Effective Sprint Planning

In this Scrum Tapas video, Professional Scrum Trainer Don McGreal reviews how he runs a Sprint Planning session with his Scrum Teams. Don focuses on how the Development Team works with the Product Owner to understand what is in the Product Backlog and how they populate the Sprint Backlog.

[franklautenschlager]

Great video Don ... especially the tips on facilitating and NOT facilitating ... i.e. let the developers move the stickers from the product backlog into the Sprint Backlog ... supporting the true "ownership of the Sprint Backlog"!

[adrianhoorzuk]

Thank you Don, this was done brilliantly. Appreciate your insight and knowledge.

[gillianfongang]

I really love this break down thank you Sir. I just think you are a good teacher.coz not everyone who knows this can really simplify it like this

[yellowdog]

Thank you for the improved audio. Tough to get the lighting right with such a bright backdrop.

[thesuperflexibleflyingtaoi]

Its pretty obvious to me now, why the company I am working at fails: not the developer put the tickets from the backlog into the sprints, but the scrum master (that has no clue about programming) because of some deadlines we got. The code is a mess and as a beginner my word is not taken serious, but I am saying for months now that the planning we are doing is wrong because it makes no sense.

[ahmadkarama]

2020 update:

1.Sprint plan by and for developers

2.Sprint backlog, built by developers and changed by both developers and PO

3.Sprint goal created by the whole Scrum team and committed by developers only

[moorzymoores]

Perfect explanation of what I believe is decent sprint planning session.

[RobertCleggRC]

The Sprint Goal is a critical focus for the Sprint. The Product Owner should come to Sprint Planning with a Sprint Goal at the beginning. This helps the team select PBI's for consideration. Knowing the initial goal also helps experts see hidden value dependencies or relationships between PBI's that should be included in the discussion. The Sprint Goal may be modified during Sprint Planning to better reflect the specific PBI's and forecast created or even the team's capacity at the time. Ultimately, the Scrum Team would then agree upon the final Sprint Goal.

This happens quite frequently in startups and smaller businesses where the early increments can vary widely depending on the stakeholders involved and the business value targeted.

[kristinjackson]

Don, I'm interested in your thoughts about PI Planning (Program Increment). Much of what you describe for sprint planning we do in PI Planning which is where we spend 1 full day planning out 4 sprints, each at 2 weeks in duration. PI Planning is where we allow developers to review the backlog of work, prioritized already by the PO, and pull that work into appropriate sprints. Then we do 1 hour of sprint planning to further refine the work much like how you've described with the pink stickys in your video.

[hannahschuette]

Great video! Any recommendations on apps that allow for collaborative sticky note type planning?

[rcorser]

great was the second posting of this vid, but the first vid said part I....is there a part 2?

Regarding the last item - Sprint Goal, will you please provide us with some examples?

Don - do you have any more of these types of vids? Very helpful and practical!!!

Thanks!

[noidea]

What happens with all the sprint backlog items after the sprint is closed? Where do you keep the post its so that the connection between them and the product backlog item doesnt get lost?

[coachrye]

Hi. I love the part about letting the developers move the items from product backlog into the sprint backlog. However, there might be times that there are priority items. What's the best way to treat these cases without affecting ownership /accountability?

[ChrisAthanas]

When is the architecture decided that allows for the maximum flexibility for the unknown needs?

[taffyjones]

Quick question: let's say after a sprint, there is a user story with a story point of 13 that is 80% complete (it will not contribute to the velocity of that sprint); therefore, this requirement needs to be completed in a future sprint. My question is this: do you move that story in the next sprint with the same story point? Or do you move it to another sprint and lower the story point since the amount of work remaining is just 20%. Or do I move it back to backlog, include it in the refining and change the story point there, then move it to the next sprint? Thanks!

[danmano]

Working with a whiteboard is perfect, how would you recommend doing the same process when everyone is working remotely?

[krantimadineni]

what about estimation of hours for a task or story in this meeting and sprint burndown chart? don't you do them?

[kynt]

what happens when some teammembers run out of tasks during the sprint? in our team it is not realistic that a db-guy starts doing javascript stuff... or that a UX/graphics designer suddenly tries to do sql-tasks...

[celticorthodoxgnosis]

Don, are those green cards actually Epics?

[wojciechreza]

audio is still broken, only in one earphone