janellecipriano Sprint Planning
Turn a prioritized backlog and a known capacity into a realistic, goal-driven sprint commitment.
When to use
- Planning the next sprint/iteration.
- Sanity-checking whether a proposed commitment fits capacity.
Inputs to gather
- Sprint length and start/end dates.
- Team capacity: who's available, PTO/holidays, and any split focus. (See
capacity-planningfor deeper modeling.) - Candidate backlog items with priority and rough sizing (see
estimation-sizing). - Carryover from the previous sprint.
Process
- Define a single, crisp sprint goal — the outcome that makes this sprint a success. One sentence.
- Compute available capacity (people × days − meetings/PTO − buffer). Reserve ~15–20% buffer for unknowns/support.
- Pull items by priority that serve the goal until capacity is reached; stop there. Don't pad to 100%.
- For each committed item, confirm it's ready (clear, sized, dependencies unblocked) — defer anything not ready.
- Note risks/dependencies that could derail the sprint and who owns them.
- State explicit stretch items separately from the commitment.
Output format
## Sprint {{n}} — {{dates}}
**Goal:** {{one sentence}}
**Capacity:** {{X person-days, after buffer}}
### Committed
| Item | Owner | Size | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
### Stretch (only if commitment finishes early)
- {{item}}
### Risks / dependencies
- {{risk}} — owner {{name}}
Flag clearly if requested scope exceeds capacity, and recommend what to cut.