Sprint Planning

Overview

Dragon Planner supports SAFe-style sprint planning with Program Increments, time-boxed sprints, and an AI-powered recommendation engine that helps you decide what to work on next.

Program Increments

A Program Increment (PI) is a quarterly (or custom-length) planning period that contains multiple sprints. PIs help you:

• Plan work at a higher level than individual sprints
• Track velocity across a planning period
• Align multiple teams or projects on shared timelines

To create a PI, go to your project's sprint planning view and create a new Program Increment with a start date and end date. Sprints are then created within the PI.

Sprints

Sprints are time-boxed iterations (typically 1–4 weeks) within a Program Increment. Each sprint has:

• A start date and end date
• A goal describing what the team aims to accomplish
• A status: Planning, Active, or Completed
• Assigned work items from the backlog

Sprint Lifecycle

1. Planning — The sprint is being prepared. Add work items from the backlog.
2. Active — The sprint is in progress. Work items move through status columns (To Do → In Progress → Done).
3. Completed — The sprint is finished. Incomplete items can be moved to the next sprint.

Only one sprint per project can be Active at a time.

Assigning Work to Sprints

Work items can be assigned to a sprint from:

• The backlog view — drag or select items to assign
• The work item detail — pick a sprint from the sprint dropdown
• MCP — use the assign_to_sprint tool

Items assigned to a sprint appear on the sprint board (Kanban view) with columns for each status.

The Recommendation Engine

One of Dragon Planner's unique features is the recommendation engine, accessible via the get_next_recommendation MCP tool or the web dashboard.

When you ask "what should I work on next?", the engine considers:

• Priority — higher priority items come first
• Dependencies — items with unresolved Blocks are excluded
• Sprint assignment — items in the current active sprint are preferred
• Story points — smaller items may be recommended when time is limited
• Status — only items in To Do or In Progress are candidates

This powers the workflow where a developer asks Claude what to pick up, gets a recommendation, and immediately starts working — with full context from the work item's description and AI Context.

Dashboards & Reporting

Sprint and project dashboards include:

• Burndown chart — remaining work vs. ideal trend line
• Velocity chart — story points completed per sprint over time
• Burnup chart — scope vs. completed work
• Cumulative flow diagram — item status distribution over time
• Cycle time — how long items take from In Progress to Done
• Lead time — how long items take from creation to Done

These charts update in real time as work items change status.

Best Practices

• Keep sprints short — 1–2 weeks works well for most teams. Shorter sprints give faster feedback loops.
• Don't overload sprints — aim for 80% of your historical velocity. Leave room for unplanned work.
• Use the recommendation engine — especially via MCP. It removes the overhead of deciding what to pick up next.
• Review completed sprints — look at velocity trends and cycle time to identify bottlenecks.