Best 10 Sprint Planning Templates for Software Engineers

Sprint Planning is a structured process that helps software engineers allocate tasks, estimate workload, and set clear objectives for the upcoming sprint. It ensures that everyone on the team understands the sprint's goals and knows what needs to be accomplished. A Sprint Planning template can streamline this process, offering a predefined structure that teams can customize and follow to save time and ensure consistency across sprints.

Before crafting your own Sprint Planning template, consider exploring these examples below to simplify the process and enhance your team's efficiency.

What Should Sprint Planning Templates Include?

Choosing the right Sprint Planning template can streamline your project management process and enhance team productivity. Here are key components to look for in an effective template:

Goal Definition - A section dedicated to defining the sprint goals clearly helps in aligning the team's efforts towards a common objective.
Task Breakdown - It should allow for detailed task descriptions, including time estimates and priority levels, to organize the workflow efficiently.
Resource Allocation - Ensure the template includes a way to assign tasks to team members and track resource availability to balance the workload.
Progress Tracking - Features that enable monitoring the progress of the sprint, such as burndown charts or checklists, are crucial for timely adjustments.

Selecting a template with these components will help you manage sprints more effectively, ensuring that your team can meet its goals with clarity and precision.

What Should Sprint Planning Templates Avoid?

Choosing the right Sprint Planning template is crucial for streamlining your project management processes. However, not all templates are created equal. Here are three key components to steer clear of:

Overly Complex Layouts: Avoid templates with complicated structures that can confuse team members. Simplicity fosters clarity and efficiency in sprint planning.
Fixed Time Slots: Templates that rigidly define time allocations for tasks can restrict flexibility. Agile environments benefit from adaptable time management.
Generic Goals: Steer clear of templates that encourage generic sprint goals. Specific, measurable objectives are essential for tracking progress and achieving results.

Remember, the best template is one that suits your team's specific needs and enhances productivity without adding unnecessary complexity.

1Product Backlog w/ DoR and DoD

Get started with your project with this straight-forward Product Backlog template with pre-defined Definition of Ready and Definition of Done. Your project doesn't have to be a software or something complex in order to use this. It can fit to any application or use case, whether for personal or business purposes. You will be guided what data to populate in Epic, PBI, User Story, Acceptance Criteria, etc., based on the samples provided.

A template preview for Product Backlog w/ DoR and DoD

2Small Design Agency Task Management

This template helps to organise incoming work from the client account management teams into a creative design team at a small design agency. Often there are competing creative deadlines across account management teams which can lead to miss management of task priorities. On this template both the management team and creative team have their own workspace which is connected together, providing a way to manage creative tasks.

A template preview for Small Design Agency Task Management

3Issue Tracker

Track engineering projects of any shape or size with this template. For teams that use the Agile method, you can break down each project into tasks, prioritize your backlog, then organize tasks into sprints. Filter by status, priority, and team to view your work any way you like. Plus, connect your other essential tools like Github, Figma, Slack, and more to truly keep all your work in one place.

4Notion Engineering Dashboard

The Notion Engineering Dashboard is an easy-to-use workspace for you to track your tasks, stories, epics, sprints, and meetings. With this Notion setup you can cut out clutter and focus on your highest priority tasks, without losing track of important details.

A template preview for Notion Engineering Dashboard

5Simple Roadmap

Use this template to track all of your project work. Organize your projects by epics, sprints, tasks, and bugs. You can view the database different ways to see projects by status, engineer, or product manager.

Save time by using the templates made for each type of task, where you can add more as needed, as well as custom properties to track important information.

6Sprint Planning Meeting

Our Sprint Planning Meetings template is a time-efficient tool designed to streamline your sprint planning. With a single click, you can generate a new sprint meeting entry marked with today's date. The template includes structured sections for reviewing the last sprint, planning the upcoming sprint, and fostering discussion. You can also conveniently link to the associated sprint. This organized and simple text-based approach keeps your sprint planning focused and effective.

A template preview for Sprint Planning Meeting

7Definition of Ready Checklist

The Definition of Ready (DoR) is a crucial concept in agile development that outlines the criteria a user story must meet before it can be implemented. This checklist will provide teams with a comprehensive framework for effectively defining the DoR and by following it, teams can ensure that user stories are well-prepared, reducing ambiguity and improving efficiency.

A template preview for Definition of Ready Checklist

8Weekly Sprints

Are you someone who wants to plan out your week ahead? Or someone who wants to track their weekly habits?

Here's a simple to use weekly planner, where you can set your goals for the week in one of the 4 categories: Personal, Professional, Health and Social. Add your TODOs for the week in those columns or track your habits.

You can easily add a new week with the button and take a look at your older weeks' progress in the History section as well. Personalise it as you like and make it work for you.

9Action Plan

The Action Plan Template helps you to create action plans easily.

By creating an action plan you’ll able to gain a clear understanding of your short-term objectives are.

By creating an action plan you’ll be able to streamline your efforts and stay focused on what truly matters.

10Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)

It helps to create an work flow in IT departments

A template preview for Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)

Closing Thoughts

Utilizing these templates streamlines the planning process, ensuring that all team members are aligned with the project goals and timelines. This alignment significantly boosts productivity and reduces misunderstandings.

Start implementing these templates in your next sprint to see immediate improvements in team communication and project clarity. The structured format helps in tracking progress and facilitates easier adjustments.

What is a Velocity?

Velocity is a measure of the amount of work a team can tackle during a single sprint and is the key metric in sprint planning.

What is a Burndown Chart?

A burndown chart is a graphical representation of work left to do versus time, commonly used in sprint planning to track the progress of a sprint.

What is a Sprint Goal?

A sprint goal is a single, concise statement detailing the objective the team plans to achieve by the end of the sprint.