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Deniss Semjonovs
Deniss Semjonovs

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Sprint Planning Checklist for 2025

#agile #scrum #productivity #teamwork

Sprint Planning Checklist 2025: Complete Guide | FreeScrumPoker Blog

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**
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Sprint Planning Meeting: Phase 1 (The "What") 

                    Phase 1 focuses on selecting work and setting the sprint
                    goal. Target duration: 50-60% of total planning timebox.
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Step 1: Review Sprint Goal Context (15 minutes)

Product Owner presents:**

                    Progress toward product roadmap objectives

                    - Recent stakeholder feedback or market insights

                    - Key business priorities for this sprint

                    - 
                        Any dependencies or deadlines team should know about






                    This context helps the team understand why certain work
                    is prioritized.
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Step 2: Calculate Team Capacity (10 minutes)

Use this formula for capacity calculation:

Sprint Capacity = (Team Size × Sprint Days × Daily Hours × Focus Factor) ÷ Average Hours per Point

                    More commonly, teams use a simpler approach based on
                    historical velocity:
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Adjusted Capacity = Average Velocity × (Actual Availability ÷ Normal Availability)

                **Example:**


                    - Team of 6 developers

                    - 
                        Normal capacity: 120 person-days per 2-week sprint
                        (6 people × 10 days)


                    - 
                        This sprint: 2 people taking 2 vacation days each =
                        116 person-days available


                    - Historical velocity: 24 points

                    - 
                        Adjusted capacity: 24 × (116 ÷ 120) = 23.2 points ≈
                        23 points






                    The 6.5-hour factor mentioned in some resources (instead
                    of 8 hours/day) accounts for meetings, emails, and
                    interruptions. This is already captured in your
                    historical velocity, so don't double-count.
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Step 3: Craft Sprint Goal (10 minutes) 

                    The sprint goal is a concise statement of what the team
                    aims to achieve. It should be:



                    - 
                        **Outcome-focused:** "Enable users to
                        track order status" not "Complete 5 stories"


                    - 
                        **Cohesive:** Creates a unified theme
                        for the sprint's work


                    - 
                        **Negotiable:** Specific enough to
                        guide decisions but flexible on exact scope


                    - 
                        **Valuable:** Delivers something
                        stakeholders care about






                    **Good sprint goal:** "Enable self-service
                    password reset to reduce support ticket volume."




                    **Bad sprint goal:** "Complete items from
                    the backlog."
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                    Step 4: Select Product Backlog Items (60-90 minutes)




                    Working from the prioritized backlog, the team selects
                    items until reaching capacity:



                    - 
                        **Product Owner presents** the
                        highest-priority item


                    - 
                        **Team asks clarifying questions**
                        about requirements and acceptance criteria


                    - 
                        **Team confirms estimate** or
                        re-estimates if understanding changed


                    - 
                        **Team commits** to including item (or
                        raises concerns/dependencies)


                    - **Add points to running total**

                    - **Repeat** until reaching capacity





                    Use
                    [planning poker
                    for any items that need estimation or re-estimation.




                    **Key checkpoint:** After selecting items,
                    verify they align with the sprint goal. If not, consider
                    adjusting selections to improve cohesion.
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                    Step 5: Identify Risks and Dependencies (10 minutes)
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Before committing, discuss:

                    - 
                        External dependencies (other teams, third-party
                        systems)


                    - Technical risks or unknowns

                    - 
                        Resource constraints (specialized skills,
                        environments)


                    - Holiday impacts or other calendar issues





                    Document these as sprint risks. For
                    high-probability/high-impact risks, consider reducing
                    commitment or adjusting story selection.
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Sprint Planning Meeting: Phase 2 (The "How") 

                    Phase 2 focuses on understanding how the work will be
                    accomplished. Target duration: 40-50% of total planning
                    timebox.
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Step 6: Break Stories into Tasks (60-90 minutes) 

                    For each committed story, the team identifies
                    implementation tasks:



                    - Database schema changes

                    - API endpoint development

                    - Frontend component creation

                    - Unit test writing

                    - Integration test creation

                    - Documentation updates

                    - Code review and revisions

                    - QA testing

                    - Deployment and smoke testing





                    Tasks can be estimated in hours (typically 1-8 hours) or
                    left unestimated—different teams have different
                    preferences. The goal is clarity on approach, not
                    precise hour estimates.
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Step 7: Assign Initial Owners (15 minutes) 

                    While tasks can be reassigned during the sprint, initial
                    ownership helps ensure balanced workload:



                    - Who has relevant expertise for each area?

