The Sprint Goal

The most recent version of the Scrum Guide (2020) 🆕 talks about the Product Goal as a commitment to the Product Backlog

and the Sprint Goal 🎯 as being the commitment for the Sprint Backlog.

The Sprint Goal is crafted during the Sprint Planning.

It helps bring focus to the Sprint.

During the Daily Scrum, the Sprint Goal should be the main topic of conversation.

𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗚𝗼𝗮𝗹

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒆 #1: 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝑺𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒕 𝑮𝒐𝒂𝒍

Not having a Sprint Goal might not block 🙅 🛑 you from delivering a releasable increment.

However, a lot is gained 😉 when teams focus on the Goal of the Sprint.

What's the reason there is no Sprint Goal? Mostly there also is a lack of focus.

Ask the Product Owner what is it that we want to achieve at the end of this Sprint.

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒆 #2: 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒕 𝑮𝒐𝒂𝒍 📃

Avoid Sprint Goals like:

"Get Jira tickets 17322, 17323, 171400, and 17888 done". 🤦

-or-

to sum up, all the selected Product Backlog Items are squeezed into a sentence.

Product Backlog Items in the Sprint are the outcome 📦, and the Sprint Goal should be leading it 🔝.

The Product Owner should not ❌ try to keep all the stakeholders happy by giving them all a breadcrumb.

The stakeholders should be managed ✅ and the Product Backlog should be organized around features that deliver value for customers at the end of the Sprint.

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒆 #3: 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒎 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒆𝒍𝒔𝒆 🤯

We have a Sprint Goal! 👍

But there is no room for anything else. 😭

What if:

* The solution thought of turns out to be a lot harder to implement;

* Production failures need fixing;

* Danny (the guy everyone relies on) is ill (again!) 🤒;

* The Product Owner promised 🤩 a particular stakeholder that he can get this last-minute fix in the Sprint anyway.

* ... and so on ...

Having a full Sprint means imminent risk ⚡ in achieving the Sprint Goal!

Choose your focus point for this Sprint. And make that your Sprint Goal.

Use a primary and secondary goal in a Sprint, so that the focus remains on the main goal, but there is still cohesion on the rest of the Sprint.

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒆 #4: 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝒇𝒐𝒄𝒖𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒕 𝑮𝒐𝒂𝒍 ❌🔎

You have a good Sprint goal but you do not use it, leaving it behind.

Make sure the Sprint Goal is visible somewhere for everyone to see. 🚨

Talk about it (during Daily Scrum)! 🗣️

Make sure Product Backlog Items on your Sprint relevant to the Sprint goal are on top and worked on first: colorize 🎨 or tag them!

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒆 #5: 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒂𝒍 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒂 𝒈𝒐𝒂𝒍 😵 💫

It's important that the Sprint Goal has a -what- focus: what do we want to achieve?

"Change the page to support HTML5 elements"

... is probably not the best Sprint Goal to work on.

#scrum #sprint #goal

src. 👉 https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/scrum-trenches-sprint-goal