When product teams use the LeSS framework, they will have two types of Sprint Planning (SP) events: Sprint Planning One (SP1) and Sprint Planning Two (SP2).
Sprint Planning One is an opportunity for the whole product group to come together whereas SP2 is done on an individual team basis (although some teams can also opt to do SP2 together if they are working on closely related items).
Who attends Sprint Planning One?
When teams are starting out with LeSS it’s normally helpful to have all members of all teams engage in SP1. This can turn out to be a big meeting. Eventually when teams become more comfortable with the framework and having been going for a while, they can then select appropriate representatives from each team to attend SP1 on behalf of the team and radiate back information.
This is what it might look like for five teams in a product group, each sending two appropriate representatives to SP1.
What is the goal of Sprint Planning One?
The purpose of SP1 is for the product owner (PO) together with the developers (Devs) from each team to select the work items (PBIs) they will take into SP2 and therefore into their Sprint Backlog for development.
The teams should use this meeting to clear up any lingering questions about the PBIs that they will be working on. A lot of the heavy lifting however, in terms of understanding the items in detail, should have been done in refinement workshops (PBR) in the weeks leading up to the current sprint planning event. There should therefore be no surprises at SP1. This meeting is about selecting work items that have been already properly prioritized and refined and clearing up any lingering questions and dependencies between teams. If you give enough time to quality PBR workshops, it will greatly improve sprint planning efficiency and effectiveness.