Sprint planning is the time for the agile team to take a nap and let the project manager and product owner get to work, right?
Well, not exactly. Except for a day’s work, the sprint is the next smallest unit of timed work in an agile project for your development team to commit to delivering value for your stakeholders. The sprint planning session is the opportunity for the team to get together, look at the backlog of work, and decide on what can get done during this 1-4 weeks chunk of the project.
Here are 5 tips on how to run an effective sprint planning session:
- Make sure the product backlog is prioritized and updated beforehand. The backlog should be groomed, acceptance criteria should be in place, and requirements and user stories should be detailed.
- Get as much of the team together as possible so people can align and understand what needs to get done in the upcoming sprint.
- Engage the team and assign work based on interest, fit, and bandwidth.
- Leave room for important and urgent tasks, innovation, quality, and technical debt.
- Talk about risks and dependencies so work can get sequenced properly.
Enjoy the Sprint Planning tip video from The Wild West of Software Project Management series below.
See more tips in The Wild West of Software Project Management.