In every new task that we will do, we often focus on the “real deal” rather than “the process” on getting the real deal. We assume that we can easily handle the situation with full knowledge or commitment. The real thing, however, is we can’t. We have a habit to plunge into the water first without knowing the real depth of it. We easily get excited to the situation, forget what’s necessary and what’s not important. A smart saying attributed to the late President Benjamin Franklin goes:
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
Regardless of the load of the situation or the opportunity, don’t get overwhelmed by it. Instead strive hard to know the process — strive hard to prepare.
Preparation or planning is an act of setting out the steps to achieve a desired goal. In Scrum, the planning activity is called sprint planning. Sprint planning is the time boxed meeting whereas the Scrum team selects and understands the work to be done in the sprint. Sprint refers to the work cycle or how long a work can be done.
Everyone in the team will join the sprint planning. Team members wouldn’t be able to move to the next step until the Scrum Master had joined and clicked the next button.
The next panel refers to the availability of the group with the given checklist: Present, absent or half day.
After the submission of the availability, the team will now move to the happiness panel. In here, the team will vote on how happy they are with their own roles or with the company as a whole. They will rate their happiness from one to five. One is the worst and five is the best.
The next one is the Kaizen Backlog Item. The Kaizen Backlog Item is designed for the Scrum Master. In here, the Scrum Master enters a story. The entered story was the prioritized story in the sprint backlog.
After the Scrum Master entered a story, the team can now vote. The next panel was the story voting panel. In here, the team would be able to vote for the stories for a specific sprint. It includes: Invest, Voting of Five and the last, the Fist of Five. The last panel was the summary, whereas you can see the summary of the average of the team availability, happiness, number of accepted stories, number of rejected stories, and total points that the team will commit for that sprint.
The Scrum Master will now end the sprint planning.