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PMP lesson · Delivery Approach · Agile foundations · lesson 4 of 4 · about 7 minutes

Sprint planning: goal, capacity and commitment

Agile and hybridFree preview
Goal: After this lesson you can run sprint planning around a goal, size the commitment from real capacity, and avoid the common planning traps.

1The situation

Stretch goals that always fail

For three sprints, the MES product owner has pushed the team to accept about 50% more work than its velocity, saying “stretch goals motivate people”. Each sprint, the team finished only about 60% of what it accepted. Morale is falling.

Next sprint, three of five developers have vacation or a trade show, and the product owner still wants the usual 40 points.

Sprint planning only works when the plan is based on reality.

2Three questions

Sprint planning answers three questions:

Why
Sprint goal
What value will this sprint add? One clear goal.
What
Selected items
Ready backlog items that fit capacity and support the goal.
How
The plan
Tasks to deliver the items to the definition of done.
The team decides how much it can commit to, based on past velocity and actual availability. The product owner influences what, not how much.

3Sprint planning in three steps

1 · Why?

The product owner proposes how the sprint can add value; the team agrees a sprint goal.

2 · What?

The team selects backlog items that fit its capacity and support the goal.

3 · How?

The team plans the work (tasks) to deliver the items to the definition of done.
Why → what → how.

4How it looks on the exam

Exam-style question 1. During sprint planning, the product owner repeatedly urges the team to accept far more work than its demonstrated capacity. In recent sprints, the team completed only about 60 percent of its commitments. What should the project manager do?
A. Support the product owner
B. Coach the product owner and team to use actual capacity and velocity for realistic commitments, reminding them that the team decides how much to take on
C. Ask for overtime
D. Shorten the sprint
Show the answer and the decode
Answer: B.
In simple English
Overcommitment every sprint.
What is the question really asking?
The right action.
Key words / trigger
“far more work than its demonstrated capacity”
PMP logic
The team commits based on real capacity; this creates predictable sprints.
Why the wrong answer looks attractive
Stretch goals sound motivating, but missing them every time demotivates.

5Remember this

Your memory card

  • Sprint planning: why (goal) → what (items) → how (tasks)
  • The team commits, based on velocity × actual availability
  • Ready, refined stories make planning work
  • No stretch overload; keep a sustainable pace
The full lesson in the PMCLEAR app also has:
  • the rest of the lesson (Good inputs)
  • a worked example
  • the common traps (wrong vs right)
  • 2 exam-style questions with the decode
  • a 3-question quick check
Open the full lesson → Create a free account
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