Method guide · Progress through phases
Iteration Planning
Agree a period goal and workload using acceptance conditions, available time, past results, and capacity margin.
- People
- 3–12
- Base procedure time
- 120 minutes
- Recording
- Shared record
Purpose: Make a decision; Build working relationships.
English guide
Text acceptance is not approval of this rendered page, its media, or publication.
How this method works
A planning method for jointly deciding the next period’s goal and the workload the team takes on. Use it where priorities exist but acceptance conditions, work amounts, and absences are not shared, making mid-period commitments fragile. Requesters and implementers read candidates, ask about acceptance conditions, and break work into completable units. Forecast from past results and available time, leaving margin when choosing the goal. The result is a period goal, selected candidates, broken-down work, capacity evidence, and review conditions. Do not use estimates for individual evaluation or add work without agreement.
Phase schedule
Minutes are cumulative from the start of the base plan, not a live timer. Read scaling for any additional time. Phase controls do not advance automatically.
Use the arrow keys, Home or End while these controls have focus. The complete phase schedule remains below, including without JavaScript.
- Align assumptions0–20 minutes from the start (20 minutes)
Action: Align. Participation: Everyone.
Shared record
- Read candidates20–40 minutes from the start (20 minutes)
Action: Read. Participation: Individually, then everyone.
Individual record
- Break down work40–70 minutes from the start (30 minutes)
Action: Separate. Participation: Everyone.
Shared record
- Estimate capacity70–105 minutes from the start (35 minutes)
Action: Estimate. Participation: Everyone.
Shared record
- Retain commitments105–120 minutes from the start (15 minutes)
Action: Retain. Participation: Everyone.
Shared record
Facilitation steps
- For 20 minutes, requesters present priorities, user value, and candidate acceptance conditions. Align absences, existing commitments, and past results on the availability table.
- For 20 minutes, each person reads the list, asks about unclear acceptance conditions, and records missing information for candidates not ready to start.
- For 30 minutes, take candidates in priority order, break them into work meeting completion criteria, and place dependencies and shared work on the board.
- For 35 minutes, compare available time with past results, estimate work per candidate, and select up to a goal that leaves margin.
- For 15 minutes, record excluded candidates and reasons, the responsible people’s first checks, and conditions for reviewing the plan mid-period. Leave it where everyone can read it.
If something changes
If
There are at least 2 candidates whose acceptance conditions cannot be answered after questions.
Then
Do not include them in the iteration. Record missing information, the person checking it, and a response deadline on the candidate list.
If
Total estimates are 20% or more above available capacity.
Then
Remove lower-priority candidates and return to the smallest combination that fulfils the goal in one sentence.
If
With 15 minutes left, the first responsibility-check date or review conditions are blank.
Then
Choose one check-in before work next starts and record one line about conditions that change capacity.
Preparation
Materials
- One A4 prioritised candidate list per person
- One A5 sheet per candidate for its acceptance conditions and completion criteria
- One A3 shared availability-and-absence table per venue
- One work-breakdown and period-goal board per venue, at least 120 cm wide
Room and setup
- One table per venue where everyone can see candidate and availability lists together, allowing at least 60 cm width per person
- One editable board area per venue with a passage at least 90 cm wide
Adjust for people and time
With 3–6 people, use one board for all candidates. With 7–12, split into 2 groups to break down half the candidates each, then integrate available time and the goal together. Provide one copy of the candidate list and acceptance-condition sheets per person and one availability table and board per venue. Above 9 people, put requesters and implementers in each group and reunite everyone for final selection.
Safety and non-applicable situations
Do not turn estimates into individual evaluation or increase workload without agreement. Keep capacity margin, unready candidates out of the period, and review conditions explicit.
Historical translation and source notes
These original notes are retained verbatim with their fixed source versions. This historical label does not resolve a source-specific concern or establish current acceptance.
- Materials specify one acceptance/completion sheet per candidate, while scaling specifies a copy per person. Both source quantities are preserved without deciding the copying rule.
Manuscript's recorded references
These translate the original manuscript's source and rights claims. They remain separate from any current-page notice below; they do not establish new verification.
- Open Practice Library: Iteration (Sprint) Planning — Sandra Arps and Tim Beattie
https://openpracticelibrary.com/practice/iteration-planning/
Adaptation under CC-BY-4.0; changes made. Individual contributors credited; published images, logos, and externally linked materials not used.
- Open Practice Library license notice
https://openpracticelibrary.com/about/
CC-BY-4.0 notice except where noted. The Japanese source records that Codex checked the individual page footer on 2026-07-24.
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
CC-BY-4.0 licence text
Current-page licence notice
A Taiwa no Fumen adaptation based on the Open Practice Library practice identified below. The manuscript's recorded references and the source page checked for this notice are shown separately.
Changes: explanations, timings, instructions, materials and branches were edited for this site. The English edition translates that Japanese manuscript; it is not a verbatim translation of the original practice.
The checked source footer names CC BY 4.0 but links to CC BY-SA 4.0. The official site source code contains the same mismatch. This has not been confirmed with the rights holders. This notice does not change the terms of the original material.
This site's contributions to the identified adaptation and English translation are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Credit the creators, identify the source and licence, indicate changes, and share adaptations under the same terms. This does not remove separate source terms or third-party rights.
This is not a blanket licence for the whole site, other original manuscripts, third-party photographs, logos, external templates or trademarks. The source's Except where noted qualification remains applicable.
Names are used descriptively to identify the source. No endorsement or approval by Open Practice Library or its contributors is implied.
See the linked legal code for its no-warranty and other provisions.
The additional contributor names are handles from the fixed official practice source. They are not inferred real names or a reconstruction of collapsed editor labels. The earlier attribution limits remain recorded.
Credits on the checked source page
- Named contributors on the source page: Sandra Arps, Tim Beattie
- Contributors listed in the official practice source (repository handles): @sandraarps, @tdbeattie, @jonathanjohnston, @ilaria66, @noelo, @mvmaestri
Source page checked on 2026-10-17: Iteration (Sprint) Planning.
Source lineage
CC BY-SA 4.0 — this site's adaptation and translation contributions · Legal code · Official source policy
This material-specific notice does not itself establish publication clearance. Preserved manuscript references above remain separate from the current page's credits and licence evidence.
Diagram, print, and video language
Original Japanese guide, diagram, and print view. Their labels and print text have not been translated; an English print edition is not provided here.
English video-library navigation. Original Japanese audio, subtitles and transcripts remain labelled Japanese resources. Their translations are separate later work. No remote player is embedded here.
The manual English phase controls are a navigation aid, not a live facilitation timer. Interactive diagram motion remains pending.
Editorial provenance
Japanese source status and logs are provenance only. They do not mean this English text or interface was field-tested. Historical fixed-text acceptance and hold records remain specific to their recorded versions; displaying them neither asserts current acceptance nor resolves source-specific restrictions.
Original source log (Japanese)
2026-07-24 · Recorded participant count: 1
2026-07-24の受入宣言に基づく一括記録(15手法)。個別セッションの実測値ではない。