How can you create a realistic and achievable Sprint Backlog?
Learn from the community’s knowledge. Experts are adding insights into this AI-powered collaborative article, and you could too.
This is a new type of article that we started with the help of AI, and experts are taking it forward by sharing their thoughts directly into each section.
If you’d like to contribute, request an invite by liking or reacting to this article. Learn more
— The LinkedIn Team
A Sprint Backlog is a list of tasks that a Scrum team commits to complete in a Sprint, which is a fixed time period of one month or less. A Sprint Backlog is one of the three main Scrum artifacts, along with the Product Backlog and the Increment. Creating a realistic and achievable Sprint Backlog is essential for delivering value to the customer and meeting the Sprint Goal. In this article, you will learn how to create a Sprint Backlog that is aligned with the team's capacity, priorities, and expectations.
The first step to create a Sprint Backlog is to define the Sprint Goal, which is a short and clear statement of what the team wants to accomplish in the Sprint. The Sprint Goal should be aligned with the Product Vision and the Product Backlog, and it should provide guidance and direction for the team throughout the Sprint. The Sprint Goal is defined by the Product Owner in collaboration with the Scrum team during the Sprint Planning meeting.
-
Wasim Akhter
Senior Product Development Manager @ Easypaisa | Project Management | PMO | Service Delivery Manager | Fintech | Digital Financial Services | Mobile Wallet | Streaming Platform | E-Commerce | Telco | Agile
Creating a practical Sprint Backlog boils down to a few key steps. Start by refining your Product Backlog, ensuring it's clear, well-prioritized, and accurately estimated. Break items down into manageable pieces. Consider your team's capacity, and align the Sprint Goal with your project's objectives. Select items based on priority and past performance. Break them into tasks with estimates, address dependencies, and include a buffer for surprises. Monitor progress with daily stand-ups, adapt as needed, and conduct retrospectives for continuous improvement. This method ensures pro-level value delivery.
-
Usman Bin Rashid
Technical Project Manager | Agile Scrum Leadership Certified | Agile Coach | Ai | HealthCare IT | FinTech | Cloud/Infrastructure | Consultant | Speaker
Creating a realistic and achievable Sprint Backlog in Scrum involves: -Prioritize the Product Backlog. -Hold a Sprint Planning Meeting. -Define a clear Sprint Goal. -Select items for the Sprint Backlog. -Break down work into tasks. -Estimate effort. -Consider team capacity. -Review and adjust. -Commit to the Sprint Backlog. -Monitor progress through daily stand-up meetings. -Review and refine in the Sprint Review and Retrospective. -Communication and collaboration are key to success in each step.
-
Snehal Bhende
Scrum Master || ✔️PSM I || ✔️PSPO I || Digital Agile Transformation II Project Management || Business Process Improvement || Business Relationship & Vendor Management || Content Strategist || Retail Next || Agile
Although the sprint backlog is an evolving document, an accurate sprint forecast is pivotal to matching team's capacity to commitment. Forward planning of inputs, namely, a partially refined product backlog, team's capacity, and historic velocity is the secret sauce for effective sprint planning. Regardless, PBR continues to be the unsung hero of the Scrum Framework. Hosting early PBRs helps teams collaborate on refining and clarifying user stories, engaging the PO in gathering information from stakeholders, and providing relative estimations of complexities for requirement implementations. Besides, it sets the tone for DOR discussions. In short, selecting achievable PBIs requires advanced planning and collaborative effort.
The next step is to select the Product Backlog Items (PBIs) that support the Sprint Goal and that the team can deliver in the Sprint. The Product Owner presents the PBIs in order of priority and value, and the team estimates the effort and complexity of each PBI using techniques such as Planning Poker or T-shirt Sizing. The team then selects the PBIs that fit within the team's capacity, which is based on the historical data of how much work the team can complete in a Sprint, also known as the Velocity. The selected PBIs form the Sprint Backlog.
-
Michael Hefler, MBA Project Management
Project Manager | MBA Project Management | Professional Scrum Master - PSM I
Os PBIs selecionados devem ter o maior valor para o cliente. Isso significa que eles devem resolver problemas importantes para os clientes ou fornecer novos recursos que os clientes desejam. Dicas para selecionar os PBIs com sucesso: 1- Involva todos os stakeholders. 2- Considere o valor para o cliente. 3- Considere a prontidão para desenvolvimento. 4- Seja flexível.
-
Bhuwanesh Man Rajbhandari
Head of PMO | Senior Project Manager | Management 3.0 Facilitator | Management 3.0 Practitioner | Safe Scrum Master | CSM | SAFe Certified | SSM | LSM | LSPO | Agile Enthusiast
Follow the roadmap that has been provided. If there are any changes in the roadmap, the Product Management should immediately notify the POs and the Team. The product roadmap is created after a lot of analysis, product research, market research, etc. and priorities are created assessing them properly. If something new or urgent needs to happen, team should be notified and debriefed on the same, along with the reason for the change in priorities. Else the team will feel exhausted and start to judge the direction they have been provided.
