Sprint planning in CWM

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Sprint planning in CWM

    Sprint planning in Collaborative Work Management (CWM) enables ServiceNow customers to effectively plan, track, and manage Agile work for their teams. The Sprint Planning view on the CWM Board consolidates all existing work items into a Backlog, allowing easy scheduling and organization of tasks into sprints. This feature supports various work item types, including Stories and custom types, to accommodate diverse project needs.

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    Key Features

    • Sprint Planning View: Activate via the Personalize side panel to access backlog and sprint management on your CWM Board.
    • Backlog Management: Displays all unplanned work items (new and incomplete), excludes completed tasks, and supports prioritization, rearrangement, filtering (except custom columns), duplication (for CWM tasks and Stories), deletion, and drag-and-drop scheduling into sprints.
    • Sprint Creation and Configuration: Easily create sprints by setting duration, start/end dates, and story points capacity. Supports multiple sprints with identical or varying configurations.
    • Sprint Workload Tracking: Each sprint shows utilized capacity and remaining story points, assisting in workload balancing.
    • Customization: Personalize column displays in Backlog and Sprint panes and toggle views to optimize workspace.
    • Work Item Management: Create and add new work items directly to Backlog or sprints within the Sprint Planning view.
    • Sprint Lifecycle Actions: Start and complete sprints directly from the view, with an option to create a retrospective board upon sprint completion for team collaboration and reflection.
    • Sprint Updates and Deletion: Modify sprint details or delete sprints to reflect changes in planning priorities.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    This Sprint planning capability streamlines Agile project management by consolidating work items and sprint activities into a single, customizable interface. It helps teams maintain clear visibility of backlog priorities, sprint capacities, and progress. By enabling easy sprint creation, adjustment, and retrospective facilitation, CWM empowers teams to align their work efficiently with Agile best practices and adapt plans dynamically based on evolving project needs.

    Plan, track, and manage work for your teams in the Agile methodology using Sprint planning in Collaborative Work Management.

    Within the Sprint Planning view of your CWM Board, you can manage your team's backlog, create sprints, plan work into sprints, and execute them seamlessly. All existing work items on your CWM Board are automatically added to the Backlog pane in the Sprint Planning view. This means that whether the work items are old or new, they will all be visible in the Backlog. From this pane, you can easily schedule these items into sprints for execution.

    You have the flexibility to create work items of various types, such as Stories. You can also use any other default and custom work types that are available on your CWM Board. This flexibility ensures that you can tailor your sprint planning to fit the specific needs of your team and projects.

    Enabling Sprint planning view

    From the Views section of the Personalize (Personalize List and Gantt views.) side panel, select Sprint planning to enable the display of Sprint planning view on your CWM Board.
    Note:
    Save your Board view to ensure that the Sprint planning view is always displayed on your Board.

    Enable Sprint planning view.

    Backlog

    The Backlog pane displays all unplanned work items, including both newly added and older incomplete tasks. Completed work items are not shown, keeping your focus on what needs to be done. You can add work items directly to the Backlog from this view. You can also use the personalize side panel to show or hide columns within the Backlog pane, customizing the display to suit your needs.

    Within the Backlog pane, you can do the following:
    • Move work items to the top or bottom of the backlog based on the priority.
    • Move items to the currently ongoing sprint.
    • Move work items within the list by rearranging rows.
    • Delete work items.
    • Apply filters on any column. However, filters can't be applied on custom columns within Backlog.
    • Change the number of items displayed per page.
    • Duplicate work items by using Copy row.
      Note:
      You can duplicate only CWM tasks and Stories but not other connected work records.
    • Drag and drop a single or multiple work items from Backlog to one of the sprints.

    Sprint planning Backlog in CWM.

    Sprints

    The Sprints section in your CWM Board displays the list of active sprints. If you haven’t created any sprints yet, this section will show a form to help you get started. You can create a sprint by selecting the sprint duration, start and end dates, and story points capacity. To create additional sprints with the same settings, use the Add another Sprint option. For sprints with different durations or capacities, select Create Sprint. For more information, see Create a sprint in CWM.

    Each sprint is a collapsible section where you can add work items directly and customize the view using the personalize side panel. Each sprint section also shows the percentage of utilized capacity and the remaining story points, helping you manage your team's workload effectively.

    Sprints section in CWM Sprint planning.

    Personalizing Sprint Planning view

    You can customize the columns displayed in the Backlog and Sprint panes using the Personalize (Personalize List and Gantt views.) side panel, allowing you to see the most relevant information. Any changes you make can be saved to the current Board view or as a new view, depending on your needs.

    If you require more working area for the Backlog or Sprints within the Sprint planning view, you can toggle between the Backlog, Sprints, and Backlog and Sprints options.

    Personalize options for CWM Sprint planning.