Techniques for improving the Sprint Planning in Scrum
What is the Sprint Planning for?
It’s the event for planning what the team has forecasted to complete for the customer by the end of the iteration. It’s also the time for the team to set the sprint goal, and to discus and agree upon the sprint backlog
When is the Sprint Planning held?
It’s held at the beginning of the sprint.
Who participates in the Sprint Planning and how?
Here is what I’ve found that works better for each role when participating in the sprint planning in Scrum:
What Other Techniques Could Be Used to Improve the Sprint Planning?
- Structure your Sprint plannings. Download Jesus’s Sprint planning template and energize your sprint plannings.
- Keep the Product backlog refined and groom often. This could help your team(s) to reduce waste during the sprint, and stay focused on what needs to be done.
In order to accomplish this you will:
- Have at least one two hour Product Backlog refinement sessions per two weeks of sprint.
- For the Scrum Master to help and support the Product Owner weekly regarding the content of the Product Backlog based on the Product Road map (At the very least, a high level vision of the upcoming three months of work).
- Use Jesus’s Product Road map template (Coming soon) to help you when assisting the Product Owner with setting Product Backlog priorities and make them visible for the team.
- Avoid being so rigid and purist about scrum practices. Where people are involved, instead use and trust your common sense and even trust some of their ideas.
- Skip the ceremony on purpose. Something that I sometimes do, is miss the beginning of the sprint planning, so the team can figure it out by themselves. The first time you do this, it would be awkward, but after some time the team will get used to it.
- Repeat, repeat and repeat. Keep using these techniques until the team starts owning them.
- Have fun. Enjoy what you do, talk with your team(s) about people’s lives, what is happening around the world, and take the time to connect with them.
Willing to get more techniques for transforming your teams into high-performing sustainable Agile teams?
Here is an option to help you out:
- Get your copy of my workbook “Forming Agile Teams” now.
Thank you for reading and for inspiring me to continue sharing.
All the best,
Jesus
