| Course | MT247 Agile and Scrum Methodologies |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 7 |
| Paper type | Sprint planning artifact |
| Length | About 880 words, 6 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MT247 Unit 7
Thirty-Eight Developer-Days, Fifteen Points, One Goal: A Unit 7 Sprint Planning Artifact for Sprint 15
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
MT247: Agile and Scrum Methodologies
Unit 7 Sprint Planning Artifact
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Larkspur Residential, its app team, the Sprint and every figure are composite and illustrative; the sources cited are real.
Topic One: Why This Sprint Is Valuable
The 2020 Scrum Guide gives Sprint Planning three questions to settle: the Sprint's value, the work that fits and the approach to that work (Schwaber & Sutherland, 2020). The first topic produces the Sprint Goal.
Sprint Goal: A resident reporting a leak after hours reaches the on-call technician through the app and sees when help will arrive.
The goal comes from the top of the ordered Product Backlog. The answering service that now takes after-hours calls ends its contract on June 30, and this Sprint is the team's best chance to have emergency routing working, tested and released before then. The goal is written in terms of what a resident experiences, so the team can judge every decision during the Sprint by whether it helps a resident with a leak at night.
Topic Two: What Can Be Done
Capacity comes before velocity. The team has five Developers and ten working days, fifty developer-days in a normal Sprint. This Sprint loses twelve.
Holiday: one day for all five Developers, 5 developer-days
Vacation: one Developer away three days, 3 developer-days
Production support rotation: one Developer each day handling live issues for part of the day, about 4 developer-days across the Sprint
Available: 38 developer-days of 50, or 76 percent
Over Sprints 12 to 14 the team completed 24, 17 and 22 points, for a mean of 21. Scaled to 76 percent capacity, the forecast is about 16 points. Scaling the low and high velocities gives a range of 13 to 18 points. Cohn (2005) recommends adjusting a velocity forecast for known changes in capacity rather than assuming every Sprint is the same.
The Selection
Three items were selected, totaling 15 points.
After-hours emergency routing: 8 points
Technician arrival window shown to the resident: 5 points
Photo fix for older phones: 2 points
The first two together deliver the Sprint Goal. The photo fix is a small defect that affects residents reporting leaks with older phones, who often attach photos of the water, so it supports the goal too.
The Item Left Out
Permission-to-enter windows, second in the ordered backlog at 3 points, was left out on purpose. Adding it would bring the selection to 18 points, the top of the forecast range, and leave no margin in a Sprint with a hard external deadline behind it. It also has nothing to do with the Sprint Goal. The Developers proposed leaving it for Sprint 16, and the Product Owner agreed. The decision is recorded here so that nobody reads its absence as an oversight.
A Sprint planned to the top of its range is a Sprint planned to fail by one sick day.
Topic Three: How the Work Gets Done
The Developers broke the first two days of work into tasks. The rest of the Sprint Backlog will be broken down as the work proceeds, which the Guide allows; only enough planning is needed to start well.
Day one:
Map the on-call schedule data in the property system to the app's routing service
Write acceptance tests for routing a leak report after 6 p.m. and on weekends
Confirm with the maintenance director which request types count as emergencies
Day two:
Build the routing rule and connect it to the on-call schedule
Draft the screen showing the resident the technician's expected arrival window
Reproduce the photo defect on two older phone models
Each task has a Developer's initials beside it, chosen by the Developers at the end of planning. Rubin (2012) notes that teams who choose their own tasks catch dependencies earlier, because the person who picks a task tends to ask what it needs.
How Mid-Sprint Requests Will Be Handled
Sprints 12 to 14 each lost days to work added after planning. For Sprint 15 the Product Owner has agreed a rule with the vice president of operations: any new request goes to her, she judges it against the Sprint Goal, and anything that does not serve the goal waits for Sprint 16. If something truly cannot wait, such as a production outage, the Developers and Product Owner decide together what comes out of the Sprint to make room, and the trade is written on the team board. The Guide allows the scope of a Sprint to be clarified and renegotiated with the Product Owner as more is learned, but not changes that endanger the Sprint Goal.
Risks to the Goal
Two risks were named at planning. First, the on-call schedule in the property system may not be kept up to date by the regional offices; if it is wrong, routing sends calls to the wrong technician. The Product Owner will ask the maintenance director to confirm the schedule for the next month by day three. Second, the corporate security review before each app store release takes about four days; to release before June 30, the team must submit by day eight. Both risks are on the team board.
References
Cohn, M. (2005). Agile estimating and planning. Prentice Hall.
Rubin, K. S. (2012). Essential Scrum: A practical guide to the most popular agile process. Addison-Wesley.
