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Sprint Planning

Sprint planning is a manual trigger ceremony where the Scrum Master initiates the sprint by clicking one button in GitHub Actions. Scraut then reads your backlog, team capacity, and OKRs to generate a proposed sprint plan as a pull request.

When to run sprint planning​

  • At the beginning of each sprint (after the previous sprint closes)
  • The SM triggers it — the team reviews and merges the resulting PR

Pre-conditions​

Before triggering sprint planning, make sure:

  • Backlog issues exist in GitHub with type and priority labels (story, p:high, etc.)
  • workspace/team/capacity.md reflects any OOO days or reduced availability
  • workspace/okr/okr.md has your current objectives
  • Previous sprint is closed (issues resolved or deferred)

Triggering sprint planning​

  1. Go to Actions → Scraut — Sprint Planning
  2. Click Run workflow
  3. Fill in:
    • Sprint number: 2 (the next sprint number)
    • org/repo: myorg/my-repo
  4. Click Run workflow

What happens (step by step)​

SM clicks "Run workflow"
  │
  ├─ create_sprint.py
  │     Creates workspace/sprint/002/ directory structure
  │     Creates GitHub milestone "Sprint 02"
  │
  ├─ plan_sprint.py
  │     Reads open issues (labeled story/task/bug, not in-sprint)
  │     Reads workspace/team/capacity.md
  │     Reads workspace/okr/okr.md
  │     Calculates available capacity: historical velocity × 0.85 buffer
  │     Calls LLM: "Given these stories and capacity, propose a sprint plan"
  │     LLM selects and prioritises stories
  │     Fills workspace/sprint/002/meta.md
  │
  └─ Creates a GitHub PR:
        Title: "Sprint 2 Planning"
        Body: Sprint goal, issue table, capacity breakdown
        Files: workspace/sprint/002/meta.md

The planning pull request​

Example PR:

# Sprint 2 Planning — Proposed by Scraut

## Sprint Goal
Complete the authentication system and begin the dashboard MVP.
Goal aligns with OKR: "Launch v1.0 by Q2."

## Capacity
- Alice: 10 days (full sprint)
- Bob: 8 days (2 days OOO — see capacity.md)
- Charlie: 10 days
- Total: 28 person-days
- Historical velocity: 34 sp avg
- Capacity estimate: 34 × 0.85 buffer = 29 sp target

## Proposed Sprint Issues

| Issue | Title | Type | SP | Assignee | Reason |
|-------|-------|------|-----|---------|--------|
| #21 | OAuth integration | story | 5 | alice | High priority, OKR-aligned |
| #25 | API rate limiting | task | 3 | bob | Required for #21 |
| #28 | Dashboard skeleton | story | 8 | charlie | OKR-aligned |
| #31 | Profile page | story | 5 | alice | Dependent on #21 |
| #33 | Fix login redirect bug | bug | 2 | bob | High priority |
| #35 | Write auth test suite | task | 3 | charlie | DoD requirement |
| **Total** | | | **26 sp** | | Under 29 sp target |

## Not included (over capacity)
- #41 Email notification system (sp:8) — defer to Sprint 3
- #44 Dark mode (sp:5) — low priority

Reviewing and adjusting the plan​

The team reviews the PR. Common adjustments:

  • Reassign stories (alice → bob)
  • Swap in/out issues by editing meta.md
  • Change the sprint goal
  • Add OOO notes to capacity section

To change an assignment: edit workspace/sprint/002/meta.md in the PR branch directly, or push a commit to the PR branch.

Merging the plan​

When the team agrees, the Scrum Master merges the PR.

What happens on merge (sprint-plan-pr.yml):

  • Applies in-sprint label to all issues listed in meta.md
  • Links issues to the GitHub milestone
  • Posts a confirmation to #scraut-bot: "Sprint 2 is GO 🚀 — 26 sp committed, 6 issues"

Scenario: Sprint 2 planning with Bob OOO​

Characters: Charlie (SM), Alice (developer), Bob (developer, 2 days OOO)

Before:

  • Bob updates workspace/team/capacity.md: 
    | bob | 8 | OOO Mon-Tue (Sprint 2 start) |
  • Alice creates 3 new issues after last sprint review
  • The backlog has 15 open issues total

Planning day:

  1. Charlie triggers sprint-planning for Sprint 2
  2. Scraut reads Bob's reduced capacity (8 days instead of 10)
  3. LLM accounts for Bob's OOO — assigns fewer high-complexity stories to him
  4. PR is created with 26 sp (lower than usual 34 sp — Bob's days factored in)
  5. Alice reviews the PR — happy with her assignments
  6. Bob reviews his assignments — lightweight tasks for the OOO week
  7. Charlie merges — Sprint 2 begins

Time for the whole ceremony: ~20 minutes of async review, 0 synchronous meetings.