Conducting the Sprint Planning Event

Three topics are addressed during the course of the event:

• Why is this Sprint valuable?
• What can be Done during this Sprint?
• How will this work get done?

Sprint Planning is an event for the entire Scrum Team. They may invite people from outside the Scrum Team if they feel their advice would be helpful. Individuals within the team have specific accountabilities during this Event:

Product Owner

• Makes sure that the attendees of the event have enough information about the most important Product Backlog Items, including how they support the Product Goal.
• Makes a proposal to the team about what they can develop that would be valuable for the stakeholders. The team must be able to complete the work during the course of the Sprint. The PO shouldn’t propose how the developers create this value.

Entire Scrum Team

• In a collaborative manner, the team crafts a Sprint Goal that indicates why this Sprint will bring value to the stakeholders, including customers and users. 
• This addresses topic one: “Why is this Sprint Valuable?”

Developers

• Select the items in the Product Backlog to address in the current Sprint. This addresses topic two: “What can be done during this Sprint?”
• When Developers select the PBIs for the Sprint, they consider:
  • The Product Backlog, including the Product Goal 
  • The Team’s assessment of their capacity, based on their past performance in previous Sprints
  • The Definition of Done
  • The current Increment, and
  • Any process improvement suggestions that emerged during the team’s Sprint Retrospectives
• Create a plan for how to fulfill the PBIs. This addresses topic three: “How will this work get Done?”

Scrum Master

• Has specific accountabilities during the Sprint Planning event for helping the team fulfill the requirements of the event. For example, the Scrum Master guides the team if they see that PBIs aren’t sufficiently defined, the team doesn’t identify potential impediments, the Sprint Goal doesn’t support the Product Goal or the team has selected an unattainable amount of work.
• Often the Scrum Master acts as the facilitator for this event, though this is not required. Facilitation of Sprint Planning can be done by anyone at the event.
   

Resources:

Module

Facilitation Techniques for Sprint Planning

About Sprint Planning Event Purpose: Initiates the Sprint by laying out the work to be performed for the Sprint. Output is a Sprint Backlog (Sprint Goal + selected PBIs + Plan) Facilitator Focus: Enable a collaborative and transparent environment with a clear objective. Keep the team f...

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