If we can’t finish all tasks, does this mean we are doing Scrum wrong?
I'm working in an online mobile game development team, and we've been doing Scrum for several sprints.
There are various reasons, but we seem never able to finish all items selected for an sprint.
Does this mean we are doing something wrong in Scrum, or this can happen for anyone and be just normal?
scrum
asked 8 hours ago
Paiman RoointanPaiman Roointan
332
New contributor
Paiman Roointan is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
I'm working in an online mobile game development team, and we've been doing Scrum for several sprints.
There are various reasons, but we seem never able to finish all items selected for an sprint.
Does this mean we are doing something wrong in Scrum, or this can happen for anyone and be just normal?
scrum
asked 8 hours ago
Paiman RoointanPaiman Roointan
332
New contributor
Paiman Roointan is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
2
have you done any retrospective with team on this topic?
– AADProjectManagement
8 hours ago
I've accepted Todd's answer and I think we've customized Scrum to a point it's not Scrum anymore and we need to do and learn a lot. But in order to answer your question we have tried considering time for code review, leaving room for critical bug fixes, etc. But this still keeps happening.
– Paiman Roointan
5 hours ago
add a comment |
I'm working in an online mobile game development team, and we've been doing Scrum for several sprints.
There are various reasons, but we seem never able to finish all items selected for an sprint.
Does this mean we are doing something wrong in Scrum, or this can happen for anyone and be just normal?
scrum
asked 8 hours ago
Paiman RoointanPaiman Roointan
332
New contributor
Paiman Roointan is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
I'm working in an online mobile game development team, and we've been doing Scrum for several sprints.
There are various reasons, but we seem never able to finish all items selected for an sprint.
Does this mean we are doing something wrong in Scrum, or this can happen for anyone and be just normal?
scrum
scrum
asked 8 hours ago
Paiman RoointanPaiman Roointan
332
New contributor
Paiman Roointan is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 8 hours ago
Paiman RoointanPaiman Roointan
332
New contributor
Paiman Roointan is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 8 hours ago
Paiman RoointanPaiman Roointan
332
New contributor
Paiman Roointan is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 8 hours ago
Paiman RoointanPaiman Roointan
332
asked 8 hours ago
Paiman RoointanPaiman Roointan
332
332
New contributor
Paiman Roointan is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
Paiman Roointan is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Paiman Roointan is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
2
have you done any retrospective with team on this topic?
– AADProjectManagement
8 hours ago
I've accepted Todd's answer and I think we've customized Scrum to a point it's not Scrum anymore and we need to do and learn a lot. But in order to answer your question we have tried considering time for code review, leaving room for critical bug fixes, etc. But this still keeps happening.
– Paiman Roointan
5 hours ago
add a comment |
2
have you done any retrospective with team on this topic?
– AADProjectManagement
8 hours ago
I've accepted Todd's answer and I think we've customized Scrum to a point it's not Scrum anymore and we need to do and learn a lot. But in order to answer your question we have tried considering time for code review, leaving room for critical bug fixes, etc. But this still keeps happening.
– Paiman Roointan
5 hours ago
2
2
have you done any retrospective with team on this topic?
– AADProjectManagement
8 hours ago
have you done any retrospective with team on this topic?
– AADProjectManagement
8 hours ago
I've accepted Todd's answer and I think we've customized Scrum to a point it's not Scrum anymore and we need to do and learn a lot. But in order to answer your question we have tried considering time for code review, leaving room for critical bug fixes, etc. But this still keeps happening.
– Paiman Roointan
5 hours ago
I've accepted Todd's answer and I think we've customized Scrum to a point it's not Scrum anymore and we need to do and learn a lot. But in order to answer your question we have tried considering time for code review, leaving room for critical bug fixes, etc. But this still keeps happening.
– Paiman Roointan
5 hours ago
add a comment |
1 Answer
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oldest
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TL;DR
There are various reasons, but we seem never able to finish all items selected for an (sic) sprint.
This points to a Scrum implementation failure. The failure is not that the Development Team isn't completing all its work items; the failure is that the Scrum Team lacks a central coherence for each Sprint. In other words, you need a Sprint Goal as a central feature of Sprint Planning.
Analysis and Recommendations
Always remember that the goal of a Sprint isn't to complete lots of backlog items. The goal of a Sprint is to deliver the Sprint Goal.
A focus on "doing all the things" is an anti-pattern that stems from non-agile assumptions about how work should be divvied up and performed. It's also very commonly a form of the 100% utilization fallacy that attempts to maximize the utilization of individual team members, rather than optimizing for the throughput of potentially-shippable features that meet a complete Definition of Done.
Because the team is being asked to work on many disparate tasks, rather than collaborating in a cross-functional way on completing vertical slices of work, the results you're seeing are almost entirely predictable. You need to shift your focus away from pseudo-productivity in the form of task-completion towards a focus on feature-completion to resolve this problem.