Schwaber, K., & Sutherland, J. (2020). The Scrum guide. https://scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html
The Purdue Global MT247 Unit 7 instructions
Unit 7 asks students to produce the output of a Sprint Planning session: a Sprint Goal, a forecast based on capacity and velocity, the selected items and a plan for the first days of work. Organize it around the three topics in the Scrum Guide. Calculate capacity before choosing work, subtracting holidays, time off and support duties, and scale past velocity to that capacity to give a range. Select items that serve the goal and explain any higher-ranked item left out. Break at least the first day or two of work into tasks chosen by the Developers. Name risks to the goal. Four pages in APA 7, with a capacity table, is a common format.
Inside the MT247 Unit 7 example
The artifact begins with the Sprint Goal and why it comes first, the answering service's June 30 contract end. The capacity table removes twelve developer-days for the holiday, vacation and support, and the forecast scales the recent velocities, with Cohn on adjusting for capacity and a margin note on checking the arithmetic. Three selected items follow, and the left-out item is explained, with the highlighted line on planning to the top of a range. Two days of tasks are listed with Developers' initials, citing Rubin on teams choosing their own tasks. A section sets the rule for mid-Sprint requests, and two risks, an outdated on-call schedule and the security review deadline, close it under a final note.
Where the points sit in the MT247 Unit 7 rubric
Sprint planning artifacts are graded on a clear Sprint Goal, a capacity-based forecast, a selection that serves the goal and a credible start on the work. A goal written in terms of the product's users earns more than a list of tickets. Graders reward capacity arithmetic shown before selection, with velocity scaled and given as a range. Selecting below the top of the range when there is a deadline shows judgment. Recording an item deliberately left out prevents misreading. Tasks for the first days, chosen by the Developers, show the plan can start. Named risks with owners and dates, and correct use of Scrum terms, complete the marks. A rule for handling requests that arrive mid-Sprint, agreed with the people who usually send them, shows the plan anticipates the team's history.
MT247 Unit 7 help: mistakes that cost points
The most frequent error is selecting work equal to last Sprint's velocity without adjusting for holidays or time off. Another is a Sprint Goal that simply lists the selected items. Some artifacts break every item into tasks at once, which the Guide does not require. Others have a manager assign tasks rather than the Developers choosing them. Check that selected points fall inside your forecast range, and that the capacity deductions are real days, not guesses. Send your team's availability and recent velocities, and a writer can calculate capacity, set the forecast and draft the goal and selection.
Get an MT247 Unit 7 example written to your instructions
Known absences matter as much as velocity here. Include the team details or case, any velocity figures, holidays, leave and support duties, and the Unit 7 prompt with its rubric. The first artifact is free and back in 24-48h, capacity calculated before selection and a Sprint Goal written as something a user would notice. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
More MT247 papers and BS in Business Administration samples
- MT247 Unit 1: Discussion Board Post
- MT247 Unit 2: Framework Explanation
- MT247 Unit 3: Role Analysis
- MT247 Unit 4: Backlog Ordering Exercise
- MT247 Unit 5: Estimation Exercise
- MT247 Unit 6: Seminar Reflection
- MT247 Unit 8: Impediment Analysis
- MT247 Unit 9: Retrospective Design
- MT247 Unit 10: Adoption Assessment
- MT246 Unit 7: Cost Baseline
- MT245 Unit 7: Stakeholder Register
- MT243 Unit 7: Activation Plan
- MT242 Unit 7: Program Budget
MT247 Unit 7 questions, answered
How is capacity different from velocity?
Velocity is what the team has completed in recent Sprints, measured in its own units. Capacity is how much time the team actually has this Sprint after absences and other duties. The example scales average velocity by this Sprint's capacity, 76 percent of normal, to produce a forecast. Velocity alone would plan a full Sprint's work into a Sprint missing a quarter of its time.
Can the team select an item that sits lower in the backlog?
It can when the item serves the Sprint Goal and the Product Owner agrees, since Sprint Planning is a collaboration and the goal gives the selection its coherence. The example pulls the arrival window forward for that reason and records the Product Owner's agreement. Skipping items without explanation, or without the Product Owner present, would be the weaker version.
Does every item need tasks at Sprint Planning?
The 2020 Guide says the Developers plan the work for each selected item, often by decomposing it into pieces of one day or less, and that how they do so is their choice. The Sprint Backlog then changes as more is learned. The example details the first two days and leaves the rest to emerge at the Daily Scrum, a choice the artifact explains.
Where can I find a free MT247 Unit 7 sample paper?
You can read the complete MT247 Unit 7 sprint planning artifact on this page. It plans Sprint 15 for a resident app team from 38 available developer-days to a 15-point selection against one Sprint Goal.
Why does the MT247 Unit 7 sample leave out a higher-ranked item?
Adding permission-to-enter windows would reach 18 points, the top of the forecast range, in a Sprint with a hard deadline behind it, and the item does not serve the Sprint Goal.