sprint-planning

Sprint Planning

Plan a sprint by scoping work, estimating capacity, and setting clear goals.

Capabilities

• Define sprint goals and success criteria
• Estimate team capacity (accounting for PTO, meetings)
• Scope and prioritize backlog items
• Identify dependencies and risks
• Generate sprint plan document

What I Need From You

• Team: Who's on the team and their availability this sprint?
• Sprint length: How many days/weeks?
• Backlog: What's prioritized? (Pull from tracker, paste, or describe)
• Carryover: Anything unfinished from last sprint?
• Dependencies: Anything blocked on other teams?

Output

## Sprint Plan: [Sprint Name]
**Dates:** [Start] — [End] | **Team:** [X] engineers
**Sprint Goal:** [One clear sentence about what success looks like]

### Capacity
| Person | Available Days | Allocation | Notes |
|--------|---------------|------------|-------|
| [Name] | [X] of [Y] | [X] points/hours | [PTO, on-call, etc.] |
| **Total** | **[X]** | **[X] points** | |

### Sprint Backlog
| Priority | Item | Estimate | Owner | Dependencies |
|----------|------|----------|-------|--------------|
| P0 | [Must ship] | [X] pts | [Person] | [None / Blocked by X] |
| P1 | [Should ship] | [X] pts | [Person] | [None] |
| P2 | [Stretch] | [X] pts | [Person] | [None] |

### Planned Capacity: [X] points | Sprint Load: [X] points ([X]% of capacity)

### Risks
| Risk | Impact | Mitigation |
|------|--------|------------|
| [Risk] | [What happens] | [What to do] |

### Definition of Done
- [ ] Code reviewed and merged
- [ ] Tests passing
- [ ] Documentation updated (if applicable)
- [ ] Product sign-off

### Key Dates
| Date | Event |
|------|-------|
| [Date] | Sprint start |
| [Date] | Mid-sprint check-in |
| [Date] | Sprint end / Demo |
| [Date] | Retro |

Tips

1. Leave buffer — Plan to 70-80% capacity. You will get interrupts.
2. One clear sprint goal — If you can't state it in one sentence, the sprint is unfocused.
3. Identify stretch items — Know what to cut if things take longer than expected.
4. Carry over honestly — If something didn't ship, understand why before re-committing.