1. Supercharging Sprint Planning with Umano and Jira

Sprint planning is at the heart of agile project management. It’s the starting line where teams define their goals, outline priorities, and align efforts to deliver valuable outcomes within a defined timeframe. However, even with powerful tools like Jira, sprint planning often becomes a complex process riddled with challenges. Teams struggle with overcommitting, underestimating capacity, or overlooking key historical trends that could guide better decision-making.

Jira, as a task management tool, provides the framework for agile teams to organize their work. It excels at tracking issues, assigning tasks, and visualizing workflows through tools like Kanban boards and sprint backlogs. Yet, Jira alone doesn’t provide the actionable insights teams need to predict, plan, and execute sprints effectively. That’s where Umano enters the picture.

Umano complements Jira by introducing advanced analytics, AI-powered planning, and team engagement tools that transform sprint planning from a reactive process into a proactive strategy. With Umano’s Active and Macro Cycle Planners, teams gain access to historical data, completion predictions, and long-term capacity insights—all designed to help them make informed decisions, avoid common pitfalls, and plan sprints with confidence.

Image: Overview of Umano’s Active Cycle Planners

For instance, Umano’s Active Cycle Planner provides a detailed Planning Guide and real-time insights to help teams set achievable sprint goals based on their past performance. Meanwhile, the Macro Cycle Planner focuses on long-term planning, ensuring that multi-sprint or quarterly goals are aligned with organizational objectives.

By integrating Umano with Jira, agile teams can:

1. Predict Sprint Success: Use data-driven insights to set realistic and achievable goals.
2. Improve Collaboration: Foster better team alignment with tools like Notes and engagement monitoring.
3. Optimize Outcomes: Continuously refine the planning process with insights gained from retrospectives.

Image: Example of Umano metrics dashboard for predictability

This blog will explore how Umano and Jira work together to revolutionize sprint planning. We’ll guide you through setting up the integration, leveraging Umano’s Active and Macro Cycle Planners, and maximizing the benefits of a data-driven approach to planning. Whether you’re a Scrum Master, team lead, or decision-maker, you’ll learn how to turn print  planning into a predictable and productive process.

2. Understanding Umano’s Active and Macro Cycle Planners

Sprint planning involves balancing short-term execution with long-term strategy, and Umano addresses this challenge with two distinct tools: the Active Cycle Planner and the Macro Cycle Planner. These planners provide a comprehensive approach to agile planning, helping teams optimize both immediate sprints and broader objectives.

2.1 What is the Active Cycle Planner?

The Active Cycle Planner focuses on short-term cycles, such as sprints or intervals, providing actionable insights to guide realistic and achievable planning. By leveraging historical performance data, this tool helps teams assess their capacity and predict the outcomes of their sprint goals.

Planning Guide

Image: Planning Guide showcasing variances to usual performance.

1. Inherited Issues are the issues that are in-progress when the previous interval is completed.
2. New Issues are the issues that are in the To-Do column excluding the tickets that belong to backlog statutes.
3. Depending on the issues in progress and in the To-Do column, the planning widget will predict whether you’re over/under flow or a match.

Planning Inputs Widget

For any future interval created in a team's Issue Tracker, Umano mirrors this interval in the Planner. Before an interval starts in their Issue Tracker, Teams can switch the toggle at the top of the Planning Guide across from Issue Tracker to Planning Inputs, converting the Planning Inputs widget into an editable state. Teams can then experiment with any variables that help them design a plan that achieves a closer match between their usual plan and the ‘Future’ interval being planned. View the radial chart in the Planner Guide to observe any edits made to Planning Inputs widget.
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Planning inputs can not be edited once an interval moves to ‘In Progress’ (triggered by when the team commences the interval in their issue tracker) or is ‘Finished’ when the team completes their interval in their Issue Tracker.
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To unpack some of the Planning Inputs in a little more detail:

1. Capacity: Percentage work left to complete is taken from the team’s actual capacity metric, aggregating time spent and planned time left to spent on all issues still 'in progress' at interval completion

2. Strategic Focus: Focus on Features is calculated from the number of defects assigned to the interval relative to the total number of issues assigned

3. Estimation Adjustment: this is a user generated adjustment that can come from the team's Estimate Accuracy score, along with any additional context the team may have

4. Confidence to Completion is your team’s shared view of how confident they are to complete the planned interval. Whilst it has no bearing on the Planning Guide, it is a value that is saved and can therefore be tracked when scrolling through this page for prior intervals.

Image: Example of planing inputs to receive instant feedback.

Completion Predictions Table

This table forms the other crucial input to improving the team’s planning accuracy and forms an input into the Planning Guide’s Predicted Time to Complete.
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Listed are the team’s Estimate Sizes, along with their usual Cycle Time per estimate size, and the quantity of issues assigned to this interval in that Estimate size. The Total represents the total number of human days predicted to complete the assigned issues.
Analyzes the likelihood of completing planned tasks within the sprint timeframe.
Highlights risks and suggests actionable adjustments to improve the sprint’s feasibility.

1. the amount of time that each story point-sized issue usually takes,
2. the number of issues belonging to each story point size,
3. if there are issues without story points, then the time it takes is calculated using the usual cycle time it takes for the team to complete an issue,
4. the number of people assigned to complete issues in the intervals.

Image: Example of Predicted Time to Complete 

By using the Active Cycle Planner, teams can avoid overcommitment and ensure that their plans are both ambitious and achievable.

2.2 What is the Macro Cycle Planner?

While the Active Cycle Planner is tailored for short-term cycles, the Macro Cycle Planner addresses long-term planning needs, such as quarterly cycles or program increments. It’s designed to provide insights into team capacity over extended periods, helping align sprint activities with overarching business objectives.

