SCRUM MASTER-SPRINT PLANNING CHECKLIST
Agile is a set of “Values and Principles”, it is more of a mindset than a methodology which some people seem to think it is. For a new Scrum Master starting their career, a checklist can help guide your thinking as you plan and execute sprints.
Think of this as a reminder of the steps you should take as you plan your sprints. Modify and adapt as necessary with the situations in your organization.
PREP
A few days out from the actual sprint planning meeting:
Review product roadmap and vision with your product owner.
Ask team members to review product backlog on their downtime for the next upcoming sprint, update stories or tasks by leaving comments for PO.
Review improvement feedbacks from retrospectives.
Create a newsprint placeholder if needed
SPRINT PLANNING MEETING
Ensure your entire team is present for the meeting.
Start video call for remote team members.
If needed, clean up the old board(s) with the team by checking the status of open tickets.
Discuss spill-overs: Should these be continued or dropped? Move any spill-over tasks into the right buckets.
Set the stage and Define the sprint goal.
Create a “newsprint”
Discuss the goal and team’s capacity:
Is this realistic? If not, can the team lower the scope?
Worst case scenario the product owner needs to come up with a newsprint goal.
Groom product backlog: Make sure every user story has a clear priority, is fully formed and up-to-date with context and estimates.
Each user story should have acceptance criteria
Ensure there is a full participant from every team member
Choose sprint goal.
Create a sprint backlog (To DO Column) of enough user stories.
Discuss proposed sprint backlog: Let the team pick user stories based on the product owner’s priority and tasks that match the sprint goal and capacity.
Discuss the definition of “done”.
Break down each user story into individual tasks if needed:
Make sure each task has as much information as possible.
Ask whether the scope of work leaves time for unexpected issues.
Ask if the scope of work leaves space to tackle bugs and technical debt.
Get verbal confirmation from the team that they know what to do, a vote of confidence.
Set the start and end dates for the sprint.
If this is your first Sprint work with your team to set up due dates, locations and times for future scrum meetings.
