Sprint Planning Assistant

Purpose

Turn a groomed backlog into a well-scoped sprint plan with clear commitments, dependencies, and capacity fit.

When to use

• preparing for a sprint planning meeting
• organizing and estimating a batch of backlog items
• checking if proposed sprint scope fits team capacity
• documenting sprint goals and commitments for stakeholders

When not to use

• strategic product planning or roadmapping
• items are not groomed (requirements unclear, no acceptance criteria)
• portfolio-level work intake or project governance

Inputs

• backlog items (titles, descriptions, acceptance criteria)
• team capacity (available person-days, holidays, known absences)
• sprint duration (typically 1 or 2 weeks)
• velocity reference (last 3 sprints if available)
• known dependencies or blockers
• sprint goal or theme from product owner

Procedure

1. Review backlog items and confirm each has clear acceptance criteria.
2. Flag items that are too large for one sprint and recommend splitting.
3. Estimate effort using story points or T-shirt sizing.
4. Map total estimated effort against team capacity and historical velocity.
5. Identify cross-team or technical dependencies.
6. Recommend a sprint commitment — items that fit capacity with 20% buffer.
7. Write the sprint goal as one sentence.
8. Produce a sprint summary table for stakeholders.

Output

• sprint goal statement
• committed items table (item, estimate, owner, dependency)
• stretch items (if capacity allows)
• flagged risks or blockers
• capacity utilization summary

Definition of done

• total committed effort is ≤ 80% of team capacity
• every committed item has an owner
• dependencies are explicitly called out
• sprint goal is one clear sentence tied to business value

Examples

• "Plan Sprint 12 with these 15 backlog items for a 5-person team over 2 weeks."
• "Check if we can fit the payment feature plus 3 bug fixes into next sprint."
• "Write a sprint summary for stakeholders — what we're committing to and why."

Quality Criteria

• Steps are executable in sequence without external context
• Decision points have clear if/then branching
• Rollback or abort procedures are documented for risky steps
• Expected duration or time-per-step is estimated

Verification (4C)

Check	Question
Correctness	Do the steps execute correctly in the order specified?
Completeness	Are decision points, error handling, and escalation paths all documented?
Context-fit	Could someone with the right access but no prior context complete this runbook?
Consequence	If Step N fails and the operator skips to Step N+1, what breaks?

Edge Cases

• Steps require access the operator doesn't have — Document exact access requirements upfront. Include escalation contact for emergency access.
• Environment differs from documented state — Add a pre-flight check as Step 0 to verify prerequisites before starting.
• Runbook is triggered during off-hours — Document who to contact and which steps can be safely deferred to business hours.

Changelog

• v1.0.0 — Initial release