-
Philipp Diebold
Geschäftsführer @Bagilstein | Professor für Wirtschaftsinformatik @IU Internationale Hochschule | Ich coache, trainiere und berate im Bereich der Agilität | Mein Motto: “Be the Change, Be BOLD”
Für mich ist das Bauchgefühl der Entwickler noch viel viel wichtiger als Schätzungen, die noch so gut sein könnten. Wenn jemand vom Bauchgefühl her mit dem Sprint Umfang nicht konform geht, gilt es dies zu verstehen Warum. Darin liegt meiner Meinung nach der Schlüssel.
The final step is to break down the PBIs into smaller and more manageable tasks that can be completed in a few hours or days. The team collaborates to identify the tasks, dependencies, risks, and assumptions for each PBI, and assigns a time estimate for each task. The team also decides who will work on which task, or leaves some tasks unassigned for flexibility and self-organization. The team updates the Sprint Backlog regularly throughout the Sprint to reflect the progress and changes.
By following these steps, you can create a realistic and achievable Sprint Backlog that helps you deliver value to the customer and meet the Sprint Goal. A Sprint Backlog is not a fixed plan, but a dynamic and evolving artifact that requires constant communication and collaboration among the Scrum team and the Product Owner. A Sprint Backlog is a tool for transparency, accountability, and adaptation in Agile Methodologies.
-
Cyrill Glockner
Technology Executive | AI/Machine Learning | Product and Partnerships | Investor and Startup Advisor | Ex-Microsoft Business AI
This is about asking the hard question "What is the smallest item possible that addresses the issue or creates additional customer value?". A lot of features are too large because it's much easier to make the feature bigger than making it smaller while adding value. I've experienced teams staying too much in their own bubble when creating PBIs w/o constantly reflecting on the customer need that they are trying to deliver. You could also frame it in the learning context, "What is the smallest item we need to add to get additional insights into what our users value or which part of the problem we're solving?". While some of that might be discovered prior to speccing out a feature, most of the time you won't know unless you've delivered it.
-
Peter Gillard-Moss
Technology leader | Strategy, Architecture, Engineering | Customer and Business outcome driven | Coach and mentor | Global, Distributed, Remote leadership
If you are managing at task level you've gone too far. Break down into smaller pieces of value that can be delivered in shorter periods (hours/days). For example, one piece of acceptance criteria (given a Product when the user clicks add then the item appears in the shopping basket). The team can slef manage tasks, they do not need to be tracked or estimated up front.
-
Vadim Kushnariov
Tech Products | Certified DM, PM, PO
Breaking down PBIs into smaller tasks and regularly updating the Sprint Backlog allows teams to be responsive to changes and uncertainties. This approach promotes transparency, as it makes the team's progress and priorities visible, and accountability, as it involves the team in deciding how to achieve the Sprint Goal. It's a reminder that agility and flexibility are key to delivering value to the customer in a dynamic and ever-changing environment.
-
Bhuwanesh Man Rajbhandari
Head of PMO | Senior Project Manager | Management 3.0 Facilitator | Management 3.0 Practitioner | Safe Scrum Master | CSM | SAFe Certified | SSM | LSM | LSPO | Agile Enthusiast
Team is needs to understand the product and why we are building it. If they get to know why they are building it, they can think of it as an actual user and help enhance the user experience. Pull them in on the design discussions as they are the one to make it happen and would know if or how we can achieve it.
-
Rodrigo Costa
Principal QA Engineer | Test Automation | Software Developer in Test (SDET) | Author, Lecturer, Professor
The sprint backlog is not a picture in time - it evolves daily as the sprint goes on. Thus, setting a WIP limit to prevent multitasking and reduce context switching helps the team focus on completing tasks rather than starting too many at once.
-
Thakur Chetan Singh
Engineering Manager- Quality Engineering at Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited
1. Prioritize User Stories: Start by prioritizing the user stories or tasks based on their value to the project and customer needs. Must have, Should have, Could have, Won't have. 2. Estimate Work Effort: Assign relative time or effort estimates to each task, such as story points, ideal days, or t-shirt sizes. These estimates should be based on historical data and team consensus. 3. Consider Team Capacity: Understand your team's capacity and velocity. Take into account holidays and other factors that may affect their availability during the sprint. 4. Break Down Tasks: Break down user stories into smaller, manageable tasks. 5. Review and Refine: Regularly review and refine the sprint backlog during the sprint with team collaboration.