Sprint Plan

Sprint Planning

A sprint plan that survives contact with reality. Covers capacity math, commit vs stretch separation, dependency identification, and the pre-sprint review that prevents mid-sprint surprises.

When to use this skill

• Sprint kickoff (every 1-3 weeks)
• Sprint-plan template for new teams
• Sprint-plan audit when sprints consistently miss
• Quarter-start planning (rolled up across sprints)
• Post-mortem on a missed sprint (gap analysis)

The 7 sprint-plan elements

1. Sprint goal — one sentence: what this sprint exists to achieve
2. Team capacity — actual hours / story points after PTO, on-call, etc.
3. Commits — items the team confidently ships
4. Stretch — items if everything goes well; nothing depends on
5. Dependencies — what must happen by when (external + internal)
6. Risks — what could derail; mitigation per risk
7. Definition of done — when is each item "done"?

Clarify First

Before generating the sprint plan, confirm these inputs. If any is unknown or vague, ASK — do not assume:

• Sprint goal — the one-sentence outcome this sprint exists to achieve (element 1; lets you scope and say no to off-goal asks)
• Real team capacity — working days minus PTO/on-call/meetings/interrupts × focus factor (element 2; sizes the commit and prevents the 100%-fill miss)
• Backlog readiness — are candidate items refined, estimated, and ≤5 days (unrefined items are ineligible and blow estimates mid-sprint)
• Known dependencies — cross-team/external blockers with owners (element 5; unconfirmed assumptions become mid-sprint crises)

Stop rule: ask only the 2-3 that most change the output. If the user says "just draft it," proceed and list your assumptions at the top of the artifact.

Workflow

Step 1 — Define the sprint goal

A good goal:

• One sentence
• States outcome, not output ("ship 3 features" → "complete checkout flow MVP enabling first paid customers")
• Inspires the team
• Lets you say "no" to off-goal asks

Step 2 — Calculate capacity

Per team member:

• Working days = sprint days - holidays - approved PTO
• Effective hours = days × hours/day × focus factor (typically 0.6-0.75)
• Subtract on-call rotation hours
• Subtract meeting overhead
• Subtract support / interrupt tax

Aggregate across team. This is your real capacity.

Step 3 — Pull from backlog

Backlog items must be:

• Refined (acceptance criteria clear)
• Estimated (story points or hours)
• No major unknowns

Items that fail this are NOT eligible for the sprint. Send back to refinement.

Step 4 — Commit vs stretch

• Commits: 75-85% of capacity (leaves room for unknowns)
• Stretch: 10-15% of capacity (only if commits done)

Stuffing 100% of capacity = guaranteed miss. Reality always intrudes.

Step 5 — Identify dependencies

For each item:

• Cross-team dependencies (what they need from others)
• External dependencies (vendors, customers)
• Sequencing dependencies (A blocks B)

Each dependency needs:

• Owner
• Date needed by
• Confirmation it's planned

Step 6 — Identify risks

For each item, list likely risks:

• Technical risk
• Dependency risk (external owner slips)
• Estimate risk (unknowns might double effort)
• Capacity risk (key person may be pulled)

Per risk: likelihood, severity, mitigation, owner.

Step 7 — Definition of done

Per item:

• Code merged + reviewed
• Tests added
• Telemetry firing
• Docs updated
• Accessibility checked
• Feature flag configured (if applicable)
• QA passed

Step 8 — Run sprint_planner.py

Audit capacity utilization, commit/stretch split, dependency clarity, DoD coverage.

python3 project-management/execution/sprint-plan/scripts/sprint_planner.py \
  --input sprint_plan.json --format markdown

Decision frameworks

Capacity math (per 2-week sprint, 8-person team)

2 weeks = 10 working days
Per person:
  - 10 days × 8 hours = 80 hours raw
  - Minus PTO/holidays (e.g., 1 day) = 72 hours
  - Minus meetings (~10 hrs) = 62 hours
  - Minus on-call (~4 hrs avg) = 58 hours
  - Minus interrupts/support (~6 hrs) = 52 hours
  - Focus factor 0.7 = ~36 hours of "real" work

Team of 8 × 36 hours = 288 effective hours
                     = ~28 person-days of real engineering work

Most teams over-estimate capacity by 30-50%. Track actuals to calibrate.

Commitment discipline

Target: 80% commits + 15% stretch.

Sprint goal vs feature list

A good sprint goal lets you say "we did it" or "we didn't" clearly.

Item sizing

Stories should be 1-5 days each. Stories > 5 days:

• Split into smaller stories
• Add a planning task to break them down
• Don't commit until refined

When to descope vs add capacity

Mid-sprint, when you realize commit is too much:

• Descope: drop a stretch item; cleanly remove from sprint
• Add capacity: rare; usually means borrowing from next sprint
• Push: absolute last resort; deal carefully with stakeholders

Discipline: descope early. Heroic late nights = burnout + bugs.

Common engagements

"Plan our next sprint"

1. Pull team's velocity history (last 3-5 sprints).
2. Calculate this sprint's capacity.
3. Choose sprint goal aligned with quarter OKRs.
4. Pull from backlog; verify items refined.
5. Commit to 80%; stretch 15%.
6. Identify dependencies + risks.
7. Define done per item.

"Why are we missing every sprint?"

1. Audit last 3 sprint plans + actuals.
2. Diagnose: over-commit? estimation? unrefined items? interrupts?
3. Tighten capacity math.
4. Increase refinement discipline.
5. Track interrupts; reduce them.

"Quarter planning rolled up from sprints"

1. Define quarter goal (themes).
2. Identify ~6 sprints of capacity.
3. Allocate to: themes, tech debt, support, OKRs.
4. Draft per-sprint goals.
5. Refresh per sprint planning meeting.

Anti-patterns to avoid

• 100% capacity commit. Always miss.
• Mid-sprint scope add without descope. Burnout + bugs.
• No sprint goal. Random feature list.
• Unrefined items committed. Discovered complexity blows estimates.
• Dependency assumption without owner confirmation. Slips.
• No risk identification. Risks surface as crises.
• No DoD. "Done" varies by person.
• Velocity ignored. Repeat estimation mistakes.

References

• references/capacity-math.md — deep on per-person capacity, focus factor, interrupt tax
• references/sprint-anti-patterns.md — common failures + fixes

Related skills

• project-management/scrum-master — process facilitation
• project-management/execution/backlog-refinement — pre-sprint item prep
• project-management/execution/story-splitting — sizing large stories
• project-management/execution/cycle-time-analyzer — velocity tracking
• project-management/sprint-retrospective — post-sprint learning
• c-level-advisor/vpe-advisor — capacity planning at scale