“The work to be performed in the Sprint is planned at the sprint planning. The plan is created by the collaborative work of the entire Scrum Team. Sprint Planning is time-boxed to a maximum of eight hours for a one-month sprint. For shorter sprints, the event is usually shorter…

Sprint Planning answers the following: What can be delivered in the increment resulting for the upcoming sprint? How will the work needed to deliver the increment be achieved.” Source – Scrum.org

Activities

• Capacity and Performance: Along with facilitating the sprint backlog session the Scrum Master is also responsible for outlining and confirming the teams capacity for the sprint. In addition the Scrum Master will present the previous sprints performance.
• Sprint Goal: The sprint goal will be initially defined by the Product Owner prior to the session. The sprint goal will outline the objective set for the upcoming sprint. This will evolve as the Development Team review the backlog and decide on what items to bring into the sprint backlog. Regardless as to whether this changes throughout the meeting the team will have a clear sprint goal that all agree to by the end of the session. During the sprint, the team will refer to the sprint goal to ensure work they are doing aligns to this. This does not mean other items cannot be completed outside the sprint goal, it means that the sprint goal is the focus and should be a priority.
• Product Backlog: During the sprint planning session the Product Owner will help to clarify any items the development team pick from the product backlog. The will also help to make trade offs in the stories required.
• Sprint Backlog: The sprint backlog is solely up to the Development Team. Only the Development Team can assess what it can accomplish over the upcoming sprint. Using the sprint goal and the product backlog the Development Team will select items to be placed into the sprint backlog. Enough work will be planned during sprint planning for the development team to forecast what it believes they can do in the upcoming sprint. Work planned for the first few days of the sprint will be decomposed by the end of the meeting.

Sprint Planning Loop

Capacity Planner Template

Scrum Team Capacity Planner.xlsx