In other words:
- Ensure each Sprint Planning session results in a coherent Sprint Goal.
- Ensure the work selected for the Sprint aligns with that Sprint Goal.
- Ensure everyone on the team is working together on the Sprint Goal.
- Measure the success of the Sprint on whether or not the Scrum Team was able to meet the Sprint Goal.
Doing anything else is not Scrum. Doing anything else will also be painful, frustrating, and demoralizing. So, unless you are an organization of professional masochists, stop doing what you're doing and implement Sprint Goals as a core practice.
See Also
- https://pm.stackexchange.com/a/22971/4271
- https://pm.stackexchange.com/a/25838/4271
- https://pm.stackexchange.com/a/18228/4271
answered 8 hours ago
Todd A. Jacobs♦Todd A. Jacobs
32.9k332118
I'm seriously shocked by your answer! and you are right!
– Paiman Roointan
6 hours ago
add a comment |
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1 Answer
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1 Answer
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TL;DR
There are various reasons, but we seem never able to finish all items selected for an (sic) sprint.
This points to a Scrum implementation failure. The failure is not that the Development Team isn't completing all its work items; the failure is that the Scrum Team lacks a central coherence for each Sprint. In other words, you need a Sprint Goal as a central feature of Sprint Planning.
Analysis and Recommendations
Always remember that the goal of a Sprint isn't to complete lots of backlog items. The goal of a Sprint is to deliver the Sprint Goal.
A focus on "doing all the things" is an anti-pattern that stems from non-agile assumptions about how work should be divvied up and performed. It's also very commonly a form of the 100% utilization fallacy that attempts to maximize the utilization of individual team members, rather than optimizing for the throughput of potentially-shippable features that meet a complete Definition of Done.
Because the team is being asked to work on many disparate tasks, rather than collaborating in a cross-functional way on completing vertical slices of work, the results you're seeing are almost entirely predictable. You need to shift your focus away from pseudo-productivity in the form of task-completion towards a focus on feature-completion to resolve this problem.
In other words:
- Ensure each Sprint Planning session results in a coherent Sprint Goal.
- Ensure the work selected for the Sprint aligns with that Sprint Goal.
- Ensure everyone on the team is working together on the Sprint Goal.
- Measure the success of the Sprint on whether or not the Scrum Team was able to meet the Sprint Goal.
Doing anything else is not Scrum. Doing anything else will also be painful, frustrating, and demoralizing. So, unless you are an organization of professional masochists, stop doing what you're doing and implement Sprint Goals as a core practice.
See Also
- https://pm.stackexchange.com/a/22971/4271
- https://pm.stackexchange.com/a/25838/4271
- https://pm.stackexchange.com/a/18228/4271
answered 8 hours ago
Todd A. Jacobs♦Todd A. Jacobs
32.9k332118
I'm seriously shocked by your answer! and you are right!
– Paiman Roointan
6 hours ago
add a comment |
TL;DR
There are various reasons, but we seem never able to finish all items selected for an (sic) sprint.
This points to a Scrum implementation failure. The failure is not that the Development Team isn't completing all its work items; the failure is that the Scrum Team lacks a central coherence for each Sprint. In other words, you need a Sprint Goal as a central feature of Sprint Planning.
Analysis and Recommendations
Always remember that the goal of a Sprint isn't to complete lots of backlog items. The goal of a Sprint is to deliver the Sprint Goal.
A focus on "doing all the things" is an anti-pattern that stems from non-agile assumptions about how work should be divvied up and performed. It's also very commonly a form of the 100% utilization fallacy that attempts to maximize the utilization of individual team members, rather than optimizing for the throughput of potentially-shippable features that meet a complete Definition of Done.
Because the team is being asked to work on many disparate tasks, rather than collaborating in a cross-functional way on completing vertical slices of work, the results you're seeing are almost entirely predictable. You need to shift your focus away from pseudo-productivity in the form of task-completion towards a focus on feature-completion to resolve this problem.
In other words:
- Ensure each Sprint Planning session results in a coherent Sprint Goal.
- Ensure the work selected for the Sprint aligns with that Sprint Goal.
- Ensure everyone on the team is working together on the Sprint Goal.
- Measure the success of the Sprint on whether or not the Scrum Team was able to meet the Sprint Goal.
Doing anything else is not Scrum. Doing anything else will also be painful, frustrating, and demoralizing. So, unless you are an organization of professional masochists, stop doing what you're doing and implement Sprint Goals as a core practice.
See Also
- https://pm.stackexchange.com/a/22971/4271
- https://pm.stackexchange.com/a/25838/4271
- https://pm.stackexchange.com/a/18228/4271
answered 8 hours ago
Todd A. Jacobs♦Todd A. Jacobs
32.9k332118
I'm seriously shocked by your answer! and you are right!
