Sprint planning basics

Sprint planning is, simply, the time when a team plans its sprint; it happens on the first day of the sprint. Legacy Scrum tells us that we have up to eight hours to plan for a 30-day sprint. In the past five years, many teams have moved to two-week sprints, and sprints of one or three weeks are also common. In any case, when the sprint length is shorter than one month, it's logical that the team should reduce the amount of time spent in sprint planning. A two-week sprint, for example, should not require a team to spend more than four hours of sprint planning (and can usually be completed in just a couple of hours). I worked with a team a couple of years ago that planned its three-week sprints in 15 minutes. And they consistently completed 85 to 95 percent of their commitments. More planning doesn't necessarily mean better planning!

Weight Watchers is very similar to Scrum. When a person begins the Weight Watchers program, he/she initially weighs in so that there is...