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Sprint planning agenda template (120 minutes)

Sprint planning fails when the estimation phase runs out of time and the team commits to something nobody sized properly. This shape dedicates real time to breaking work into estimates, reserves a break mid-meeting, and ends with genuine commitment rather than hope.

Topic Minutes Running total
Goal and capacity Restate the sprint goal and confirm the team's available capacity for the sprint. 10 10
Review backlog Walk through prioritised items, flag dependencies and risks, get clear on what is worth estimating. 40 50
Break Step away. Coffee, bathroom, or a moment to clear your head. 10 60
Break down and estimate Talk through the top items in detail, break them into stories, agree on sizes. Estimation takes real time. 45 105
Commit and close Confirm the sprint commitment, assign clear owners, read back the goal one more time. 15 120

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Using BriefMe, create a 120-minute sprint planning for ten people: a 10-minute goal and capacity opening, 40 minutes reviewing the backlog, a 10-minute break, 45 minutes breaking down and estimating, and a 15-minute commit and close.

Questions

How long should sprint planning be?
Two hours for a two-week sprint, three for a month. If you run over consistently, the backlog is not ready; pull planning forward a day and prepare the top items in detail first. Running over is a symptom that work has not been decomposed. Come prepared with that work broken down so estimation becomes a discussion, not a discovery.
Why do we need estimation?
So the team knows what they are committing to. Vague work with no estimate often feels like it will fit, so the team commits to more than they can finish; at the end of the sprint they fail and lose credibility with stakeholders. Sized work either fits in the sprint or it does not; estimation forces that choice up front instead of discovering it at sprint end. A team that estimates consistently delivers on their commitments.
Should the whole team attend?
Yes, and that is the main reason to keep it timeboxed. Planning is where the team agrees what the sprint contains, and an estimate made by half the room becomes a commitment the other half never made. If someone genuinely cannot attend, take their input on the backlog beforehand and have them confirm the commitment afterwards rather than deciding around them.

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