Sprint Planning

Sprint planning meetings are the heart of agile development. For product-centric organizations, nothing drives progress more than sprint planning. Sprints are the foundation of any great agile development team.

As a product owner or scrum master, the better you prepare for your sprints, the more likely you are to accomplish your objectives. You'll build better software, that provides more value to your customers.

Running a successful sprint planning session depends on three factors:

• Synthesizing tasks from user stories
• Getting aligned on what can be achieved
• Taking action

The following guidelines will help you prepare for the sprint planning meeting. Once you get ready, follow these steps to make your meeting successful.

How to run a sprint planning meeting

First of all, curate a list of user stories that will be completed in this sprint by the scrum team. This may include product backlog items and stories that carry over from the last sprint.

Planning Stage

Prior to every sprint (and prior to jumping into your sprint planning meeting agenda template), make sure you have established a specific product vision and prioritization on what needs to be done. In addition, choose goals and objectives for the upcoming sprint.

The Sprint Goal

The sprint goal is the main reason why the team came together. It should be clear and concise. Ideally, it should be something that has been decided during planning or a user story that could be accomplished within the sprint.

Epics and Tasks

Curate a list of user stories that will be addressed in this sprint. This often comes in the form of looking at a larger list of backlog items, but it's important to tie the work back to the user stories to make sure it is still worthwhile. Identify each major task or piece of work that needs to start being done within a sprint.

Scope of Work Clarification

Next, review the scrum team's capacity and any other factors that may affect the planning process. Most teams are best served by sharing an acceptable scope with their team at the beginning of the meeting.

Whether you estimate backlog items in terms of story points, hours, or some other measure of effort, it's important to make sure the deliverables and priority of tasks match everyone's expectations for the week.

If tasks are estimated inaccurately on a regular basis, you may need to discuss whether you have the correct resources for the project. (This may require a larger discussion with management or other stakeholders.)

Key Risks & Concerns

Now that the product owner has a clear idea of what's going to be worked on, review each backlog item. Confirm if there are potential risks associated with any of them, work together with the team to determine how these risks can be addressed.

Notes & Takeaways

Get verbal confirmation from your team about the next steps to be taken. Clarify who on the team is completing them and when they should be done by. Note this information here to share and assign.

Take Action

Finally, take action on the tasks that have been identified. In most cases, you or your team should be accountable for completing these tasks. If you're not available, identify who must complete them in your place.

Sprint Planning Tips

• Don't perfectly sequence user stories at this point (you'll do that during a different planning process). This is for planning purposes only, so group them in order of priority.
• Ensure your tasks align with your team's capacity.
• Bring everyone up to date on the team's plan, goals and progress.
• Gather any notes and action items from the sprint planning session.

About this sprint planning agenda template

Anyone can create a Sprint Planning meeting agenda template using Word, Google Docs, or some other program. But an elegant one will help you get your team on the same page when it comes to the purpose of a sprint. It should also help you raise those actionable takeaways from every meeting, and keep everyone on task while maximizing their time.

Our meeting note template empowers your team to move through each step efficiently and effectively, maintaining your team's velocity.

Whether you're diving into your product backlog to determine what tasks need to be done or you're fleshing out epics around specific issues, our flexible sprint planning template lets you focus on what you need to move the project forward this week. Tailor its structure to capture a high-level overview of your product vision as well as any details that impact the big picture.

Alignment between product owners, scrum masters, and agile team members is integral to running a successful sprint. Our meeting note template cultivates crystal-clear communication through sharing capabilities. So even if some team members are not present for the planning session, everyone can be on the same page about responsibilities and expectations.

Part of every great sprint planning session is defining what "done" is for the project. This agenda template not only lets you lay out the steps needed to reach your goal, but it also enables your team to start taking action towards it right away. Our sprint planning template allows you to turn any note into an assignable action in any major workflow tool or platform with only a few simple clicks.

Our sprint planning template gives you everything you need to create a high-level overview of what's planned. But then, it allows you to customize the specifics for your team's exact needs. Download or use our template and include important details about each user story or epic to help plan your next sprint. Catalyze collaboration and redefine what can be done with this meeting note template today.