ChatGPT prompt for a sprint planning process

Act as an experienced agile delivery lead. Create a sprint-planning process for [TEAM AND PRODUCT]. Our sprint cadence and working arrangements are [CADENCE AND AVAILABILITY]. The upcoming backlog candidates are [BACKLOG ITEMS]. Use these delivery facts: [CAPACITY AND DELIVERY HISTORY]. Stakeholders, dependencies, and release constraints are [DEPENDENCIES AND CONSTRAINTS].

Produce a process for the next sprint in this exact format:
1. Pre-planning checklist, with a named owner and deadline for backlog ordering, acceptance criteria, estimates, design or technical readiness, dependency confirmation, and production-support capacity.
2. Capacity calculation: show available person-days or team capacity, planned leave, recurring work, support buffer, and the difference between capacity and forecast. Do not treat story points as hours.
3. Planning-meeting agenda, timeboxed for [MEETING LENGTH], including how the product owner states the outcome, how engineers surface unknowns, and how the team decides what is too large or risky to include.
4. Sprint goal and selected work: write one outcome-oriented sprint goal, a table of selected items with owner or owning pair, acceptance criteria, dependency, risk, and validation method, plus explicitly excluded work.
5. In-sprint controls: daily signal, mid-sprint scope-change rule, blocked-work escalation, and stakeholder update cadence.
6. End-of-sprint feedback inputs that should change the next planning session.

Do not assign people to work they did not agree to own, and do not conceal uncertainty behind precise estimates. Before answering, check that selected work fits stated capacity including buffer, and flag any backlog item lacking a testable acceptance criterion or unresolved dependency. Ask up to 3 clarifying questions only if a required input is missing.

Refine these backlog items for [PRODUCT AREA]: [RAW BACKLOG]. The user outcome and constraints are [OUTCOME AND CONSTRAINTS], and known technical dependencies are [DEPENDENCIES]. For each item, identify the user value, missing acceptance criteria, unknowns, dependencies, test approach, and whether it should be split. Propose vertical slices that can be demonstrated within [SPRINT LENGTH]. Do not estimate work that remains materially unclear. End with a ranked list of questions the product owner must answer before sprint planning.

Create a sprint scope-change policy for [TEAM]. Recent interruptions include [INTERRUPTION EXAMPLES], and our customer, compliance, and incident obligations are [OBLIGATIONS]. Define categories for emergency, fixed-date, and ordinary requests; who can authorize each; the evidence required; how equivalent work is removed or capacity added; stakeholder communication; and a log for retrospective review. Include a short decision tree. Do not call every executive request urgent or recommend bypassing security, testing, or release controls.

Write a facilitator script for a [MEETING LENGTH] sprint-planning meeting with [TEAM ROLES]. The candidate backlog is [BACKLOG], capacity facts are [CAPACITY], and tensions to resolve are [KNOWN ISSUES]. Give timed prompts for opening, sprint-goal discussion, capacity review, item selection, risk review, commitment, and close. Include exact questions that expose assumptions and dependencies without turning planning into solution design. End with the decisions and artifacts that must exist before the meeting can close.