Planning a sprint

{panel}(!) Please note that at this point we assume that you have already:
* Configured the board's settings
* Created and customized your project's backlog
* Created a sprint that you are going to plan
* Selected your project in the project's drop-down on the board
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h1. Moving features and tasks from a backlog

The first and most useful practice in agile is adding stories and tasks to the sprint from the existing backlog.

*To move stories and tasks from the backlog to your sprint*:
# Select the sprint you wish to plan in the sprint's combo-box
# Click the (icon) to open the Backlog of your project in the side bar
Swimlanes and orphan tasks are shown in the backlog separately. To switch between them, click the corresponding link below the backlog's name.
# Click on the needed card in the backlog and drag it to the board.

That's it!

A feature (swimlane) or a task is moved to a sprint with all its sub-tasks --- issues of any type that are linked with the swimlane or the task as "sub-task", that is complete hierarchical tree of a user story is moved from the backlog. However, sometimes you might need to add either new or an existing task to a swimlane. In this case, please refer to the [#Adding tasks to a story] section below.

h1. Creating a story

If needed, you can not only move the swimlane (user story) to the board from the project's backlog, but also create a swimlane right on the board in the needed sprint, during the planning.

h2. Creating new task for a swimlane

On the board, you can create new tasks for existing swimlanes.

# For the swimlane, to which you need to add task, click the down-arrow icon next to the swimlane ID to open drop-down menu.
# Click "Add task" to open the *New task dialog*
# Type in task *Summary* and *Description* and click *Save*: the new issue of type "Task" with default priority will be added to the swimlane. In YouTrack, this new issue will be also automatically linked to the feature as the "subtask".




h2. Adding already existing task to a swimlane

If you have an existing task, which you want to add to a swimlane, you can move the task to the swimlane from the *Orphans* section of the backlog, from *Orphan tasks* lane, or from another swimlane.
To do so, select the task card you want to move, and then drag it to the target swimlane. That's it.

h1. Estimating tasks

In YouTrack, we provide estimation for tasks only, not swimlanes. Estimation for a swimlane (a story) is the summ of all estimates of its tasks. Please note, that, at the moment, the summary estimation value for a swimlane is not displayed, and is not accounted in any report.

Before estimating tasks on the board, you should specify an issue field to be used as Estimation, in the Board Settings. When the Estimation field is configured, it is shown at the upper-right corner of the task card.

By default, the "empty" value of the selected field is shown on the task card (for example, "No Estimation" or other empty value that is configured for the field used for Estimation).

*To estimate a task*, click on the Estimation field and type the needed value.


h1. Prioritizing Sprint

Prioritizing sprint is very easy: just drag swimlanes and tasks and place them in the desired order.
However, please note that the order, in which swimlanes and tasks are displayed on Agile board, does not affect neither issues order in the same context on the Issues list (e.g. if you) nor any issue attribute, like Priority.
Prioritizing the sprint on board is a visual setting, per se.