                    - Are work streams distributed across the team?

                    - 
                        Are any individuals overloaded while others have
                        light loads?


                    - 
                        Opportunities for pairing or knowledge transfer?






                    Avoid rigid assignment—agile teams swarm on work as
                    needed. But initial distribution prevents "everyone's
                    working on story A while story B sits untouched."
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Step 8: Final Commitment (5 minutes)

The team collectively confirms:

                    - We understand what needs to be done

                    - 
                        We believe this work can be completed within the
                        sprint


                    - We commit to achieving the sprint goal

                    - 
                        We'll communicate immediately if circumstances
                        change






                    This is the team's commitment, not the Scrum Master's or
                    any individual's. Everyone must agree before proceeding.
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Post-Planning Validation

After the meeting, validate your plan:

Capacity vs. Commitment Check

Plot your commitment against calculated capacity:

                    - 
                        **Under 80% capacity:** May indicate
                        sandbagging or overly conservative estimation


                    - 
                        **80-95% capacity:** Healthy range
                        allowing for some unknowns


                    - 
                        **95-105% capacity:** Ambitious but
                        achievable if no major risks


                    - 
                        **Over 105% capacity:** Overcommitment
                        risk—consider removing lowest-priority items
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Goal Alignment Check 

                    Review committed stories and ask: "If we complete only
                    70% of committed work, will we still achieve the sprint
                    goal?" If not, reconsider which stories are truly
                    essential.
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Documentation Complete

Ensure your sprint planning artifacts are captured:

                    - Sprint goal published in team wiki/board

                    - 
                        Committed stories moved to "Sprint Backlog" status


                    - Tasks created and assigned in tracking tool

                    - Identified risks documented

                    - 
                        Capacity calculation recorded for future reference
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Common Sprint Planning Mistakes

Mistake 1: No Backlog Refinement 

                    Teams that try to clarify requirements during sprint
                    planning waste the entire timebox on Q&A instead of
                    commitment and task breakdown. Refinement should happen
                    continuously throughout the sprint, not in the planning
                    meeting.
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Mistake 2: Product Owner Dictates Commitment 

                    The team decides what they can commit to, not the
                    product owner. A PO saying "you must commit to 35
                    points" violates the self-organizing principle and leads
                    to failed sprints.
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Mistake 3: Ignoring Velocity Data 

                    Your historical velocity is your best predictor of
                    future capacity. Teams that ignore this data in favor of
                    "trying harder" consistently overcommit and
                    underdeliver.
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Mistake 4: Vague Sprint Goals 

                    "Complete high-priority items" isn't a sprint goal—it's
                    a description of every sprint ever. A real sprint goal
                    creates focus and enables trade-off decisions during the
                    sprint.
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Mistake 5: No Task Breakdown 

                    Teams that skip task breakdown often discover
                    implementation complexity mid-sprint that could have
                    been identified during planning. Five minutes of task
                    discussion can prevent two days of wasted effort on the
                    wrong approach.
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Remote Sprint Planning Adaptations

For distributed teams, adjust your approach:

Use Digital Tools Effectively 

                    - Virtual planning poker tools for estimation

                    - 
                        Shared digital boards (Miro, Mural) for task
                        breakdown collaboration


                    - 
                        Video conferencing with screen sharing for backlog
                        review


                    - 
                        Breakout rooms for parallel task breakdown by story






                    Check out our guide to
                    effective remote planning poker sessions
                    for detailed best practices.
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Account for Time Zones

If your team spans multiple time zones:

                    - 
                        Rotate meeting times to share the burden of
                        off-hours meetings


                    - 
                        Consider async pre-work (capacity calculation,
                        initial story review)


                    - 
                        Record sessions for team members who can't attend
                        live


                    - 
                        Use written summaries in addition to verbal
                        discussion






