Planning in Scrum - Part I

There is a common myth that we don’t plan in Scrum. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. In fact, we plan a lot in Scrum, it’s just done differently. There’s no need to spend weeks or months putting together a project plan. You can’t plan for the unpredictable or the unknown in the complex domain.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we don’t need a product vision, strategy, and a roadmap. The vision describes an aspirational and future state of the product. The strategy outlines the approach to realize the vision. The roadmap is a visualization and actionable plan of the strategy that we can put together with feedback from end users, stakeholders and customers. Although a vision, strategy and roadmap are not part of Scrum, they can be a valuable part of product planning in Agile and leveraged in Scrum. The roadmap guides us, feeds the Product Backlog and provides a starting point for refinement and Sprint Planning. Like everything else in Agile and Scrum, the roadmap can change over time.

This article focuses on planning within the Scrum Sprint.

Using Empiricism to Plan

Scrum is based on Empiricism and that means enabling and providing opportunity for the three pillars of Empiricism: Transparency, Inspection and Adaption. In Scrum, Artifacts enable Transparency, while Events provide opportunity to Inspect and Adapt. The three pillars of Empiricism play a key role in planning in Scrum.

Inspection – How we validate certain aspects of Scrum. We frequently inspect Artifacts and progress towards goals to detect problems or undesirable variances.

Adaption – Adjusting the plan (process, approach or material) due to a problem or unacceptable variance identified during Inspection.

Transparency - The current state of things is clear and obvious to everyone.

Transparency of Scrum Artifacts is critical to the Inspection and Adaption in Scrum Events, because without Transparency, our Inspection will be misguided and our decisions to Adapt may be flawed.

How we Plan

As we work our way through the Sprint, the team must take advantage of events to Inspect and Adapt their plan.

• In Sprint Planning, the Scrum Team Inspects the Product Backlog and Adapts the Sprint Backlog, which provides the why, what and how of the Sprint. The Sprint Backlog is a forecasted plan to create a valuable product increment.
• In our Daily Scrum, Developers Inspect progress towards the Sprint Goal and Adapt the plan that they created in Sprint Planning in order to help ensure success.
• In the Sprint Review, the Scrum Team collaborates with stakeholders to Inspect the product increment (among other things) and Adapt the Product Backlog by gathering feedback and planning input for upcoming Sprints.
• The Sprint Retrospective provides a regular opportunity for the Scrum Team to Inspect and Adapt for continuous improvement. We’re not trying to repeat the steps of a defined process like Waterfall. The Scrum Team can and should create a plan to improve in the next Sprint.
• Although Refinement is not an official Scrum Event, it is an important part of planning. Adding detail, size and order to the Product Backlog is an important part of the planning process to ensure our most valuable PBIs are Ready to be worked and candidates for the Sprint Backlog at the next Sprint Planning Event.

Plan, Adapt and Improve

Planning is an important part of Scrum. But unlike waterfall, we don’t stick to the plan and commit to scope at the expense of sacrificing quality. Adapting is a form of improvement. Without inspecting and adapting, we lose the opportunity to improve during the Sprint and hamper our ability to succeed. One of the principles of the Agile Manifesto speaks to the focus on improvement.

“At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.”

Scrum accomplishes this through the Scrum Retrospective and by holding the Scrum Master accountable for maximizing the effectiveness of the Scrum Team by improving its practices within the Scrum Framework. But Scrum extends this idea beyond the retrospective by providing opportunities in every event for the team to adapt and improve in order to deliver a valuable product increment. Every event is an opportunity to plan or re-plan with the intention of being successful in delivering value to our stakeholders, end-users and customers.

Closing

Take the time to plan in Sprint Planning, but don’t be afraid to adapt and change your plan as you progress through the Sprint. Remember, you're not stuck with the plan. The team's focus should always be on adapting in order to improve.

In Planning in Scrum – Part II, I’ll talk about some of the common problems Scrum Teams encounter around planning in Scrum.