Sprint Planning

Sprint planning is an agile ceremony at the start of each sprint where the team determines what work will be completed during the upcoming iteration. The team reviews the backlog, selects items based on priority and capacity, breaks down work into tasks, and commits to a sprint goal. For agencies using agile methodologies—particularly for development, digital, or iterative creative work—sprint planning creates alignment and sets the rhythm for the sprint. A typical sprint planning meeting involves several steps. The product owner or project lead presents prioritied backlog items. The team discusses each item, asks clarifying questions, and estimates effort if needed. Based on team capacity (considering availability, other commitments), the team selects what can realistically be completed. Items are broken into tasks if necessary. And the team agrees on a sprint goal—the overarching outcome the sprint will achieve. The output is a sprint backlog: the committed work for the next one to two weeks. Sprint planning serves several purposes. It creates shared commitment—everyone knows what the team is focused on. It aligns on scope—no confusion about what's in or out. It surfaces capacity issues—if the team can't fit the priority work, that's discovered early. And it establishes the sprint rhythm—agile teams work in time-boxed iterations; sprint planning kicks off each one. For agencies, sprint planning works well for development projects, ongoing product work, or iterative creative projects. It's less natural for fixed-scope, single-deliverable projects that don't follow sprint cycles. Agencies adopting agile often need to adapt sprint planning to their context—perhaps two-week sprints with client demo at the end, or sprint planning that accounts for multiple clients and projects. Common mistakes include sprint planning that's too long (team loses focus), not having a prioritized backlog (planning becomes chaotic), over-committing (team can't complete the sprint), and not including the right people (missing context for estimation). The most successful agencies that use sprint planning keep it focused, ensure the backlog is ready, and use historical velocity to guide commitment levels.