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Sprint Backlog Confusion

Last post 11:22 am November 20, 2023 by Ian Mitchell
4 replies
Faisal Muhammad Baloch
12:44 pm November 19, 2023

 

For below statement: If the scope of Sprint Backlog is negotiated, than how can sprint Goal remain unchanged?

 

"If the work turns out to be different than they expected, development team collaborates with the Product Owner to negotiate the scope of the Sprint Backlog within the Sprint without affecting the Sprint Goal"

 

Chris Belknap
01:02 pm November 19, 2023

The Sprint Backlog contains the Sprint Goal (why), the PBIs selected (what), and the plan (the how). The negotiation focuses on the PBIs.

Let's say our product is an e-commerce website, and the Sprint Goal is "Optimize the digital payment workflow to increase sales throughput by 5%". The Developers selected 11 PBIs to meet that Sprint Goal. The Developers find out that one of the PBIs is either much larger in size than anticipated, or find some technical challenges to the implementation. Could one PBI be dropped or scope adjusted while keeping the Spring Goal in mind?

Thomas Owens
05:11 pm November 19, 2023

In addition to what Chris said, it also depends on what PBIs the team adds to the Sprint Backlog. Most of the teams that I work with add PBIs unrelated to the Sprint Goal if they believe, at Sprint Planning, that they have the capacity to do the work. After crafting the Sprint Goal, they select the PBIs that they believe are needed to achieve that goal. If they believe that there may be other work that they can get to in the course of the Sprint, they can add those PBIs as well. If the work needed to achieve the Sprint Goal ends up being more than they anticipated, they may drop these PBIs from their plan to maximize the chances of achieving the Sprint Goal, and negotiating with the Product Owner can help the team determine which of those other PBIs should be dropped.

Faisal Muhammad Baloch
10:34 am November 20, 2023

Thanks for the clarification

Ian Mitchell
11:22 am November 20, 2023

If the scope of Sprint Backlog is negotiated, than how can sprint Goal remain unchanged?

Because Developers ought to commit to a goal, and not to a forecast of work for achieving it.

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