The Sprint Planning template helps agile teams structure their sprint planning sessions effectively. This format ensures teams align on goals, break down work, identify blockers, and define success metrics before starting a sprint.
This template is essential for Scrum teams and any team using time-boxed iterations. It helps ensure sprint planning is thorough and sets teams up for success.
Planning Components
The format organizes planning into five key areas:
- Sprint Goals: What the team wants to achieve this sprint
- User Stories: Features and functionality to be delivered
- Tasks: Specific work items and activities
- Blockers: Potential obstacles or dependencies
- Success Metrics: How the team will measure sprint success
This structure ensures teams don't just plan what to build, but also why, how, and how they'll know they succeeded.
How to facilitate
Sprint Planning Best Practices
- Time-box the session: Typically 2-4 hours for a 2-week sprint
- Start with goals: Align on sprint objectives before diving into tasks
- Break down stories: Ensure user stories are small enough to complete
- Identify dependencies early: Surface blockers before they become problems
- Define acceptance criteria: Clear definition of done for each story
- Estimate capacity: Consider team availability and holidays
Facilitation Tips
- Keep the team focused—sprint planning can easily go off track
- Encourage questions and discussion
- Use voting to prioritize when needed
- Document decisions and commitments
- End with clear sprint goal and commitment
When to use this template
When to Use
- Scrum sprints: Standard sprint planning for Scrum teams
- Kanban planning: Periodic planning for Kanban teams
- Project planning: Breaking down larger projects
- Feature planning: Planning specific features or initiatives
Example Sprint Goals
Effective sprint goals might be:
- "Improve checkout conversion by 10%"
- "Launch new user onboarding flow"
- "Reduce page load time by 20%"
- "Complete API integration for payment system"
