Use sprint planning to plan the work to be done
5 min
By the end of this lesson, you’ll be able to:
- Define the sprint backlog as the set of selected product backlog items and a plan for delivering them to achieve the sprint goal
- Recognize that sprint planning is time-boxed to a maximum of eight hours for a one-month sprint
- Explain that sprint planning covers three topics: sprint value, work selection, and execution plan
- Identify the sprint backlog as one of the three scrum artifacts
- Emphasize that the sprint backlog should prioritize opportunities for continuous improvement
What is sprint planning?
Sprint planning helps the team lay out the work to be performed in the timebox that follows. This part of the process is all about turning goals into actionable work. During sprint planning, the scrum team collaborates to select items from the product backlog, set a clear sprint goal, and create a plan for delivering those items, which together form the sprint backlog.
👇Plan the work to be performed in sprint planning.
The sprint backlog is one of the three scrum artifacts. The sprint goal, the product backlog items selected for the sprint, at least one process improvement identified during the last retrospective, plus the plan for delivering them are together referred to as the sprint backlog.
👇Click the icons below to learn more about how sprint planning involves the entire scrum team.
Time-boxed sprint planning
Sprint planning is time-boxed to ensure focus. For a one-month sprint, planning should take no longer than eight hours, though this is usually less for a shorter sprint. This forces prioritization and prevents over-planning. Imagine planning a road trip: you don’t spend days plotting every rest stop – you outline key stops and go!
Get started with sprint planning
Sprint planning involves asking and answering the following questions:
- Why is the sprint valuable?
- What can be done this sprint?
- How will the work get done?
👇Click the tabs below to learn more.
Why is the sprint valuable?
It is important to define why the sprint matters. What is the organization trying to achieve?
👉 For example: There might be a specific product improvement that customers requested and the team needs to work on. This “why” becomes the sprint goal.
The answers to these questions creates the sprint backlog – the plan of items the team will create during the sprint.
Include a kaizen item
Kaizen is a Japanese business philosophy and continuous improvement approach that focuses on making small, ongoing positive changes to processes, systems, or activities to achieve significant improvements over time.
The kaizen process typically follows the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle, where teams plan a change, implement it on a small scale, evaluate the results, and standardize successful improvements or adjust as needed.
Consider a marketing team that uses scrum to manage their campaigns and content creation. This team works on projects like launching new products, creating social media content, and organizing events.
👇Click the four boxes below to explore how the marketing team includes a kaizen.
A kaizen can be applied to any scrum team. By treating process improvements as real sprint work, teams in any field can build a culture of learning and adaptation, leading to better outcomes and a more effective team.