Sprint Planning: Two Topics!
And why the second topic should not be forgotten
Twin Post!
This post is the first part of a Twin Post. In this first article I share my ideas on the two sprint planning topics that need to be addressed and explain in more detail what the difference between both is. The other post shows a practical example of how to engage the team in Topic Two (How will the chosen work get done?). The posts work best in sequence, but can also be read as stand-alone posts. If you already have a good feel on the difference between the two sprint planning topics, you may want to go straight to the next post.
Who this post is for
Scrum practitioners interested in the dynamics of sprint planning & the two topics which should be discussed. Anyone wanting to read the other part of this Twin Post and interested to first understand my point of view on the two planning topics.
Intro
The scrum guide indicates two topics when planning a sprint. The first topic consists of the PO and the team figuring out together what the sprint goal should be and which backlog-items to put in the next sprint (Topic One: What can be done during this Sprint?). The second topic (Topic Two: How will the chosen work get done?) elaborates on the ‘how’ of the sprint and tries to give an answer to who will do which tasks to achieve the (sprint-)goal.
The second topic (Topic Two: How will the chosen work get done?) is the one I have noticed a lot of teams not fully exploring or sometimes not addressing at all. Some teams don’t seem to know this is actually something the Scrum process expects, others don’t see the point/value of this step. A third group simply doesn’t know how to start. I however have found this step to be crucial as this is where the PRACTICAL SPRINT PLANNING is done.
In the next 2 sections I will describe how I see the difference between Planning Topic One and Two in practice & why I feel that Topic Two is so important.
The difference between Sprint Planning Topic 1 and Topic 2
As I already mentioned; the first topic consists of the PO and the team figuring out together what the sprint goal should be and which backlog-items to put in the next sprint (Topic One: What can be done during this Sprint?).
Topic / part 2 is where the ‘selection of backlog items’ gets turned into ‘sprint backlog items’ or in other words, where a slice of the product backlog gets translated into a sprint backlog. These are not the same things.
I defer to the scrum guide for a more detailed description of the two topics.
In the following image I give an example of how this could be translated into practice:
So Topic One is more focused on selecting the right Backlog Items (BI’s) for the upcoming sprint from the Product Backlog. At that point they are typically re-discussed so that everyone understands what the item is about and why it is important. Usually the (rough complexity) estimated are also revisited at this point.
Topic Two is more about breaking down the selected BI’s into executable tasks and discussing who needs to execute those tasks in what sequence (when) and how long doing this would take (=time estimate).
Notice that answering these questions well results in a ‘game plan’ that makes clear how/when each team member will contribute to the sprint goal.
Why is this topic important?
So what? Do we really need to worry about this? Why is it not enough to just list stories based on rough estimate & velocity, throw them in a sprint & get cracking?
To be fair, I can imagine that in some contexts this is enough.
If the what/who/how of the entire sprint are discussed in depth with everyone present, maybe your current planning meeting covers all the Topic 1&2 needs in one go. But maybe it doesn’t.
Maybe your burndowns don’t really tend to burn down as much & maybe the team isn’t learning from this. Maybe people say they are going to work together on stuff, but notice in the sprint that ‘there just wasn’t an appropriate time to actually do that’. Maybe most stories tend to take longer than one sprint to deliver. Maybe some people are constantly swamped while others are constantly ‘looking’ for extra work.
If so, upping the effort spent in ‘planning’ your sprint may be worth your while.
Or maybe you are already convinced & are just looking for a practical way for organizing this event. If so, read on in the second part of this Twin Post!
