Category: Scrum planning & estimates

Scrum planning and estimates best practices

1. Work together with stakeholders to estimate the product backlog to establish transparency and help reduce the change of potential conflicts around estimates.
2. Ensure sufficient product backlog items are identified and confirmed before you start with the sprint planning. This will help to determine the correct scope of the project.
3. Translate team and stakeholders objectives into clear sprint goals to ensure they are aligned and transparant.
4. Use Planning Poker to make better estimates.
5. Use 6-hours days leaving the remaining two hours each day for risk mitigation or unexpected events.
6. Never stretch or cut sprint time because using specific timeframes is one of the key elements of the scrum approach.
7. Reprioritize the work that needs to be done to meet the project goals.
8. Use discussions during meetings as input for continuous improvement of the scrum project.
9. The sprint planning meeting should take no longer and no shorter than four hours.