In Scrum, the Sprint Planning Meeting is crucial for setting the stage for the upcoming sprint. According to SCRUMstudy, this meeting involves the entire Scrum Team and is primarily facilitated by the Scrum Master. During this session, the Product Owner presents the prioritized backlog items, and the team collaborates to define the sprint goal and select the user stories they commit to completing. The team then breaks down these stories into tasks and estimates the effort required for each. This collaborative process ensures that everyone has a clear understanding of the work ahead, aligns on the sprint objectives, and feels a sense of ownership over the sprint plan.

Based on the Guide to Scrum Body of Knowledge (SBOK Guide), it is time-boxed to eight hours for a one-month Sprint and is divided into two parts – Objective Definition and Task Estimation.

1. Objective Definition—during the first half of the meeting, the Product Owner explains the highest priority User Stories or requirements in the Prioritized Product Backlog to the Scrum Team. The Scrum Team in collaboration with the Product Owner then defines the Sprint goal.

2. Task Estimation—during the second half of the meeting, the Scrum Team decides “how” to complete the selected Prioritized Product Backlog Items to fulfil the Sprint goal.

During Sprint Planning Meetings, the User Stories, which are approved, estimated, and committed are taken up for discussion. Each Scrum Team member does a quick estimation of tasks using tools such as planning poker. If the discussions start taking more time, it would mean that the User stories were not completely ready to be taken up for the sprint. Each Scrum Team member also uses Effort Estimated Task List to select the tasks they plan to work on in the Sprint, based on their skills and experience. The team reaches a consensus about the amount of work that needs to be put in this sprint. The Scrum Team also creates the Sprint Backlog and Sprint Burndown Chart using the User Stories and the Effort Estimated Task List during the Sprint Planning Meetings. The team can give a verbal commitment to complete the tasks planned for the sprint.

Try to avoid doing the following tasks during the meeting. They help you with preparation and should be prepared before the start of the meeting.

Refining: Refining helps ensure that there is a clarification of requirements and their User Stories. Its done in advance of the Sprint Planning Meeting so that the team has a well-analyzed and clearly defined set of stories that can be easily broken down into tasks and subsequently estimated.

Updates/Revisions: Updates can include revisions to the original User Story estimates based on task creation and complexity factors discussed during the Sprint Planning Meeting.

The bottom line is that if you follow these points, you will be able to do effective planning without spending a lot of time.