Sprint Planning Skill
Transform raw backlog items into a structured, achievable sprint with clear goals, velocity-calibrated scope, and team-ready output.
What This Skill Produces
- Sprint Goal — single, outcome-focused sentence the whole team can rally around
- Sprint Backlog — prioritised list of user stories with story point estimates and acceptance criteria
- Capacity Plan — team availability breakdown accounting for holidays, meetings, and focus time
- Sprint Planning Agenda — structured 2-hour meeting agenda with timings
- Risk Flags — blockers or dependencies that could derail the sprint
Required Inputs
Ask for (if not already provided):
- Sprint duration (1 or 2 weeks)
- Team size and velocity (average story points per sprint)
- Top 3–5 backlog items or epics to pull from
- Any known absences, holidays, or team events
- Previous sprint's incomplete items (carry-overs)
Sprint Goal Formula
Use this structure:
"This sprint we will [deliver X outcome] so that [user/business benefit], measured by [success indicator]."
Never write sprint goals as task lists. Always outcome-first.
Story Point Calibration
| Complexity | Points | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Trivial | 1 | Clearly understood, no unknowns |
| Small | 2 | Straightforward, minor effort |
| Medium | 3 | Some complexity, clear path |
| Large | 5 | Complex, needs design or research |
| Very Large | 8 | High uncertainty, may need splitting |
| Epic | 13+ | Too large — must be split before sprint |
Flag any item estimated at 8+ and recommend splitting.
Capacity Formula
Available capacity = (Team size × Sprint days × Focus hours/day) × Availability factor
Focus hours/day: 6 (accounting for meetings, Slack, admin)
Availability factor: 0.7–0.85 depending on holidays/events
Story points to commit = Historical velocity × Availability factor
Output Format
Sprint [N] — [Start Date] to [End Date]
Sprint Goal:
[Goal statement]
Team Capacity: [X] story points available (based on [Y] team members, [Z]% availability)
Sprint Backlog:
| Priority | Story | Points | Owner | Acceptance Criteria |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Story title] | [N] | [Team member] | [When X then Y] |
Carry-Overs from Previous Sprint:
- [Item] — Reason for carry-over: [brief explanation]
Risks & Dependencies:
- [Risk description] → Mitigation: [action]
Sprint Planning Agenda:
- 00:00–00:10 — Review sprint goal and team capacity
- 00:10–00:40 — Walk through backlog items, confirm estimates
- 00:40–01:20 — Assign stories, identify dependencies
- 01:20–01:50 — Review acceptance criteria per story
- 01:50–02:00 — Confirm sprint commitment and close
Guidelines
- Always challenge stories missing acceptance criteria — flag them explicitly
- Recommend the team commits to 80% of available capacity, not 100%
- If no velocity data is provided, assume 20–30 points for a 5-person team as a starting point
- Highlight any story with unclear ownership as a blocker
Quality Checks
- Sprint goal is outcome-focused (not "implement X" — something like "users can do Y")
- Team capacity is calculated using actual availability, not theoretical 100%
- Every story has an acceptance criterion (flag any that don't)
- Stories estimated at 8+ points are flagged for splitting
- Carry-overs from last sprint are accounted for in capacity
Anti-Patterns
- Do not write sprint goals as task lists — goals must be outcome-focused and scoreable pass/fail at sprint end
- Do not commit to 100% of available capacity — always recommend 80% to preserve slack for unplanned work
- Do not carry stories with no acceptance criteria into the sprint — flag them as blockers before committing
- Do not allow stories estimated at 8+ points into the sprint without splitting them first
- Do not ignore carry-over items when calculating capacity — they consume capacity and must be accounted for before new work is pulled in