Preparation

  • Participants:
    • Product owner
    • Scrum master
    • Team members
  • Product backlog is prepared (items are estimated and prioritized) and visible for everyone
  • Whiteboard, pencils, sticky notes, planning poker cards, notebook, …
  • Team capacity, vacation, absences are known
  • Results from sprint review/retro are available
  • Duration: 2 hours per sprint week (2 weeks sprint means 4 hours of planning 1)

Moderation

  • Agenda, goal, overview (what is this meeting about?)
  • Product owner presents his vision to the team
  • Product owner presents the backlog items
    • not estimated backlog items will be estimated
    • Team collects all information they need
    • Acceptance criteria, user story, non-functional requirements etc. are clear
  • Team estimates what can be done in that sprint and defines the sprint goal with the product owner
  • Items will be selected and team commits to the sprint goal
  • Goal: The next sprint is planned, vision/goal is clear and the team knows what to do

Additional information

  • Send the product owner out of the meeting and ask the team again “Do you really think we can do all this backlog items?”
  • Write down all information you get (decisions that are made, ideas, …)
  • Sprint goal should be SMART (specific, measurable, accepted, realistic, timely)