Sprint Planning Meeting Guide [+ Free Template]

Sprints aren’t just about running on a track—though they do take a lot of inspiration from the sport. They’re short and move super fast so teams can get a lot done in less time. Practicing in sprints is a popular agile project management methodology, and it’s used quite often by software engineering teams. As companies are trying to hit the market harder and faster, they’re deploying code a lot faster too, which means sprints are necessary to keep them moving seemingly at the speed of light.

• What is sprint planning?
• What is the purpose of sprint planning meetings?
• How to prepare for a sprint planning meeting
• Free sprint planning meeting agenda template

What is sprint planning?

Sprint planning is an exercise done to determine how work will be completed, based on what’s coming up in the product roadmap. Every sprint is usually about 2 to 4 weeks and includes a goal for a few features released from a product backlog, which is where developers store ideas about new features or bug fixes. Planning for sprints allows you to see which features are going to be released soon, then which ones will come out at a later date. In sprint planning exercises, you’ll also be able to measure the speed at which new product features are released, which can be used to measure productivity for the business. 

Meetings worth showing up to

A well-run meeting can foster communication and collaboration by including an agenda the whole team can contribute to. Try using a tool like Fellow!

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What is the purpose of sprint planning meetings?

Engineering and product teams rely on sprint planning meetings to “kick-off” a new sprint and ensure they’re aligned before starting to work on a new set of features. Usually, these meetings are one to two hours long and are made up of developers, quality assurance engineers, and anyone else who might be involved in execution activities. It’s a good rule of thumb to try and fit your sprint planning into a maximum of two hours per sprint week. Marketing and sales may occasionally jump into the conversation to share insights that will assist the development team with building the feature. 

The frequency of sprint planning meetings depends entirely on the organization but typically they happen every few weeks, or at least ahead of the start of each sprint. Managers in charge of the product sit down and determine which features will be prioritized, how long each requirement will take, and who will be responsible for execution activities within the sprint period. The ideas and plans then go into a storyboard, which typically includes about 5 to 15 user stories per sprint. User stories describe the way that a specific type of user will interact with the product and any problems they’re currently facing, to help guide how the new feature will be built. 

On an annual or quarterly basis, high-level managers will work with product teams to determine the strategic goals for the product, and this helps guide the prioritization efforts in sprint planning meetings.

How to prepare for a sprint planning meeting

• Prepare in advance 
• Set a timer 
• Align on the sprint goal
• Estimate accordingly
• Determine capacity
• Agree on the next steps
• End the meeting with a Q&A session

1 Prepare in advance  

There’s a lot of information that goes into sprint planning. Ahead of the meeting, you should have a good idea of what features are in your product backlog that might need to be prioritized and completed within the sprint (determining this will be part of your sprint’s goal). Coming to the planning session with a draft set of features to propose in the meeting will help you use your actual meeting time much more effectively. You can also prepare by creating a collaborative meeting agenda and sharing it with your attendees at least one business day ahead of the call. This will help them to prepare and add any talking points of their own.

2 Set a timer 

To make sure you get through your full agenda, you’ll want to keep a close eye on the clock. An easy way to do this is to set a timer for any presentations or talking points so you have a goal to complete each topic within a certain timeframe. Also, assigning a timekeeper at the start of the meeting will give you a dedicated person to check in on this throughout the call and ensure you still end on time. 

Since sprint planning meetings tend to be longer than most other meeting types, consider also scheduling a 5- or 10-minute break in the middle for participants. 

3 Align on the sprint goal 

The sprint’s goal is the result that you hope to achieve by the end of the sprint period. As with any goal, it should follow the SMART goal-setting framework, meaning it should be measurable and realistic, and provide a deadline by which to measure results. Getting buy-in from the rest of your team on the goal is essential since without this level of agreement, you’re not likely to have a motivated team or achieve the ideal end result. Because of the impact misalignment can have on your success, it’s important that you get this figured out early in the call. If you’re struggling to align on your goal, consider a group decision-making technique like possibility ranking. But no matter what, don’t continue your meeting without your goal figured out first.

4 Estimate accordingly

Having the completed user stories from your product teams in advance allows you to prepare requirements as it relates to the software development team. And when you’re able to do that, you’re able to plan out time and resource requirements for each sprint. Ensuring that you’re effectively using your team’s capacity is a great way for a team leader to make efficient use of the budget and time available—therefore improving your productivity significantly! If you don’t have time estimates as the project is new, try consulting a peer in your network who might have experience in the area. This is something to do ahead of the call in your preparation work.

5 Determine capacity

Capacity is how much time each of your developers has available to work during the upcoming sprint. Things like vacation days, appointments, other projects, and personal development work will all affect availability. Also keep in mind that more junior team members may take longer to complete their work, or they may need review rounds from senior team members. Contrarily, specialized experts may be much faster at specific tasks in a niche area. So not only is the number of hours available important, but you also need to consider the speed of work that can be done within those available hours by different team members. Ideally, you can bring a schedule of upcoming availability during the future sprint to your sprint planning meeting to make assigning tasks much easier in the call. 

6 Agree on the next steps

Record action items in your meeting agenda so it’s easy for attendees to recall their responsibilities. It also holds other team members accountable for their tasks when following up at the next sprint planning or retrospective meeting. When setting action items, ensure that you’re including a due date for each task, and have a person dedicated to leading the completion of each activity. Bonus tip: Notice who’s taking on more or less work and ensure action items are balanced based on capacity, and always consider offering opportunities for career development here as well (for example, if a junior engineer can take on a more senior task as they’re available and it will help them advance in their role).

7 End the meeting with a Q&A session

Just to make sure you don’t close out with any confused team members, offer a short question and answer (Q&A) period at the end of the meeting. Doing this in the group setting is helpful as it may answer questions that other team members had (or didn’t think of yet). And other participants can help answer those questions in real-time. If you don’t have the extra time to spare in your meeting, you can also launch a post-meeting survey, including a spot for a Q&A session following the sprint planning meeting. 

Free sprint planning meeting agenda template 

To help you make effective use of your next sprint planning meeting, we’ve created a quick collaborative meeting template for you to build on and share with your team!

Get this free template

Parting advice 

As your product grows, the number of sprints and user stories might scale up, too. Building a strong sprint planning process early on is essential to getting your team into a good habit for communicating requirements, availability, and even any blockers that come up during the sprint. Keep documentation on all of these lessons and they’ll help you prepare for your future sprint planning meetings as well!