Sprint Planning One

Sprint Planning consists of two parts that boil down to what and how. Sprint Planning One focuses on selection of ready items from those offered by the Product Owner, wrapping up lingering questions, and definition of the Sprint Goal (when used). Sprint Planning Two focuses on creating a plan of work to get to ‘done’ for each item. The items and plan of action or tasks comprise the Sprint Backlog.

Sprint Planning Overview

In LeSS, Sprint Planning One is a meeting for all of the Teams together where they decide which team will work on which items. Sprint Planning Two is done with the teams together but each team tends to have a separate space where each team creates the plan for getting the items to ‘done’ during the Sprint.

Tips for Sprint Planning One

Sprint Planning One is a relatively simple and often short meeting. Some tips for getting it to work well:

• Product Owner presents the highest priority items from the Product Backlog to the team.
• The teams apportion the items amongst themselves.
• Discuss the need for learning between teams during the upcoming sprint and plan for a Multi-team Sprint Planning Two if needed.
• Any open questions related to the items (that weren’t resolved in earlier Product Backlog Refinement) are discussed.

The most common technique used for Sprint Planning 1 is called “put the cards on the table.” The top of the backlog is printed on cards and the teams are around the table and discuss which teams can best do which items.