• How to Choose a Sprint Goal?
  • offers three questions to consider
    • GOAL - OUTCOME: Why do we carry out the Sprint? Why is it worth? What should be achieved?
    • METHOD - OUTPUTS: How do we reach its goal? Which artifact, validation technique, and test group are used?
    • METRICS - MEASUREMENTS: How do we know the goal has been met? For instance at least three of the five users carry out the usability test successfully in less than a minute
  • additionally, a header section to state to which product and sprint
  • many POs and teams don’t leverage sprint goals or don’t apply them correctly: Sprint goals often state the stories to be implemented rather than the reason for undertaking the iteration
• GOAL - OUTCOME:
  • why it is worthwhile to undertake the sprint
  • Examples are:
    • Test an assumption about the user interaction and learn what works best for the user: “Will users be willing to register before using the features?”
    • Address technical risk: “Does the architecture enable the desired performance?”
    • Release a feature:: “Get the reporting feature for general release.”
  • The sprint goal should be shared: The PO and the DT should believe that working towards the goal is the right thing to do
  • To choose the right sprint goal I find it helpful to consider the uncertainty present. In the early sprints, addressing risks and testing assumptions. Once the key risks and critical assumptions have been dealt with, I like to focus on completing and optimizing features
• METHOD - OUTPUTS:
  • how the goal is met
    • Create a (potentially shippable) product increment using the high-priority PBIs
    • But creating software and a demo are not always the best to achieve the goal!
    • A paper prototype can be good enough to test a visual design idea or an assumption about the user interaction, for instance.
    • What’s more, other methods such as carrying out a usability test or releasing software to run an A/B test may well be more effective than a product demo
  • You should therefore carefully choose the right method and state it in this section
  • But don’t stop there. Determine the test group, the people who should provide feedback and data. Who these individuals are depends on the sprint goal:
    • If validating an assumption about the visual design, the user interaction or the product functionality, then probably, collect feedback and data from the users
    • But if addressing a technical risk, then users may not be able to help you
    • Stating the test group clarifies who “the stakeholders” are, who is required to provide feedback so that the right product is developed
• METRICS - MEASUREMENTS:
  • how you determine if the goal has been met
  • Which metrics you use depends on the method chosen
    • For a product demo, you may state that at least two thirds of the stakeholders present should respond positively to the new feature
    • for a usability test, at least three of the 5 testers have completed the task successfully in less than a minute
    • for the release of a new feature, you might say that at least 80% of the users use the new functionality at least once within 5 days after launching the feature
  • Whichever metrics you choose, make sure that they allow you to understand if and to which extent you have met the goal
• The Header Section
  • two subsections “Product” and “Sprint”
  • They simply allow you to state which product and which sprint the goal belongs to.
• Sprint Goal, User Stories, and Sprint Backlog
  • The goal explains why it is a good idea to carry the sprint and implement the stories
  • The user stories enable you to reach the goal
  • To connect the template and the stories you have two options
    • state the relevant user stories in the template’s method section
    • list them separately on the sprint backlog, as the following picture illustrates
  • Model
    • Sprint Goal template - WHY
      • Header
        • Product name
        • Sprint number
      • Goal
      • Method
      • Metrics
    • Sprint Backlog
      • Items (user stories selected) – WHAT
      • TO DO – HOW
      • WIP - TRACKING
      • DONE - TRACKING