6.2. Planning
Last updated
Last updated
Because of the Sprint’s self-contained nature, it is essential to plan it and estimate what can reliably be achieved within the Sprint. This Planning is the first thing that happens in a new Sprint and deals with the selection of which Items will be executed in this Sprint and what they contain. Sprint Planning is often split up into what will be done in a Sprint (“Phase 1”) and once that is defined, how it will be done (“Phase 2”), but for our purposes both will be done together in one meeting. There needs to be a common understanding what is part of a certain Item and what isn’t, therefore the second phase is used to define the actual tasks contained in an Item. Whilst the Product Owner defines the Item, the actual tasks are added in this phase because the subject-matter expertise of the team is needed.
Planning meetings can also include the client as a guest, which is useful when the planning involves a Sprint that leads up and prepares for a big milestone, like a trial or contract negotiation. This way, when the Items of the Sprint are discussed, the prerequisites (the how) can be assessed together with the client. This can add more transparency both within the team as well as with the client, as the crucial questions What and How are addressed openly.
Of course, it might not always be possible to define every single detail of what needs to be done in a Sprint right at the start. A Sprint can evolve as necessary. This means adding additional Items or reprioritising as needed. Therefore, it is useful to not fill a Sprint completely, but rather only planning for about 70-80% of the capacity the team estimates. This way there will always be room to deal with anything unplanned. Anything that does not fit the Sprint can be done in a later Sprint—thus making clear priorities a key factor.
Over the next few days, our team is busy gathering facts of the claim and potential evidence. By the next team meeting, they feel confident enough they have a decent basis to start into the legal assessment of the case. Parallel to that work, they have already started to gather potential legal bases for a claim, so they can then match this and, on that basis, clarify their evaluation and be ready to discuss it with their client Bob and his project manager Caleb.
While the legal process itself was advancing well, Alice feels somewhat rushed because several other unexpected topics came up that she needed to urgently deal with. She feels that adding several Agile meetings to her days would not help her at this point. With that in mind, she asks the team whether they need to take this step now and if so, if these will really require her. In one of the Agile workbooks she had purchased, Fiona noticed a remark that you could invite external participants to a planning meeting where it made sense. They could try to just have the client and the Agile planning meetings together; she’d just think through how to present this to the client and give it context. Possibly, they could even make this standard by seeking to have a regular exchange with the client before important events (e.g. court hearings). This can mirror the phases of the planning: Phase 1 of the planning would be together with the client as external participant where they determine what would be done. In Phase 2 they will define how the work is done internal. She mulls over how that would go together with their planning meeting, and even combine it with their usual weekly team meetings.
After the meeting, Fiona and Gabriel go to their favourite lunch place around the corner and dive right into how they would create a setting to inform their client about their assessment and how to draw the line to planning. Gabriel notes they can present the planning part as part of a continuous drive of their law firm to innovate and do three things in one: summarise the facts and their legal assessment to the client, describe their work, and use Agile Elements and Kanban to plan their next steps, together with their client. Alice is delighted as it saves her from having yet another meeting and she very much likes the idea of showing the client that their law firm is leveraging modern methodologies in a way that makes sense for the projects.
They invite the client to their office for an alignment on the next steps, informing him it will also be their Agile planning meeting. Bob is happy to see the matter progress but sceptical about the format. As building needs stringent planning, top-down—or as software and Agile people would call it, waterfall planning—he is not a big fan of what he has heard about Agile. Yet, Bob acknowledges that that the fields are different and appreciates their striving for continuous improvement.
In the meeting, Bob clarifies that he wants to push Eric once again to finally deliver or to support handover to a different company because of the overall delay. During planning they agree to address a first settlement discussion with the counterparty in the week’s work, so the legal team hears the counterparty’s position. The team and their client align on the paths that would work well for Horizontal Builders. Bob noted that he would be evidently open to consider alternative proposals that might come up in the discussion with the counterparty.
In our example case, the first planning would be what to include in the claim letter:
Participants
Alice, Fiona, Gabriel, Oliver
Frequency/ Duration
Weekly after team meeting, with client, if needed
Select the Items with the highest priority:
• Assess Evidence
• Write legal arguments
• Discuss with the client the expected position of the counterparty.
• Write the claim letter
Detailed planning of the Items (HOW) by breaking them down into individual tasks:
Assess Evidence
Establish type of evidence (e.g. document, witness statement).
Outline arguments.
Map evidence with arguments.
Assess who has burden of proof, establish possible counterarguments.
Commitment – the team commits to delivering the Items by the end of the Sprint.
The teams agrees to this plan.
Participants Team Optional: additional Experts if needed
Frequency/ Duration Once per Sprint, max 2 hours for each week in the Sprint
Select the Items with the highest priority:
Detailed planning of the Items (HOW) by breaking them down into individual tasks:
Commitment – the team commits to delivering the Items by the end of the Sprint.
