Traditional sprint planning doesn't work for remote teams.

[Evan Fishman - Rally for Jira]

Traditional sprint planning doesn't work for remote teams.

We're trying to force in-person practices into virtual spaces, and it's costing us hours of productivity.

Think about it: we're asking team members across three time zones to sync up for hours, expecting the same natural flow of conversation we get in person.

One team member is having breakfast while another is ready for dinner - not exactly peak planning energy.

The subtle stuff gets lost too.

Those quick nods of understanding, the slight hesitation that signals concerns about estimates, the energy shift when someone's confused - all gone in the virtual space.

Then there's the tool juggling.

Switching between video calls, Jira tickets, chat messages, and documentation - it's like trying to conduct an orchestra while learning to juggle😅.

What I've learned working with remote teams is

We need to stop trying to replicate in-person planning sessions virtually.

The most effective teams have embraced a hybrid approach, combining async prep work with focused live discussions.

How is your team handling remote sprint planning?

Have you found ways to make them feel more natural?

[chad.leblanc]

You know I have wondered this same thing, with my team being based in the US primarily.  We have team mates in the UK and India and they are all on different schedules.

Since we use Teams for most of our communications, I've been toying with the idea of doing video or audio recording from them and posting it in our channel for the next day.

But I'm curious on what others will have to say on this, too!

[Evan Fishman - Rally for Jira]

Recording a video is an interesting idea @chad.leblanc . We do that at Rally using Loom sometimes.

We actually built Rally with this problem in mind.

Instead of doing extra work or having missed contexts, team members join a dedicated discussion space whenever they're online.

They can contribute, and gain context at their own pace and every session stays connected to its Jira Item.

[Evan Fishman - Rally for Jira]

You mentioned you use Teams, If you do not mind, how has it been so far?

Any pain points you face as a remote team?

We currently have a Slack app and we are looking at integrating with Teams too.

[chad.leblanc]

@Evan Fishman - Rally for Jira depends on the hardware for us - it still has it's issues (audio/video) but so far it has been pretty solid.  We also use Confluence a lot and with Atlassian always adding new features, it's easy to catch-up.

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I know some of our teams would love to use Slack (since we are primarily the support team for our SF instances) but one Director doesn't like it and it's all of a sudden a non-starter.

I've tried to get our IT teams to approve Loom, but they said no since we have a host of other options (Teams, Zoom, Office 365).

I'm thinking of bringing this to our discussions in the new year on maybe taking this video approach for a month or so and seeing how it works out!

[Evan Fishman - Rally for Jira]

@chad.leblanc Thanks for your insights💪🏻💪🏻 Really appreciate it. 

[Rich Allen]

Hi @Evan Fishman - Rally for Jira , having productive ceremonies such as Sprint planning, with not just remote teams but remote individuals within a team is definitely a challenge. 

One approach I have implemented successfully is to implement future Sprint planning, so you have maybe 2 or 3 Sprints in place, based on backlog priority. Based on that I have asked genuinely distributed team members to record a short video of their insight, concerns, risks, dependencies etc of the Sprint. I do then have a team session once the insight is shared as a whole team, that way it is a focused session with shared understanding.

Again not perfect and does depend on the mindset and comfort levels of team members.  

[Evan Fishman - Rally for Jira]

@Rich Allen thanks for your insight. This seems like a pretty unique way to solve this problem. I especially love the idea of remote team members recording a video of their insights and concerns. 

Quick question though, do they record separate videos for each sprint, or one video that covers all and you'd review that?

[Rich Allen]

@Evan Fishman - Rally for Jira Keeping Sprint Planning honest while also finding a workable approach, I have worked with Teams to have 2 or 3 Sprints tentatively planned. When recording a video they would not only feedback on current Sprint but also dependencies, concerns & priorities of the following Sprints.

So the direct answer is that it would be Sprint by Sprint but with visibility into future work, it's only a short video :-)

[Evan Fishman - Rally for Jira]

@Rich Allen, I really love how you approach this. What do you think about us having a quick chat? Would love to show you an app I built, which is kind of my answer to finding a workable approach to ceremonies. 

Need to get your thoughts on it. 💪🏻💪🏻

[Rich Allen]

@Evan Fishman - Rally for Jira happy to sync up, let me know best option

[Evan Fishman - Rally for Jira]

@Rich Allen Lovely, let's book one at your convenience here: https://meetings.hubspot.com/rally/demo

Looking forward to speaking soon.