– Paiman Roointan
6 hours ago
add a comment |
TL;DR
There are various reasons, but we seem never able to finish all items selected for an (sic) sprint.
This points to a Scrum implementation failure. The failure is not that the Development Team isn't completing all its work items; the failure is that the Scrum Team lacks a central coherence for each Sprint. In other words, you need a Sprint Goal as a central feature of Sprint Planning.
Analysis and Recommendations
Always remember that the goal of a Sprint isn't to complete lots of backlog items. The goal of a Sprint is to deliver the Sprint Goal.
A focus on "doing all the things" is an anti-pattern that stems from non-agile assumptions about how work should be divvied up and performed. It's also very commonly a form of the 100% utilization fallacy that attempts to maximize the utilization of individual team members, rather than optimizing for the throughput of potentially-shippable features that meet a complete Definition of Done.
Because the team is being asked to work on many disparate tasks, rather than collaborating in a cross-functional way on completing vertical slices of work, the results you're seeing are almost entirely predictable. You need to shift your focus away from pseudo-productivity in the form of task-completion towards a focus on feature-completion to resolve this problem.
In other words:
- Ensure each Sprint Planning session results in a coherent Sprint Goal.
- Ensure the work selected for the Sprint aligns with that Sprint Goal.
- Ensure everyone on the team is working together on the Sprint Goal.
- Measure the success of the Sprint on whether or not the Scrum Team was able to meet the Sprint Goal.
Doing anything else is not Scrum. Doing anything else will also be painful, frustrating, and demoralizing. So, unless you are an organization of professional masochists, stop doing what you're doing and implement Sprint Goals as a core practice.
See Also
- https://pm.stackexchange.com/a/22971/4271
- https://pm.stackexchange.com/a/25838/4271
- https://pm.stackexchange.com/a/18228/4271
answered 8 hours ago
Todd A. Jacobs♦Todd A. Jacobs
32.9k332118
TL;DR
There are various reasons, but we seem never able to finish all items selected for an (sic) sprint.
This points to a Scrum implementation failure. The failure is not that the Development Team isn't completing all its work items; the failure is that the Scrum Team lacks a central coherence for each Sprint. In other words, you need a Sprint Goal as a central feature of Sprint Planning.
Analysis and Recommendations
Always remember that the goal of a Sprint isn't to complete lots of backlog items. The goal of a Sprint is to deliver the Sprint Goal.
A focus on "doing all the things" is an anti-pattern that stems from non-agile assumptions about how work should be divvied up and performed. It's also very commonly a form of the 100% utilization fallacy that attempts to maximize the utilization of individual team members, rather than optimizing for the throughput of potentially-shippable features that meet a complete Definition of Done.
Because the team is being asked to work on many disparate tasks, rather than collaborating in a cross-functional way on completing vertical slices of work, the results you're seeing are almost entirely predictable. You need to shift your focus away from pseudo-productivity in the form of task-completion towards a focus on feature-completion to resolve this problem.
In other words:
- Ensure each Sprint Planning session results in a coherent Sprint Goal.
- Ensure the work selected for the Sprint aligns with that Sprint Goal.
- Ensure everyone on the team is working together on the Sprint Goal.
- Measure the success of the Sprint on whether or not the Scrum Team was able to meet the Sprint Goal.
Doing anything else is not Scrum. Doing anything else will also be painful, frustrating, and demoralizing. So, unless you are an organization of professional masochists, stop doing what you're doing and implement Sprint Goals as a core practice.
See Also
- https://pm.stackexchange.com/a/22971/4271
- https://pm.stackexchange.com/a/25838/4271
- https://pm.stackexchange.com/a/18228/4271
answered 8 hours ago
Todd A. Jacobs♦Todd A. Jacobs
32.9k332118
answered 8 hours ago
Todd A. Jacobs♦Todd A. Jacobs
32.9k332118
answered 8 hours ago
Todd A. Jacobs♦Todd A. Jacobs
32.9k332118
answered 8 hours ago
Todd A. Jacobs♦Todd A. Jacobs
32.9k332118
32.9k332118
I'm seriously shocked by your answer! and you are right!
– Paiman Roointan
6 hours ago
add a comment |
I'm seriously shocked by your answer! and you are right!
– Paiman Roointan
6 hours ago
I'm seriously shocked by your answer! and you are right!
– Paiman Roointan
6 hours ago
I'm seriously shocked by your answer! and you are right!
– Paiman Roointan
6 hours ago
add a comment |
Paiman Roointan is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Paiman Roointan is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Paiman Roointan is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
Paiman Roointan is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
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2
have you done any retrospective with team on this topic?
– AADProjectManagement
8 hours ago
I've accepted Todd's answer and I think we've customized Scrum to a point it's not Scrum anymore and we need to do and learn a lot. But in order to answer your question we have tried considering time for code review, leaving room for critical bug fixes, etc. But this still keeps happening.
– Paiman Roointan
5 hours ago