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pm-claude-skills/skills/sprint-planning/SKILL.md
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sprint-planning Structures and facilitates sprint planning sessions. Use when asked to plan a sprint, organise backlog items, assign story points, create sprint goals, or prepare sprint planning meeting agendas. Triggers on phrases like "plan sprint", "sprint planning", "sprint goal", "sprint backlog".

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

Inputs to Request From User

Ask for (if not already provided):

  • Sprint duration (1 or 2 weeks)
  • Team size and velocity (average story points per sprint)
  • Top 35 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: 0.70.85 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:

  • 00:0000:10 — Review sprint goal and team capacity
  • 00:1000:40 — Walk through backlog items, confirm estimates
  • 00:4001:20 — Assign stories, identify dependencies
  • 01:2001:50 — Review acceptance criteria per story
  • 01:5002:00 — 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 2030 points for a 5-person team as a starting point
  • Highlight any story with unclear ownership as a blocker