Chapter 3. Sprint Planning – Fine-tune the Sprint Commitment

If release planning is the tuning fork, then sprint planning is the fine-tuning that a musician does before and during play. Since an instrument's tune is affected by its age and damage throughout the years, external factors such as the weather, and by the musician and his playing style, tuning is the way the musician brings the instrument back to the desired sound, matching usually an external source such as a tuning fork or digital tuner. In our Agile concerto, sprint planning is like fine-tuning the deliverables in the product backlog to the overarching pitch—or goals—set forth in the release plan. Just as instruments will get out of tune, so will a plan. But an Agile plan will never get too far out of sync since the product owner maintains a product backlog with the latest priorities and engages with the team in sprint planning. Sprinting allows the team and customer to readjust, or tune short-term deliverables to meet the...