Concepts
What is a Sprint Goal?
Before we dive into how to create a Sprint Goal, it’s crucial to understand what a Sprint Goal is. In Scrum, a Sprint Goal is a short, concise statement that defines what the team aims to achieve during a sprint. This goal steers the Development Team, offering guidance on why it is building the Increment.
Importance of a Sprint Goal
Having a Sprint Goal:
- Provides focus: It helps the team to stay focused on a singular objective other than completing a collection of unrelated tasks.
- Encourages flexibility: A well-defined Sprint Goal allows for changes and adaptations as required, as long as they align with the overall objective.
- Boosts sense of purpose: It gives the team a shared objective and increases team cohesion.
- Provides clarity: It helps stakeholders and Scrum Team understand what is to be achieved.
How to Create a Sprint Goal: A Step-by-Step Guide
- Product Backlog Refinement: This is a critical stage where the Product Owner, with the Scrum Team, reviews and refines the Product Backlog. It’s where discussions regarding the functionalities, adjustments, and improvements needed happen.
- Derive the Sprint Goal: After the Product Backlog refinement, the potential backlog items for the upcoming Sprint are known. From this, derive a goal that aligns with the highest-priority features or functionalities.
- Discuss with the Scrum team: Bring your derived goal to the Scrum Team and involve them in the conversation. Their insights might help refine the goal better.
- Formulate the Sprint Goal: Summarize your discussions into a single, succinct goal.
- Get Consensus: Ensure that everyone in the team has a clear understanding of the goal and is on board with it.
Let’s grab an example now.
Suppose you’re working on an e-commerce platform. During the Product Backlog refinement, you prioritize a user-friendly checkout process. So, your Sprint Goal might be “Improve the checkout process for increased user-friendliness”.
Here, you have a specific target (checkout process), and the goal aligns with the prioritized user-centric feature.
Sprint Goal Review
Reviewing a Sprint Goal is just as important as setting one. At the end of each sprint, the “Sprint Review” meeting reviews what was accomplished during the sprint towards the overall Sprint Goal. This session, involving the Scrum Team and key stakeholders, is for inspecting the outcome of the sprint and adapting the Product Backlog as needed.
It’s essential to remember that a Sprint Goal isn’t about completing individual tasks or user stories; it’s about achieving a larger objective that will provide tangible value to the users or organization.
The Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) exam will assess your understanding and abilities in these key areas of agile project management. Now you know the significance and process of creating a sprint goal with a Scrum Team, this information will empower you to form effective Sprint Goals that aid in delivering valuable product increments.
Answer the Questions in Comment Section
The Sprint Goal is a clear description of the product increment that has to be realized during the sprint.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: The Sprint Goal provides a roadmap to the Scrum team about what needs to be achieved in a particular sprint. It helps in creating focus, aligns the team towards a common objective and provides a criteria for success for the team.
The product owner alone is responsible for creating the Sprint Goal.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Although the product owner plays a significant role, the whole scrum team – including the development team and the scrum master – collaborates in creating the Sprint Goal.
The Sprint Goal once set cannot be changed during the sprint.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: The Sprint Goal should remain constant during the sprint to provide a steady direction to the team. If the goal is changed midway, the success of the Sprint may be compromised.
Which of the following aspect is NOT considered while setting a Sprint Goal?
- Available resources
- Project budget
- Product roadmap
- Team’s lunch menu
Answer: Team’s lunch menu
Explanation: While setting a sprint goal, considerations are given to aspects directly related to the product, project, and team capabilities, whereas the team’s lunch menu isn’t relevant.
The Sprint Goal is optional in scrum methodology.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: The Sprint Goal is a critical component of Scrum. It provides guidance to the team on why it is building the increment.
Having a clear Sprint Goal helps the team in conflict resolution and decision making.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: A clear sprint goal gives the team a sound base from which they can make decisions and resolve disputes that arise during the course of the Sprint.
The Sprint Goal should be linked to product increment only.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: Though the main focus of Sprint Goal is the product increment, it can also be linked to other aspects like risk reduction, exploration, and technical improvements.
Multiple sprint goals can be set for a single sprint.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: There should be only one Sprint Goal for a sprint that creates coherence and focus for the team.
The Sprint Goal is a mandatory component of the Sprint planning meeting.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: As per Scrum Guide, the output of this meeting is a Sprint Goal. It directs the team towards a single objective during the Sprint.
The Sprint Goal is always about delivering specific features or functionalities.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: The Sprint Goal is not necessarily about delivering specific product features or functionalities. It could also be about research, design work, experimentation or risk mitigation.
Who is responsible for ensuring that the team understands the Sprint Goal?
- Product Owner
- Scrum Master
- All of the Above
Answer: All of the Above
Explanation: Both the Product Owner and the Scrum Master have the responsibility to ensure that the team understands the sprint goal well.
A good Sprint Goal should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound).
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: In Scrum, Sprint Goals should be SMART to provide an effective, clear, and understandable direction for the team.
This blog post really helped clarify how to create a collaborative Sprint Goal.
As a CSPO candidate, understanding how to align the team around a Sprint Goal is essential.
Could someone elaborate on how the Sprint Goal ties into the Product Backlog?
Thanks for the insights!
I appreciate the clear examples provided in this post.
How detailed should a Sprint Goal be to pass a CSPO exam?
This blog was very informative!
I found the section on collaboration with the team particularly useful.