential obstacles, risks and dependencies.

By the end of Iteration (Sprint) Planning 2, all Team members should be confident that the worked committed to can be completed by the end of the Sprint or have identified the risks associated with any items about which there are doubts.

Background

The team should use the data they have to help them make good commitments. For example, during the Iteration (Sprint) Planning 1 process the team will have velocity or throughput information to help them understand how much they can complete as a Team. By keeping a running total of the points a team thinks it can work in the upcoming Iteration (Sprint), and comparing it to the “normal” velocity of the team, the team can easily gauge whether they are over-committing.

Similarly when the team gets to Iteration (Sprint) Planning 2, comparing a running total of the estimated hours on the tasks to a total team capacity for planning purposes will help the team understand what is truly possible to commit to.

Iteration (Sprint) Planning 1

Purpose: Determine what the Team should build in the next Iteration (Sprint).

Who: Team - Team, Scrum Master, Product Owner and other stakeholders as required.

Duration: Maximum 2 hours for a 2 week sprint (10 working days).

Summary Agenda:

Define or review Definition of Ready criteria

Clarify Team (Product) Backlog items and define or review Conditions of Satisfaction (or Acceptance Criteria)

Collaborate to get common understanding

Establish Iteration (Sprint) Goals

Revise estimates

The Team picks from prioritized Backlog, taking items to fill to Team capacity

Result: A list of backlog items that are candidates for delivery in the next Iteration (Sprint), sometimes called the Selected Backlog.

Iteration (Sprint) Planning 2

Purpose: How are we going to meet Iteration (Sprint) goals?

Who: Scrum Master and the Team, with the Product Owner at least available to answer question if not fully engaged.

Duration: Maximum 2 hours for a 2 week sprint (10 working days).

Summary Agenda:

Determine Team capacity

Review “Definition of Done”

Team plans how it will work together to deliver

One approach is to break the Iteration (Sprint) Backlog into tasks, where estimates on the tasks are no greater than 8 hours, preferably shorter.

Identify obstacles/risks

Identify dependencies

Identify conditions of satisfaction or acceptance criteria (tests, inspection)

Make needed adjustments

Review Iteration (Sprint) Backlog to confirm the Iteration (Sprint) Commitment with the Product Owner

Result: Recorded Iteration (Sprint) Backlog against which the Team has committed to complete by the end of the Iteration (Sprint).

Iteration (Sprint) Backlog

The Iteration (Sprint) Backlog is the result of Iteration (Sprint) Planning. It represents two things:

The subset of the Product (or Team) Backlog that the Team has committed to deliver in the next Iteration (Sprint).

The detailed arrangements that Team has made to help them make the commitment.

For different Teams, the level of detail tracked in the Iteration (Sprint) Backlog depends on the Team. The key information is that the Team makes a commitment, and that commitment is knowable to all stakeholders.

Deliverable

At a minimum, the Iteration (Sprint) Backlog is a list of Product (or Team) Backlog Items that the Team has committed to deliver in the Iteration (Sprint) and the basis of the information required to generate the Iteration (Sprint) Burn-down chart. For new Teams, in most cases this is a detailed plan of tasks the Team expects to undertake to meet their commitment. This detailed plan is created and tracked by the Team.

Checklist - Iteration (Sprint) Planning 1

Preparation

Team is invited: Product Owner, Scrum Master, Team members

Product (or Team) Backlog is prioritized

Backlog Items are estimated

Product (or Team) Backlog is visible and accessible to everyone in the meeting

Planned absences (e.g. holidays) of Team members are known

The room / environment is suitable for Team discussions

The results of the Iteration (Sprint) Review and the Iteration (Sprint) Retrospective are available

The Iteration (Sprint) Schedule is defined (i.e. start and end date of the Iteration (Sprint))

Moderation

Make the following items visible to everyone in the meeting:

Iteration (Sprint) Schedule

Iteration (Sprint) Review Meeting results

Iteration (Sprint) Retrospective results (note: these are the public improvement goals rather than, say, minutes of the meeting)

The Product Owner informs the team about the Product (or Team) Vision

The Product Owner and the team define the Iteration (Sprint) Goal

If there are Backlog Items missing the Product Owner can add the Backlog Item to the Team (Product) Backlog

Results

Selected Team (Product) Backlog is well prepared for the Iteration (Sprint) Planning 2.

Checklist – Iteration (Sprint) Planning 2

Preparation

Participants are invited: Scrum Master, the Team members and Product Owner. At a minimum the Product Owner has to be reachable for questions.

The Selected Team (Product) Backlog - the Iteration (Sprint) Backlog is accessible for the task planning (Optional)

Material for the planning such as a whiteboard, pin board, sticky notes, access to tools, etc.

Moderation

Team Members determine team capacity. An approach to do this is (assuming a 2 week Iteration (Sprint)):

Scrum Master leads

Count days available for each person

Do not count Scrum Master, Product Owner

Breakdown to hours, count 6 hours per day

Remove other impacts

Ask “What else” – vacation, moves, other work

Understand who is not 100% on team and adjust

Sum total hours available to team in next 9 working days

Determine percentage of “unplanned” work and breakdown so that you have “hours available for planning purposes” and “hours available for ‘planned unplanned’ proposes.

Team members find tasks for each Backlog Item

Make sure that every piece of work is taken into account to reach Definition of Done – Coding, Testing, etc – to get to a “potentially shippable” state.

If a task effort is bigger than 8 hours, try to split the task into smaller tasks, so the team can understand during the Sprint whether real progress is being made on the commitment.

If the Team believes that the resultant Iteration (Sprint) Backlog is too large, work with the Product Owner to remove low priority Backlog Items

If the team believes that the Iteration (Sprint) Backlog is too small, work with the Product Owner to bring in additional Product Backlog items from the Product Backlog

The team commits to the Iteration (Sprint) Goal. An approach to make this concrete is to have the Product Owner ask “Fist of five vote – how likely do you think that you’ll be able to make the commitment?”

Results

Iteration (Sprint) Goal and Iteration (Sprint) Backlog are visible to everyone within the organization. The tasks in the Sprint Backlog are accessible to all team members.

Want to Know More?

What Should Our Sprint Goals Look Like?

Scrum.org View of Definition of Ready