In the Agile world, a Sprint Planning meeting would typically have the Business / Product Owner listing and explaining each story to be delivered and the team goes about doing their best to understand each story based on questions and discussions. The team then estimate the effort needed for each story and commit to whatever they think is feasible within the Sprint duration. For a 2 week Sprint, this typically takes around 3-4 hours.
In many cases, discussions on stories unearth scenarios that need further Analysis by the Product Owner before they can be ready for development. These stories cannot be picked up for development even if they are of highest priority since there are some unknowns about them. This means that the Sprint backlog could consist of stories that are not of highest priority. Also, this results in a long Planning meeting due to more discussions and more stories to discuss.
Is there a way to change this and ensure that the Sprint backlog is filled with stories of highest priority and value? Also, is it possible to have a shorter planning meeting?
Fortunately, the answer is Yes…
The key is to remove the discussions and visit all possible scenarios up front.
The answer is to have an Elaboration session for the next Sprint in the middle of the current Sprint. The Scrum Master gets the team and the Product Owner together for the Elaboration session. Here, the Product Owner presents the stories for development in the next Sprint and solicits questions and feedback. The team and Product owner discuss all possible scenarios and get a complete understanding. There is a huge possibility that some stories might not be ready for development. The Product Owner then has the time to action these before the actual Sprint planning meeting a week later.
This way, the team is fully aware of the stories coming up in the next Planning meeting, the Product owner has time to fine tune his high priority stories and many stories can be committed to and taken up for development without much discussion at the planning meeting. All this leads to a short planning meeting and a less stressed out team. The additional meeting that is added would provide value by unearthing issues up front thus providing enough time for resolution.
I strongly encourage management and teams to try this option out. Do let us know how this worked for you.
The Product Mantra 
Do you mind if I quote a few of your posts as long as I
provide credit and sources back to your weblog? My blog site is in the very same
area of interest as yours and my visitors would certainly
benefit from some of the information you provide here. Please let me know if this alright with you.
Thank you!
Why not. Definitely.
Relax and repeat the process as many times you wish. In fact their cost effectiveness and longevity
is so high that they are being used for lighting homes and offices.
Choosing organic wheatgrass seeds provides you with the main advantage of
obtaining the right natural vitamins and minerals by means of the final product which is to be
either the plant or alternatively wheatgrass juice if you want to blend it.