sprint-plan
by phurynUse sprint-plan to turn a backlog into a realistic sprint plan with capacity estimation, story selection, dependency mapping, and risk review. It is ideal for Project Management when you need a sprint-plan guide that helps filter unready work, balance scope against velocity, and prepare for sprint planning with less guesswork.
This skill scores 78/100, which means it is solid enough to list for directory users who need sprint-planning support. It has a clear trigger, a concrete planning workflow, and useful decision steps, but it would still benefit from more supporting artifacts and edge-case guidance to reduce adoption guesswork.
- Clear triggerability: the frontmatter explicitly says to use it for sprint planning, capacity estimation, story selection, dependency mapping, and risk identification.
- Operational workflow is concrete: it breaks planning into capacity estimation, backlog selection, dependency mapping, and risk/mitigation review.
- Good agent leverage: it includes actionable constraints such as Definition of Ready checks, a 15-20% capacity buffer, and stopping when capacity is reached.
- No support files or references are provided, so users must rely on the SKILL.md workflow without examples, templates, or validation aids.
- The excerpt shows truncated risk guidance and only modest signal counts for constraints/practical guidance, so some execution details may still require interpretation.
Overview of sprint-plan skill
What sprint-plan does
The sprint-plan skill helps you turn a rough backlog into a realistic sprint plan. It focuses on capacity estimation, story selection, dependency mapping, and risk review so you can decide what fits before the sprint starts.
Who it is for
Use sprint-plan for Project Management when you need a fast, structured planning pass: Scrum Masters, PMs, engineering leads, and agents working from backlog exports, velocity notes, team calendars, or previous sprint data.
Why this skill is useful
A generic prompt often produces a list of stories without checking whether the team can actually deliver them. sprint-plan is more useful when the decision matters: it asks for capacity, filters out unready work, and surfaces blockers early.
Best fit and limits
This skill is strongest when you already have some planning inputs, such as priorities, estimates, and availability. It is less useful if you want full backlog grooming, roadmap planning, or detailed task breakdowns without sprint-level constraints.
How to Use sprint-plan skill
Install sprint-plan
Install the sprint-plan skill with npx skills add phuryn/pm-skills --skill sprint-plan. Then open pm-execution/skills/sprint-plan/SKILL.md first, because it defines the planning workflow and the context the skill expects.
What to provide
The skill works best when you give it concrete planning material, not just “plan the sprint.” Include the sprint length, team roster, PTO or on-call coverage, recent velocity, the prioritized backlog, story points or effort notes, and any known dependencies or risks.
How to prompt it well
A strong prompt tells the model what sprint it is planning and what inputs are available. For example: “Use sprint-plan to plan Sprint 24 for a 6-person team. Review this backlog, use the last 3 sprints of velocity, subtract PTO days, keep a 20% buffer, and call out any stories not ready for commitment.”
Suggested workflow
Start by feeding the skill the available source files, then ask for a capacity estimate, a story list that fits, and a dependency/risk summary. If the backlog is messy, ask it to separate committed stories from refinement candidates instead of forcing a final plan too early.
sprint-plan skill FAQ
Is sprint-plan only for Scrum teams?
No. The sprint-plan skill is useful anywhere you need a bounded delivery plan with capacity limits, even if your team does not follow strict Scrum ceremonies. It is less helpful for open-ended roadmap work.
How is this different from a normal prompt?
A normal prompt may produce a plausible sprint list, but sprint-plan is designed to check readiness, capacity, dependencies, and risk in one pass. That makes it better for install decisions when you need a repeatable planning workflow rather than a one-off answer.
What if I do not have velocity data?
You can still use sprint-plan with team availability and a conservative buffer, but the output will be weaker. If velocity is missing, provide the closest proxy you have, such as recent completed work, and ask the skill to mark uncertainty clearly.
Is it beginner friendly?
Yes, if you can supply a backlog and basic team context. The main failure mode is incomplete input, not complexity of the skill itself.
How to Improve sprint-plan skill
Give cleaner planning inputs
The biggest quality gain comes from better source material. Provide prioritized stories with acceptance criteria, estimates, dependencies, and owners; vague backlog items force the skill to guess, which usually leads to an unrealistic plan.
Make capacity constraints explicit
If the team has meetings, PTO, interrupts, or on-call work, say so up front. sprint-plan improves when it can convert those constraints into usable capacity instead of assuming full availability.
Ask for a decision, not just a summary
After the first pass, ask for a final commitment list, a “not ready” list, and the reasons each item was excluded. That makes the sprint-plan output more actionable than a broad planning recap.
Iterate on the weak spots
If the result is too optimistic, ask it to increase the buffer and re-rank stories by risk. If it is too conservative, ask which items could be swapped in once dependencies clear. This is the fastest way to make sprint-plan fit your team’s real delivery pattern.