Importance Of A Sprint Planning Meeting In Scrum Framework

Significance of the sprint planning meeting

Whenever scrum is to be implemented for a project, user stories are carefully worked out, and a product backlog is painstakingly prepared in which user stories are properly categorized, and set up in order of their importance. The product backlog is prepared by the product owner, who is also responsible for ensuring that the user stories are properly taken up by the team members. The team carries out the actual development work during the sprinting activity. The sprint forms the backbone of all developmental activities associated with the particular project, and therefore it is required to be properly planned in order to get the most out of what scrum has to offer. For this, a special meeting is held before the sprint is to be executed. This meeting is known as the sprint planning meeting.

        

Who attends the sprint planning meeting?

Since sprint planning involves the formation of the sprint backlog (The list of user stories to be developed by the team members during the sprint. The product owner decides which stories are important, and recommends them to the team members who prepare a list of items which each team member is supposed to process and develop. This particular list is known as the “sprint backlog”). So the product owner has to remain present during the meeting. As the development is to be carried out by the team members, they too have to attend the sprint planning meeting. In addition, the scrum master is responsible to ensure that scrum is properly enforced, therefore it is also mandatory for him or her to remain present during the meeting.

The sprint planning meeting is attended by:

• The product owner
• Scrum master
• Team members

What is the sprint planning meeting like?

The main purpose of the meeting is to create the sprint backlog with respect to its user stories and development tasks. The product owner has to decide which user stories are most important and which of them should be ideally incorporated into the sprint backlog. Once the sprint backlog is decided by the product owner, the team members have to decide how the sprint backlog should be processed for development purposes. So, mainly two aspects – the “what” aspect and the “how” aspect pertaining to the sprint are to be discussed and worked out during the sprint planning meeting. The meeting is generally divided into two parts – the first part catering to the “what” aspect, and the second part which deals with the “how” aspect.

The two parts are further explained as follows:

1. Objective definition – the “what” aspect  

In the first section or the initial part of the meeting, the product owner briefs about the user stories which are of highest priority and instructs the team regarding the acceptance criteria associated with the user stories, and what kind of functionalities are demanded by the stakeholders. The product owner does most of the talking and answers questions as well as queries put forward by the team members. The scrum master is a passive participant, but can also ask specific questions if he or she is not clear about a certain aspect regarding the implementation of scrum during the sprint.

 

2. Task estimation – the “how” aspect

During the second phase of the meeting, the “how” aspect is taken up by the team members. They segregate the user stories into individual tasks, and each member takes up a list of tasks to develop during the sprint. The tasks are unanimously selected depending upon the levels of expertise possessed by each team member. The main objective of the second phase of the sprint planning meeting is to ensure each team member has enough tasks on hand to last the entire sprint duration. Too many tasks should not be taken up so that the sprint cannot be successfully completed. Scrum makes it mandatory for each given task to be completed by each team member at the end of the sprint duration. At the same time, enough tasks should be taken up so that the team member does not run out of development work during the sprint.

Scrum emphasizes upon active participation and involvement of every team member. It is highly recommended that the scrum team should undertake a proactive approach regarding one’s involvement and responsibilities during the implementation of scrum. The sprint planning meeting should ideally be conducted keeping these principles in mind.   

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