Sprint Planning Template (PMI Standard Word, Excel & PDF)
8 min read · Reviewed August 2026 by Dan Sunil Kumar
Sprint planning answers two questions: what is this sprint for, and how much can we honestly finish. The output is a sprint goal, a set of committed backlog items and a rough plan for the first day or two of work.
Scrum timeboxes it at a maximum of eight hours for a one-month sprint, which works out at roughly two hours per week of sprint length. Most two-week sprints plan comfortably in two to three hours when the backlog has been refined beforehand.
This template separates capacity from commitment on purpose. Teams that skip the capacity step commit to a number they liked the sound of, then carry a third of it into the next sprint.
- Standard followed
- Agile Practice Guide (PMI & Agile Alliance) / PMI-ACP body of knowledge
- Performance domain
- Development Approach & Life Cycle
- Process group
- Planning (iterative)
- Knowledge area
- Scope & Schedule Management
The Word, Excel & PDF files for this template are part of the paid PM Delivery Toolkit — there is no free download. The full walkthrough, worked example and section guidance below stay open to read.
Get the sprint planning in the toolkitWhen to use it
- You run sprints but planning regularly overruns or ends without a clear goal.
- Commitment is set from last sprint's ticket count rather than the hours actually available.
- Carry-over is becoming normal and nobody can say why.
- A new team needs a repeatable planning structure before it has any velocity history.
- Stakeholders want to know what a sprint will deliver and you need something to show them.
Every section, and what good looks like
Section 1
Sprint header
Team, sprint number, start and end dates, facilitator, Product Owner and the planning timebox.
Dates are fixed and unchanging. Extending a sprint to finish work destroys the only constant the team has.
Section 2
Sprint goal
One or two sentences on the outcome the sprint is aiming at, written before items are selected.
Stated as a result, not a ticket list — and if you cannot say it without the word "and", you have two goals.
Section 3
Capacity calculation
Days available per person, hours per day and a focus factor, totalled into net capacity.
Focus factor is between 0.6 and 0.8. Holidays, support rota and standing meetings are deducted before anything is committed.
Section 4
Reference velocity
Committed and delivered points for the last three sprints, plus the average.
You plan with the three-sprint average, not the best sprint the team ever had.
Section 5
Sprint backlog
The committed items with estimate, owner, a confirmation that acceptance criteria exist, and any dependency.
Every row has testable acceptance criteria before it is pulled in. Anything without them goes back to refinement.
Section 6
Definition of Ready
The gate an item passes before it can be selected: value stated, criteria written, dependencies known, small enough, estimated.
Used out loud during planning, so unready items are visibly deferred rather than quietly accepted.
Section 7
Definition of Done
The quality bar applied to every item — review, tests, documentation, deployment, no open blockers.
Identical for all items and unchanged mid-sprint. A shifting Done is how teams report progress that does not exist.
Section 8
Risks, dependencies and notes
Anything outside the team that could stop an item, with an owner and a mitigating action.
Each entry names a person and a date, not a department.
Section 9
Planning agenda
The timeboxed running order: capacity, objective, goal, item walkthrough, commitment, risks.
Commitment stops when net capacity is full, not when the backlog runs out of interesting items.
A filled-in example
A realistic sprint plan for a two-week sprint, so you can see how capacity, velocity and a sprint goal fit together.
| Sprint | Sprint 6 — 4 to 15 May (two weeks) |
|---|---|
| Sprint goal | A returning customer can recover account access without contacting support. |
| Net capacity | 140 hours (192 gross hours across four people, focus factor 0.7-0.8) |
| Reference velocity | 3-sprint average delivered: 16 points (committed 19) |
| Committed items | US-101 password reset (5), US-102 CSV export (3), US-103 mobile layout shift (2), US-104 reading progress (5), TD-11 test runner upgrade (3) |
| Committed hours | 53 hours of estimated task work against 140 net — the rest absorbs review, testing, support and unknowns |
| Deferred | US-110 email digest — no acceptance criteria yet, back to refinement |
| Dependency | Email provider sandbox access needed by 6 May; owner: Priya |
| Risk | Sam is on the support rota all week, so QA capacity is the constraint, not development |
Mistakes that derail sprint planning
- Planning against ticket counts instead of net capacity, so absences and support load are invisible.
- Selecting items before agreeing the sprint goal, which produces a shopping list rather than a sprint.
- Pulling in items with no acceptance criteria and writing them mid-sprint, when scope quietly doubles.
- Using the best-ever velocity as the plan. Use the three-sprint average.
- Filling 100% of capacity, leaving nothing for review, defects and the support that always arrives.
- Letting planning run four hours because refinement was skipped — refine the backlog before the session, not during it.
- Adding work mid-sprint without removing an equivalent amount, then blaming the estimate.
26 more artifacts, ready to fill in
The PM Delivery Toolkit packages the RAID log, status pack, estimation and earned value workbooks, capacity planner, agile sprint tools and 150 PMP-style questions — Word, Excel and print-ready PDF.
- Status pack and steering deck with RAG logic built in
- Estimation and EVM workbook: CPI, SPI and EAC calculated
- Capacity planner with an over-allocation heatmap
- Agile set: sprint planning, user stories, retros, backlog, WSJF
One payment · lifetime updates · 14-day refund. Files unlock on your download page as soon as payment clears.
Questions people ask
- How long should sprint planning take?
- Scrum caps it at eight hours for a one-month sprint, which scales to about two hours per week of sprint length. A two-week sprint should plan in two to three hours when the backlog was refined in advance.
- What is included in a sprint planning template?
- A sprint header with dates, the sprint goal, a capacity calculation, reference velocity, the committed sprint backlog with estimates and owners, Definition of Ready and Definition of Done checks, risks and dependencies, and a timeboxed agenda.
- How do you calculate sprint capacity?
- Multiply each person's available days by their hours per day to get gross hours, then apply a focus factor of 0.6 to 0.8 to allow for meetings, support and interruptions. Sum the result for net capacity, and commit task hours below that figure.
- What is the difference between a sprint goal and a sprint backlog?
- The sprint goal is the single outcome the sprint is aiming at. The sprint backlog is the set of items plus the plan for delivering them. The goal stays fixed for the sprint; the backlog can be adjusted as long as the goal is still met.
- Who attends sprint planning?
- The whole Scrum team: developers, the Product Owner and the Scrum Master. Subject-matter experts can be invited for specific items. Stakeholders are not participants — they see the outcome at the sprint review.
- Should the team commit to everything in the sprint backlog?
- The team commits to the sprint goal and forecasts the items it believes will get there. Treat the item list as a forecast that can flex and the goal as the commitment that cannot.
Read next
- Scrum Ceremonies: Purpose, Timebox and Agenda
- Scrum Mechanics Without the Dogma
- Estimation That Survives Contact with Reality
- Resource & Capacity Planning That Holds Up
Other PMI-standard templates
Every one has the same walkthrough, worked example and PMI mapping, and every file ships inside the PM Delivery Toolkit.
- Project charter templateWord & PDF · Integration Management
- Project plan pack templateWord, Excel & PDF · Integration & Schedule Management
- Project status report templateWord & PDF · Communications Management
- RACI matrix templateExcel, Word & PDF · Resource Management
Keep going on the site
The hubs and tools that pair with this sprint planning.
- PM Delivery ToolkitEvery PMBOK-mapped template in one paid pack, with the walkthroughs.
- PM glossaryPlain-English definitions for the terms these registers use.
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