How to organize and succeed in an agile sprint planning?
An agile project is composed of various stages or meetings. In the context of an agile approach, they are called ceremonies. One of the most famous is sprint planning, which is found in Scrum projects. If all of these terms seem obscure to you, don't worry, because we're going to take a detailed look at the benefits of sprint planning and how to make it a success. You will thus be able to achieve your goals and improve your performance during project management.
What is sprint planning?
The sprint planning meeting, also called sprint planning, is a ceremony of an agile scrum project.
The Scrum framework is one of the agile project management methods. Often used by development teams during IT projects, it gives pride of place to teamwork. Thus, employees meet regularly to refine the design of a product or service. The agile scrum method is in fact based on an iterative approach. Different short cycles will thus make it possible to improve the product through regular feedback on the tasks carried out previously.
However, at the center of this iterative development, we find the sprint. The latter one of those cycles whose duration can range from two weeks to one month.
What is the objective of sprint planning?
To take full advantage of a cycle, it is of course necessary to plan the tasks that will be carried out during this iterative process. It is during sprint planning that the objectives of the upcoming sprint are precisely defined.
To materialize this objective, a user story is developed. These user stories are simply a description of the user's wishes. The elements developed during the sprint will depend on these descriptions.
Who are the participants in a sprint planning?
During a sprint preparatory meeting, we can name three essential stakeholders: the product owner, the scrum master, and the agile team.
The product owner
We could define the product owner as a kind of project manager. It represents the voice of the customer. Therefore, it makes the link between the latter's requests and the work of the agile team.
His role is essential, as he must ensure the adequacy between the customer's requirements and the deliverable under development. He is the one who prepares the sprint planning together with the scrum master.
The Scrum Master
This second actor is the coach of the team. Perfectly mastering the codes of agile management, it allows employees to gain in agility and productivity. He is also the one who motivates the team and ensures that the agile method is well respected.
His role during the meeting is to be the leader of the sprint planning.
The scrum team
The agile process is a collaborative approach. For this reason, it is obvious that the team has its say and must be present during the sprint planning meeting. Employees can then give their opinion on the tasks, the duration of each task and the sprint objective.
The essential steps of sprint planning
A sprint planning is mainly composed of two main stages. It is important to carry out them scrupulously to guarantee the performance of the team and the sprint.
The definition of the content of the sprint backlog
In agile practices, the sprint backlog is simply a plan. It makes it possible to identify the tasks that will be carried out during the sprint. Since the method is built on an iterative approach, the content of the sprint backlog also evolves as the project progresses.
To develop this sprint backlog, the product owner presents the user stories of the product backlog. The latter is the list of features to be developed. By identifying priority functionalities and breaking them down into sub-objectives, it becomes possible to build a relevant sprint backlog.
The division of tasks to be carried out
Once the sprint backlog is established, it is necessary to break down all the elements to be developed into tasks. This makes it possible to assign these tasks to different collaborators and to define the time required to complete them.
The objective is then not to finalize the product as a whole, but to develop a functionality. The latter will be presented to the end customer at the end of the sprint to get their feedback. This will trigger a new iterative loop until full customer satisfaction is achieved.
Best practices to adopt for a successful meeting
To succeed in your sprint planning, we recommend that you put some best practices into practice. These will allow you to reach your goals in the time set by your project.
Check the complexity points
Evaluate the team's ability to complete planned tasks as part of a sprint. This ability, also called speed, depends in particular on the specific complexity points or difficulties in carrying out a task. You can define the speed of the team by looking at its performance over previous iterative cycles.
This complexity should not exceed the capabilities of your next sprint if you want to be able to develop the feature on time.
Define the Definition of Done
The Definition of Done or DoD is a list of criteria that is used to verify that a user story is finalized. It is therefore a way of ensuring that a goal is achieved.
It is useful to recall the DoD of user stories during sprint planning. In this way, employees know exactly how to carry out the tasks assigned to them. Transparency and clarity are critical to the effectiveness of the agile team.
The value of collaborative tools for organizing an agile meeting
If you want to put all the chances on your side to succeed in your planning meeting, it may be interesting to opt for certain tools. Indeed, teamwork platforms are in particular ideal for ensuring sprint planning even remotely.
If some members of your team are on the go or if they are working from home, a collaborative tool answers some essential problems:
- Centralize information to prepare for the meeting;
- Organize sprint planning by videoconference;
- List and plan the tasks to be carried out;
- Exchange the documents necessary to achieve the objectives.
By acquiring suitable tools and by scrupulously following the agile scrum method, you can organize and succeed in your sprint planning simply and calmly. Employees then gain in performance, because they know exactly when, why and how they should perform a task.
