How to plan a sprint in Jira in 6 steps

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A sprint plan allows you to define what can be delivered in the upcoming sprint, how the work will be achieved, and when it is expected to be completed. We could say that a well-crafted sprint plan equals a successful sprint. In this step-by-step guide, we will walk you through the key steps of sprint planning, and show how a planning tool like Team Planner - Resource Planning for Jira can help you plan your sprint easily and effectively. Let’s dive in!

Step 1 Create a plan

To start planning your sprint, the very first thing you need to do is create a plan. To do that, open the Team Planner app and click the Create new plan button.

Step 2 Add users

Once you’ve created your new plan, it’s time to fill it with users who will be participating in the sprint you’re planning. To do that, click the Add user button that will appear in the center of your empty plan. 

 

Then, a modal will show up. Start typing to search users by name or click the input to see the user list. You can keep adding users and easily add all team members to the plan.

If the plan already includes some users, the button to add more of them will appear at the bottom of the plan. 

 

Step 3 Define your Sprint goal

Having a clear sprint goal helps your team stay on track and prioritize tasks, making the whole sprint planning process more effective. Remembering the goal and sticking to it is something that should always be at the top of your priority list. 

In Team Planner, your sprint goal is visible at the top of the plan, which makes it easier to keep it in mind the whole way through. 

To add a goal, all you need to do is click the ‘Goal’ field and start typing. You can enter up to 2,000 characters. You can also alter or delete the goal at any time.

Step 4 Determine capacity

Once the goal has been set and is now visible to everyone in the plan, it’s time to mark non-working days and team members’ days off, so you can see how it will impact the team’s capacity. There might be some public holidays occurring during your sprint, and it's worth reflecting that in your plan. 

To mark a specific day as non-working, hover over it, click the three dots “(..)”, and choose Mark as Non-Working Day. The selected date will turn gray.

 

If some particular team members are planning a holiday, they can also include it in the plan. To add a day off, hover over the day you want to mark as a day off and click on the highlighted box.

A modal will pop up. Go to the ‘Day off’ tab at the top where you can add a user, note (description), and the holiday’s start and end date.

 

Days off will appear on the plan as grayed-out fields with your note (description) included.

 

As Team Planner has a simultaneous edition feature, each team member can mark their days off at the same time, and all changes will be immediately visible to the rest. 

The app also allows you to see the capacity and task allocation summary for each of the users, so you can have a quick overview of their availability and workload.

Step 5 Assign tasks

Now it’s time to establish who will be responsible for which task, and how long this task will take.

To assign tasks to users, hover over a table cell for the desired date.

 

A modal will show up for you to select a user, an issue, and its start and end date. By default, the user whose cell you clicked will be selected, but you can change it to anyone else from the ones added to the plan. Once you’ve filled in all the data needed, click Add Issue to add it to the plan.

You can also drag issues from the list displayed on the left side of your plan, and drop them anywhere on the timeline. This can speed up the planning process as thanks to the dragging option you will quickly assign the issue to a certain user and set the date for it. 

 

If you’re looking for some particular issues, you can filter the list by Project, Sprint, Issue type, Assignee, and Status, or search with a text input. To filter the issues, click on the icon in the top right corner of the list, and a filtering panel will appear. Once you choose the kind of issues you want to see, click Apply filters and the filtered issues will appear. 

Your plan will display the status and priority set for your Jira tickets. You can see these values in both the ‘Issues’ column and the plan. 

 

Step 6 Check estimations

There’s no denying the importance of precise estimations in agile methodologies. When teams can accurately estimate the effort required to complete tasks, it allows them to effectively allocate resources and set realistic goals.

In Team Planner, the Estimations feature allows you to see how much time and work tasks from a particular sprint are estimated to take.  

When you choose your estimations to be set to ‘by Story Points’, the app will automatically sum up the sprint issues’ story points and show you their total at the top. This helps to quickly assess where you are with the workload. For example, if your team's average is 20 Story Points per sprint, and your plan indicates 16 story points, you can see there's room for additional tasks. However, if your team’s average is 13 story points, your plan showing 16 story points might be slightly overloaded and require adjusting. 

Additionally, the Estimations feature displays the story points for each task next to the task’s priority value. This gives you insight into the level of time and effort required for this task.  

 

If your team prefers time-based estimates, you can set your Estimations 'by Original Estimate' to display the estimated time for tasks. Just like with story points, Team Planner will add up all the time estimates, showing the total time at the top. It will also tell you how much time each task needs right on the task box. This way, you can quickly check if all your planned tasks fit well into the time you have for the sprint.

 

Summary
In agile project management, effective sprint planning will always be crucial. A sprint plan serves as a compass, helping teams figure out what to do and when to do it in the upcoming sprint. This 6-step guide shows you how to use a planning tool like Team Planner to create a realistic, attainable plan together with your team.