                    Our comprehensive guide on
                    remote Scrum challenges
                    offers additional strategies.
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Combat Video Fatigue 

                    - Schedule 5-minute breaks every 45 minutes

                    - 
                        Use cameras-off periods for individual task
                        breakdown work


                    - 
                        Leverage polls and reactions to keep engagement high


                    - 
                        Assign a dedicated facilitator to manage energy
                        levels
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Sprint Planning Templates and Tools

Several tools streamline sprint planning:

                    - 
                        **Jira:** Sprint planning view with
                        drag-and-drop, capacity tracking, and velocity
                        charts


                    - 
                        **Azure DevOps:** Sprint planning
                        boards with capacity management per team member


                    - 
                        **Linear:** Streamlined sprint planning
                        with automatic capacity warnings


                    - 
                        **Miro/Mural:** Visual collaboration
                        for task breakdown and estimation
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Whichever tool you choose, ensure it supports:

                    - Historical velocity tracking

                    - Capacity calculation assistance

                    - Real-time collaboration for distributed teams

                    - Export of planning artifacts for documentation
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Measuring Sprint Planning Effectiveness 

                    Track these metrics to improve your planning over time:



                    - 
                        **Sprint commitment accuracy:** Target
                        85-95% (completed points ÷ committed points)


                    - 
                        **Planning meeting duration:** Should
                        decrease as team matures and refinement improves


                    - 
                        **Mid-sprint scope changes:** Should be
                        rare (under 10% of committed work)


                    - 
                        **Sprint goal achievement:** Did you
                        meet the goal even if not all stories completed?


                    - 
                        **Team confidence rating:** Survey team
                        after planning: "How confident are you in this
                        sprint plan?" Track trends.
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Your Sprint Planning Checklist

Use this checklist to ensure comprehensive planning:

Pre-Planning (48 hours before) 

                    - 
                        ☐ Top 10-15 backlog items refined with acceptance
                        criteria


                    - ☐ All refined items estimated in story points

                    - 
                        ☐ Historical velocity calculated (3-5 sprint
                        average)


                    - 
                        ☐ Team availability confirmed for upcoming sprint


                    - ☐ Definition of Done reviewed with team

                    - 
                        ☐ Product owner prepared business context and
                        priorities


                    - ☐ Meeting invite sent with pre-read materials
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During Planning 

                    - 
                        ☐ Product owner presents business context (15 min)


                    - ☐ Team calculates adjusted capacity (10 min)

                    - ☐ Sprint goal crafted collaboratively (10 min)

                    - 
                        ☐ Stories selected from backlog up to capacity
                        (60-90 min)


                    - ☐ Dependencies and risks identified (10 min)

                    - ☐ Stories broken down into tasks (60-90 min)

                    - ☐ Initial task ownership assigned (15 min)

                    - 
                        ☐ Team commits to sprint goal and selected work (5
                        min)


                    - ☐ Total planning time within timebox
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Post-Planning 

                    - 
                        ☐ Commitment vs. capacity validated (80-105% range)


                    - ☐ Sprint goal published visibly

                    - ☐ Sprint backlog updated in tracking tool

                    - ☐ Tasks created and assigned

                    - ☐ Risks documented

                    - ☐ Capacity calculation recorded

                    - ☐ Planning artifacts accessible to stakeholders
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Conclusion: Planning Enables Predictability 

                    Effective sprint planning is the foundation of
                    predictable delivery. When teams invest time in thorough
                    planning—with refined backlogs, accurate capacity
                    calculation, clear sprint goals, and detailed task
                    breakdown—they set themselves up for successful sprints
                    that build stakeholder trust.




                    Use this checklist to ensure your planning meetings are
                    comprehensive yet efficient. Track your commitment
                    accuracy over time. Continuously improve your refinement
                    process to make planning smoother.




                    Remember: the goal isn't perfection, it's
                    predictability. Aim for 85-95% commitment accuracy
                    sprint after sprint, and you'll build a reputation as a
                    team that delivers what they promise.




                    Want to improve your agile practices? Explore our
                        guides on
                        estimation techniques
                        and
                        discover more resources
                        across the Journaleus network.
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