sprint-brief

Sprint Brief Skill

Produce a clear, scannable sprint brief that every team member — engineer, designer, PM — can read in under three minutes and understand exactly what we're doing and why.

Required Inputs

Ask the user for these if not provided:

• Sprint name and number
• Sprint goal (1-2 sentences — flag if too vague)
• Ticket list with owners (or a description of the work)
• Known dependencies or blockers
• Carry-over items from previous sprint (if any)

Process

1. Read sprint goal and check it's specific and measurable — flag if it's too vague
2. Group tickets by theme or feature area
3. Identify the critical path — which tickets must complete for the sprint goal to be met?
4. Flag risks: tickets with unclear acceptance criteria, missing designs, unresolved dependencies
5. Note carry-over items and whether they affect this sprint's goal
6. Validate — Confirm the sprint goal is achievable given the ticket scope and capacity. If the critical path items alone would fill the sprint, flag it as overloaded.

Output Structure

Sprint [Number] Brief — [Dates]

Sprint Goal: [1-2 sentences — specific and measurable]

Why This Sprint Matters: [Connect to quarterly OKR in 2-3 sentences]

What We're Building:

• [Theme 1]: [tickets and owners]
• [Theme 2]: [tickets and owners]

Critical Path: [The 2-3 tickets everything else depends on]

Risks to Flag:

• [Risk 1 + mitigation]
• [Risk 2 + mitigation]

Carry-over from Last Sprint: [List + impact on current goal]

Definition of Done: [Specific, agreed criteria for sprint success]

Scoring Rubric (0–40)

Score any output of this skill before handing it over; 32+ is ship-quality.

| Dimension | 0 | 5 | 10 |

|---|---|---|---|

| Goal scoreability | Goal is a task list or a vague direction ("make progress on X") — nobody could score it at sprint end | Goal states one outcome but the pass/fail line is fuzzy (no number, date, or observable test) | Goal is a single outcome statement with an explicit pass/fail test anyone on the team could apply on the last day |

| Critical path precision | No critical path, or "the important tickets" — reader can't tell which slippage is fatal | Critical path tickets are named but without sequencing or the date/trigger at which the goal fails | Named tickets in dependency order, with the deadline that kills the goal and a clear fatal-vs-survivable split from the rest of the board |

| Risk actionability | Risks are a worry list — no mitigations, no owners | Each risk has a mitigation or an owner, but responses are generic ("monitor closely") | Every risk has a concrete mitigation with a ready-by date and a single named owner, and states whether it threatens the goal or just a ticket |

| Capacity honesty | Carry-over listed without impact; board is silently overloaded | Carry-over impact on the goal is stated, but the brief doesn't act on it — overload is flagged as a risk and left there | Carry-over is costed against capacity and the brief shows the resolution: named scope cuts, a de-scoped goal, or an explicit team-agreed overload acceptance |

Quality Checks

• [ ] Sprint goal is specific enough to score pass/fail at the end of the sprint
• [ ] Critical path items are named — not just "the important ones"
• [ ] Every risk has a mitigation or owner (not just "this is a risk")
• [ ] Carry-over items are connected to their impact on this sprint's goal
• [ ] Definition of Done is agreed criteria, not a task list

Anti-Patterns

• [ ] Do not write a sprint goal as a task list — the goal must be a single outcome-focused statement that can be scored pass/fail
• [ ] Do not leave the critical path unnamed — "the important tickets" is not a critical path
• [ ] Do not list risks without a mitigation or owner — a risk without a response is just a worry list
• [ ] Do not ignore carry-over items' impact on this sprint's capacity and goal
• [ ] Do not write a Definition of Done that mixes task completion with outcome criteria — they must be observable and agreed before the sprint starts