Scrum Sprint Planning

Sprint planning starts every sprint. The whole Scrum team meets to decide what work the team will complete during the upcoming sprint.

Two Key Questions

Sprint planning answers two main questions.

What Can We Deliver?

The product owner presents the highest priority items from the product backlog. The development team reviews these items and decides how many they can realistically finish within the sprint.

How Will We Do the Work?

The development team breaks selected items into smaller tasks and discusses the approach for building them. This discussion creates the sprint backlog.

A Simple Diagram

Product Backlog (ranked list)
        |
   Team reviews top items
        |
   Team estimates capacity
        |
   Team commits to a Sprint Goal
        |
   Sprint Backlog created

The Sprint Goal

Every sprint needs a single sprint goal, which summarizes the purpose of the sprint in one or two sentences. A sprint goal might read, "Allow customers to track their order status online." This goal keeps the team focused even if individual tasks shift during the sprint.

Capacity and Velocity

Teams look at their velocity, which measures how many story points they completed in past sprints, to judge how much work fits into the new sprint. A team with a steady velocity of twenty points usually commits to about twenty points of new work.

Layman's Example

Think about packing for a weekend trip. You check how much luggage space you have, similar to checking team capacity. You then pick the most important items to pack first, similar to selecting backlog items. You decide your main goal for the trip, like "relax at the beach," similar to setting a sprint goal.

Key Takeaway

Sprint planning sets the direction for the entire sprint. The team selects realistic work, defines a clear goal, and creates a plan to achieve it.