Sprint Planning

Sprint Planning initiates the Sprint by laying out the work to be performed. The resulting plan is created by the collaborative work of the entire Scrum Team. The Product Owner ensures attendees are prepared to discuss the most important Product Backlog items and how they map to the Product Goal. The Scrum Team may also invite other people to provide advice.

Sprint Planning addresses three topics. Why is this Sprint valuable? The Product Owner proposes how the product could increase its value and utility in the current Sprint, and the whole Scrum Team collaborates to define a Sprint Goal that communicates why the Sprint is valuable to stakeholders. The Sprint Goal must be finalized before the end of Sprint Planning. What can be Done this Sprint? Through discussion with the Product Owner, the Developers select items from the Product Backlog to include. The more they know about their past performance, upcoming capacity and Definition of Done, the more confident their forecasts will be. How will the chosen work get done? For each selected item, the Developers plan the work needed to create an Increment that meets the Definition of Done — often by breaking items into work of one day or less. How this is done is at the sole discretion of the Developers.

The Sprint Goal, the Product Backlog items selected for the Sprint and the plan for delivering them are together referred to as the Sprint Backlog. Sprint Planning is timeboxed to a maximum of eight hours for a one-month Sprint, and is usually shorter for shorter Sprints.

Study focus: the Developers select how much work to take on — not the Product Owner, the Scrum Master or a manager — and the whole Scrum Team crafts the Sprint Goal.