The perfect sprint plan 101
“Having A Perfect Sprint Planning Determines Whether You Will Receive A Satisfying Result Or Not.”
Any work that is to be performed in the Sprint is planned at the Sprint Planning. The plan brings together the entire Scrum Team and is created by collaborative work. People tend to prefer knowing the “Why should I do it?” rather than the “how should I do it?” answer. Without the why people will lose motivation and affects the business/organization as a whole. Learn more about sprint planning by reading this article to end. We’ve summed up all the information you need to have the perfect sprint plan:
Definition of Sprint Planning and Its Purposes
Sprint planning is a working session that happens approximately once per week during the Sprint. When you’re working in a scrum team, planning does not always play in advance. Having to plan during the Sprint allows your team to react and take immediate action towards the current situation that can be a problem. During sprint planning, organizations can also synchronize and agree on the broader context of project management. This will create a product roadmap and priority of the business.
Preparation Before Sprint Planning
You need to prepare your sprint planning beforehand. Without any preparation, your meeting will be useless, discussing out of context topic, and a waste of time. Prepare the following points for your sprint planning session:
- The Scrum team must review backlog items, discuss the details, and explain how the result can be achieved.
- Product Owner needs to review the product roadmap – create a visual summary that maps out the vision and direction of the product that suits the market.
- Create alignment between backlog and roadmap. Make sure that the progress that everyone is making align with the trend set by the product management.
- Adjust ground rules and the definition of work that is done to maintain good workflow.
- Establish and commit to a clear sprint goal that works in line with the product vision and needs.
With fulfilling and preparing the pillar contextual background, your team will have a more in-depth discussion. Detailed analysis helps clear things out and enables your organization to execute their work effectively.
Sprint Meeting Attendees
Sprint planning requires everyone in the organization and stakeholders to involves. Your team should include the developer and tester, scrum master, and product owner. The developer and tester should attend the meeting because they came up with the estimates for user stories and mainly responsible for bringing the stories in time. Scrum Master is in the meeting to facilitate the team and help them achieve a balance sprint plan at the end. The product owner represents the business and the customer point of view to be presented at the meeting.
The meeting should only run for 4 hours if it is for a month spring, and a two-week sprint only requires two hours meeting. Breaking the session into a couple of meeting helps the team to focus on only the necessary things.
What to do In Sprint Planning?
- The Product Owner presents the Sprint goals; the team discusses and agrees on the goal: The product owner should know the vision of the product. Deliver the idea to the scrum until they understand why should they do their work. Having an agreement within the team is crucial to have a product that everyone can relate and wants.
- The team discusses each story: Details is the key to the discussion. Discuss every story there is in the Sprint, the sizes of each story, and the story points.
- Elaborates acceptance criteria through conversation: Acceptance criteria helps everyone have a standard and a clear result that they need to achieve. Without it, you won’t know whether the current product is satisfying enough or not.
- The team and Product Owner negotiate and finalize the selected stories: Negotiation creates acceptance between the team and the product owner. Only by negotiation and discussion that everyone can complete the selected stories during the Sprint.
- Everyone commits to the Sprint: Everyone cooperation and collaboration is needed in the team. Committing to finish the Sprint until the very end helps the entire project to succeed.
Conclusion
Follow the guidelines above to create the perfect sprint plan. Learning by doing is your best teacher, don’t worry too much on having to have it all for the first time. Every next Sprint will make you better as you have adapted and analyze along the way. Having a proper sprint planning helps you achieve the satisfying result you want for your product.
Rock Paper Scissors is the missing link between business and technical world. We translates business language into technical, and technical limitation into business constraints. We guide organization and individuals alike to create their own digital product and navigates all the complexity of product creation process. Find out more.
References
https://platinumedge.com/blog/sprint-planning-101-agile-teams-2019