Your Planning Guide helps your team build a longer-term plan that most closely aligns to how your team usual performs in a equivalent time period, is used to improve your team's predictability, protect your capacity and support the realignment of expectations when a setting goals to achieve for that longer-term cycle such as a quarter.
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The Planning Inputs widget gives your team the levers to experiment with the variables that most effect their longer-term plan and ability to deliver successfully. When in 'edit' mode, teams can change their planning inputs to see what changes are required to more closely align the interval's plan to their usual.
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The Completion Predictions table summarises the total person days estimated to complete the assigned issues to the interval, based on the quantity of issues per estimate bracket, and your team's usual Cycle Time per estimate. This is used as an input to your Planning Guide's 'Predicted Time to Complete'.

With the Macro Cycle Planner, teams can confidently set goals for multiple sprints or quarters while maintaining a strong connection between daily tasks and long-term strategies.

3. Why Are These Planners Critical for Agile Workflows?

The combination of Umano’s Active and Macro Cycle Planners ensures a seamless transition between short-term execution and long-term planning. Together, these tools enable teams to:

• Plan Smarter: Make data-driven decisions with clear insights into capacity and performance.
• Align Goals: Bridge the gap between sprint-level activities and organizational objectives.
• Reduce Risk: Proactively identify and mitigate potential bottlenecks or overcommitments.

By integrating these planners into their sprint planning process, agile teams can achieve a balance between immediate results and sustained success over time.

4. What Does Good Sprint Planning Look Like with Umano?

Good sprint planning sets the stage for predictable, efficient, and successful sprints. It ensures that teams commit to achievable goals based on data, not guesswork. With Umano’s Active Cycle Planner, good planning is data-driven, team-focused, and aligned with historical performance.

Here’s what good planning entails and how Umano supports each element:

4.1 A Balanced Team Plan

A strong sprint plan considers the team’s historical capacity and usual performance metrics. With Umano, teams can ensure their plan:

• Avoids Overcommitment: Umano’s Planning Guide ensures the sprint plan doesn’t exceed the team’s historical velocity or capacity.
• Prevents Undercommitment: The tool flags under-planned sprints to help teams fully utilize their capacity and deliver value.

Image: Examples of good planing (left) vs bad planing (right)

4.2 Ojo’s Suggestions

Umano’s AI assistant, Ojo, provides tailored recommendations to help teams align their sprint plans with their usual performance. These suggestions take into account:

• Issues inherited from previous sprints.
• New issues added to the sprint.
• Defects that may affect the team’s workload.

Image:  Example of Ojo’s recommendations for sprint planning.

4.3 Predicted Time to Complete

Good sprint planning includes realistic estimations of how long tasks will take. Umano’s Completion Predictions Table calculates:

• The total person-days needed to complete all assigned issues.
• The breakdown of tasks based on estimate brackets.
• Adjustments based on the team’s usual cycle time.

4.4 Planning Inputs and Real-Time Adjustments

The Planning Inputs Widget allows teams to experiment with their sprint scope and workload in real time. By adjusting inputs, teams can:

• Test the impact of adding or removing tasks.
• See immediate feedback on how these changes align with Ojo’s recommendations.

Images: Left — Planning from the Issue Tracking System, Right — Your Planning Inputs with Real-Time Impact Analysis

4.5 Continuous Feedback Loop

Good planning is not static. Teams must revisit and adjust plans as they gather more data. Umano’s tools encourage:

• Collaboration: Ensuring the team is aligned on goals and capacity during sprint planning.
• Transparency: Using visual tools and predictions to foster clear communication.
• Iterative Improvement: Leveraging insights from each sprint to refine future plans.

Good sprint planning with Umano is a collaborative, data-driven process that aligns team goals with historical performance. With tools like the Planning Guide, Ojo’s suggestions, the Completion Predictions Table, and real-time planning inputs, teams can create balanced, achievable sprint plans. This approach minimizes risks, maximizes productivity, and sets the stage for continuous improvement.

5. Summary: Elevate Sprint Planning with Umano and Jira

Sprint planning is no longer a guessing game when leveraging Umano and Jira together. With its plug-and-play integration, Umano enhances Jira’s capabilities by providing advanced analytics, real-time insights, and tools tailored for agile teams. The combination transforms sprint planning from a challenging process to a data-driven, collaborative strategy for success.

Here’s what makes Umano an essential companion for sprint planning:

• The Active Cycle Planner ensures short-term plans are realistic and achievable by analyzing historical performance, providing data-backed predictions, and flagging potential risks.
• The Macro Cycle Planner helps align sprint-level activities with long-term strategic objectives, giving teams the ability to set and achieve broader goals.
• Good Planning Practices supported by Umano, such as Ojo’s tailored suggestions, real-time planning inputs, and completion predictions, ensure teams avoid overcommitment, underutilization, or unrealistic timelines.

Whether it’s aligning sprints with capacity, planning dynamically for Kanban workflows, or fostering collaboration with engagement tools like Notes, Umano ensures that every sprint begins with a clear, actionable plan. By focusing on insights, transparency, and iterative improvement, Umano enables teams to deliver value consistently.

Outlook: Unlocking the Full Potential of Umano and Jira

This blog focused on how to set the foundation for effective sprint planning with Umano and Jira. In the next blog, we’ll dive deeper into how to use Umano’s tools during and after the sprint. From real-time adjustments to post-sprint retrospectives, you’ll discover how to make the most of Umano to drive continuous improvement and team success. Stay tuned to unlock the full potential of agile workflows with Umano and Jira!