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Sprint Planning & Backlog Refinement activities & Timings

Last post 10:49 am October 30, 2015 by Christiaan Koster
3 replies
Brian Shearer
08:27 am October 28, 2015


Hello, looking for some views and confirmation of my understanding...

In terms of getting to the Sprint Backlog, there are two events that take place:
- backlog refinement (estimating/adding/removing items etc) done Sprint Planning and backlog refinement. As I understand it, this can take place thorughout the current sprint using no more than 10% of the development team time
- Sprint planning to select items (What) and decide how to deliver

My understanding is that Sprint Planning normally takes place on the first day of a new sprint - is this correct?

Other ways I have seen it done are towards the end of the previous sprint but then I assume there would need to be another session as things may have changed (i.e. new last minute items/things not delivered from previous sprint etc etc)

Thanks in advance

Timothy Baffa
10:19 am October 29, 2015

A key lean principle, and one readily adopted by the scrum community, is to defer or delay decisions until the last possible moment. This practice helps mitigate the risk of waste associated with making decisions and then having to alter them before they take effect.

It is therefore a "best practice" to schedule Sprint Planning sessions at the beginning of the next sprint, when all of the relevant information regarding the next sprint is available. It is also better aesthetically, as you are not officially scheduling "planning" sessions for the next sprint during the sprint that is ending.

Anke Maerz
08:40 am October 30, 2015

Hi Brian,

a major advantage of the short Sprints in Scrum is that within the Sprints the Development Team can focus only on achieving the Sprint Goal. They don't have to do reports, they don't have to change the tasks in their Sprint Backlog and they don't have to focus on the details of future work.

Backlog Refinement is necessary to keep the machine going - but not with details that will have changed when the actual work on the item begins. Timothy and you have already listed the reasons for that.

Best regards,
Anke.

Christiaan Koster
10:49 am October 30, 2015

In addition to previous remarks: at the sprint review, the increment is shown to the Product Owner and stakeholders. This demo can trigger new insights of priorities from the business point of view.

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