Scrum Master Activities before Sprint Planning

Scrum Master Activities before Sprint Planning
Tye Scrum Master Activities before the Sprint Planning
Scrum Master Activities before Sprint Planning

The primary role of a Scrum Master before Sprint Planning is to ensure the Scrum Team is fully prepared so that the actual planning event remains focused, highly efficient, and time-boxed. Rather than managing the tasks themselves, the Scrum Master acts as a coach and facilitator to clear roadblocks beforehand.

The core activities a Scrum Master performs prior to Sprint Planning include:

1. Facilitate Product Backlog Refinement

  • Ensure regular grooming: Schedule and guide Product Backlog Refinement sessions to avoid lengthy discussions during the planning meeting.
  • Uphold the Definition of Ready (DoR): Coach the team to ensure top backlog items have clear acceptance criteria, dependencies mapped out, and early estimations completed.
  • Review Definition of Done (DoD): Verify if changes to the product’s DoD are required, as this directly impacts the team’s capacity and effort forecasting.

2. Support and Coach the Product Owner (PO)

  • Clarify strategic intent: Collaborate with the Product Owner to align upcoming work with the broader Product Goal and roadmap.
  • Draft a preliminary Sprint Goal: Help the PO articulate a clear, value-driven objective before the meeting.
  • Backlog sequencing: Ensure the Product Owner has ordered the backlog by business priority so the team knows exactly where to focus.

3. Calculate Team Capacity and Velocity

  • Assess availability: Gather data on planned leaves, holidays, corporate events, or company-wide obligations for the upcoming sprint window.
  • Analyze historical data: Review past performance metrics and stable velocity charts via tools like ScrumDesk to establish a realistic baseline.
  • Account for overhead: Factor in time for technical debt, unplanned production support, or cross-team collaborations.

4. Remove External Dependencies and Blockers

  • Cross-team coordination: Identify and resolve external technical blockers or team dependencies that could halt execution.
  • Invite external experts: Coordinate with the Product Owner to invite technical experts, stakeholders, or users from other departments to provide advice during planning.

5. Prepare the Logistics and Workspace

  • Set the agenda: Create and distribute a structured time-boxed agenda to set expectations and keep the session on track.
  • Set up digital boards: Organize Jira boards, Miro canvases, or Azure DevOps instances to ensure the workspace is ready for smooth item mapping.
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Author: Mark Whitfield

Welcome to my site! After graduating in Computing in 1990, I accepted a position as a programmer at a Runcorn based software house specialising in electronic banking software, namely sp/ARCHITECT-BANK on Tandem Computers (now HPE NonStop). This was before the internet became more prevalent and so the notion of enabling desktop access to company accounts for inter-account transfers and book keeping was still quite a cutting edge idea (and smartphones only ever hinted at in Space 1999). The company was called The Software Partnership (which was taken over by Deluxe Data in 1994). I spent 5 years in Runcorn developing code for SP/ARCHITECT for various banks like TSB, Bank of Scotland, Rabobank and Girofon (Denmark) to name but a few. I then moved onto a software house in Salford Quays for further bank facing projects. After a further 23 years in the IT industry and now a Senior IT Project Manager (both Agile and Waterfall delivery), I thought I would echo out my Career Profile in this corner of the internet for quick and easy access.

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