Remote Sprint Planning

This blog is the 2nd in a series of five: Remote Working Scrum Events, Done Right.

When it's clear we have to meet, let's make sure to level it up to a proper event, like you should in Scrum. The objective and the artefacts to inspect and adapt are clearly defined in the Scrum Guide. We've summarized those below. 

We've outlined three great ways to meet the objective, as well as some tools to help you do it. Pick the one you prefer, and get after it! 

INSPECT
Product Backlog, DoD, Velocity, Capacity, Retrospective Commitments.

• Keep It Sweet & Simple: Video call with all people visible, and the entire team collaborating on understanding the work of the Sprint.
• Determine the Sprint Goal and the Product Backlog Items that would help achieve it.
• Forecast the functionality that will be developed in the Sprint. 
• Craft a Sprint Backlog by discussing options for how to create a done product Increment during the Sprint. 
• Use Liberating Structures to maximize inclusion and engagement, e.g. Purpose to Practice, Wicked Questions, and Triz

OPTION 2

• Draw a Sprint Planning board in an online whiteboard tool such as MS Whiteboard, Google Canvas, Mural, Miro or IdeaFlip.
• Have the Product Owner populate the board with Product Backlog Items that would help achieve the Sprint Goal. 
• Share the board with all team members and set it to allow editing by all. 
• The team member who knows most about an item facilitates the discussion about it. 
• After an item is discussed, evaluate shortly if the next item might still fit in the upcoming Sprint. Adjust the Sprint Goal accordingly.

OPTION 3 – ASYNCHRONOUS

• Sprint Planning by collaboratively crafting a Story Map in FeatureMap, or any other tool that allows for asynchronous communication. 
• Send out email prompts to make sure everyone gets to contribute.  
• Promote video updates in addition to text. 

TOOLS

• Slack, MS Teams, Zoom, Google Meet or any other tool with videoconferencing.
• Pointingpoker or scrumpoker. Free.
• FeatureMap. €50 per user/year.
• StoriesOnBoard. $228 per user/year. 

Use the tools you already have!

Go to the next blog: Remote Daily Scrum

This blog is the 2nd of a series: Remote Working Scrum Events, Done Right by Laurens Bonnema, Marianne Pot, Marnix van Wendel de Joode (Business Agility Consultants and Scrum Boosters) and Laïla Nouijeh (Scrum Master at PGGM).

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