How can you ensure that your sprint backlog is realistic and achievable?

Na prática, tenho percebido que os principais benefícios de definir a meta de uma sprint está em: - Proporcionar clareza e foco aos scrums diários; - Estabelecer uma referência para avaliar o progresso, o valor e os resultados; - Dar flexibilidade à funcionalidade implementada na sprint; - Ajudar o proprietário/P.O. do produto a criar o roadmap de produto. - Servir como guia para o planejamento da sprint; - Gerar uma tomada de decisão eficiente e alinhada;

É importante alinhar os termos e conceitos, então: Um backlog de produto é uma lista de todas as funcionalidades, tarefas, melhorias e correções que precisam ser feitas em um produto ou projeto. É uma ferramenta essencial para o desenvolvimento ágil, pois ajuda a equipe a visualizar o trabalho que precisa ser feito e a priorizar as atividades de acordo com o valor para o cliente. Por outro lado, um backlog de sprint é uma parte do backlog de produto que contém as tarefas que serão realizadas durante uma sprint específica. Ele é mais detalhado e contém as atividades que serão executadas pelos membros da equipe durante o período de tempo designado.

Be objective when setting sprint goals. It's always strange to see a workload for 10 people in a sprint when only three are actually doing the tasks. Always factor in additional time for various incidental losses. These could be unexpected issues with product delivery, delays in app verification in the App Store, or, for example, the need to refactor outdated code when creating new functionality, and so on. Be humble and more focused in setting your goals. Declare these goals for the sprint in front of the entire team and ensure that everyone understands their role in achieving these goals. Be strict and do not give in to your own desire, or the desire of your CEO, to add new tasks during the sprint.

Defining a clear sprint goal is foundational to ensuring that your sprint backlog is realistic and achievable. By establishing a specific objective or outcome that the team aims to accomplish during the sprint, you provide focus and direction for backlog refinement and sprint planning activities. The sprint goal serves as a guiding principle for selecting and prioritizing backlog items, ensuring that they contribute directly to the overarching purpose of the sprint and align with the team's priorities and objectives.

First of all, ask yourself - why are you doing this? What are the goals of the tasks that you have collected in the backlog? Do they meet the goals of your product? Guided by these questions, it becomes quite clear which tasks should be prioritized when choosing them to work on a new sprint.

Start by prioritizing tasks based on their importance and value to the sprint. Break down user stories into smaller, manageable tasks.Estimate the effort required for each task using techniques like story points or time-based estimates. Consider factors such as complexity, dependencies, and past performance. Involve the entire team in the backlog refinement. Consider the team's capacity and velocity when selecting tasks for the sprint backlog.Regularly review and adjust the sprint backlog as needed during the sprint.Communicate effectively with the team throughout the sprint to address any concerns or obstacles that may arise.

I know from my own experience how much we want to throw in more tasks to complete, and give people more interesting things in your product. But people tend to overestimate their strength, and this can lead to burnout, both for you and your team, when you see every sprint that half of the tasks are not closed, and the release is again behind the deadline. Prioritizing and making decisions based on data is an important part of your job. You may like some idea in itself. But what impact will its implementation have on the user experience? And for the company's profit? Don't forget to ask yourself these questions. And also - always be guided by the data, setting priorities. You need to understand what is really important and what you just want

The prioritization techniques employed could be the MoSCoW analysis or the Kano method are personal favourites. Moreso to avoid having a backlog full of feature requests from your team and not actually prioritized ideas. I suggest a separate document or note to log in feature requests, which when prioritized should then be added to the backlog, that's one way of being efficient

Prioritize and refining sprint backlog to ensure backlog is achievable. Sizing of work and a target date will also help provide achievable measures.

Prioritizing and refining backlog items is essential for ensuring that the sprint backlog contains the most valuable and feasible work items. Collaborate with stakeholders to identify and rank backlog items based on their importance, dependencies, and estimated effort. Break down larger user stories into smaller, more manageable tasks, and ensure that each item has a clear definition of done. By prioritizing backlog items effectively, you ensure that the team focuses on delivering the highest-priority work first, maximizing the value generated during the sprint.

Sprint planning is a team sport. You should encourage each other to contribute to the planning. Every team member should be aware of his capacity in the coming sprint ans also contribute his point of view how to improve velocity and resolve dependencies. The responsibility lies on all your shoulders.

Use release burndown chart. Choose the number of sprint on x-asis. On the y-asis write story points. Write how less story points until the release left in order to track your release burndown and in order to understand if you release a product on time

Planning the sprint capacity and velocity involves assessing the team's capacity and past performance to determine how much work can realistically be completed during the sprint. Consider factors such as team member availability, skill levels, and potential interruptions when estimating the team's capacity. Review past sprint velocities to understand the team's historical performance and adjust capacity estimates accordingly. By accurately planning the sprint capacity and velocity, you set realistic expectations for what can be achieved within the sprint timeframe, reducing the likelihood of over commitment or burnout.

It's worth starting to collect data about your sprints as early as possible. Until you start doing this, your backlogs will occur frequently. If you have historical data on how much work your team can do on average per sprint, you can use more accurate forecasts when planning your future sprints. And defend your position in a more reasoned way, why exactly so much work is planned for the sprint, why not more. If there are any questions from stakeholders.

Comparing innovation performance against established baselines and industry benchmarks provides valuable insights into your team's relative strengths and areas for improvement. Analyze trends, patterns, and deviations in innovation metrics to identify areas of success and areas that may require attention or intervention. Benchmarking against peer organizations or industry leaders can also provide valuable context and inspiration for setting ambitious yet realistic goals and targets for your team's innovation efforts.

🚀 Crafting a realistic sprint backlog isn't just about tasks, it's about empowering your team's success! Start by listening—understand their capabilities, concerns, and bandwidth. Break down goals into digestible chunks, aligning tasks with skills. Prioritize ruthlessly, focusing on what truly moves the needle. And remember, it's okay to adjust mid-sprint based on feedback and learnings. Together, we conquer challenges!

This is the key aspect to have an accurate volumen of task on your sprint. Once the sprint is finished you should review it and analyse what went well and what went wrong. You should trim and refine the backlog with all the team and once an epic if achieved you should do a post-morten of your work.

Defining a realistic and achievable sprint backlog is very crucial for meeting project deadlines. Drawing from my role as a Scrum Master, it's essential to gauge the team's velocity and capacity for delivering story points accurately. Additionally, incorporating a buffer is crucial to accommodate potential disruptions like leaves or emergencies that may affect team members' work hours. This proactive approach ensures a more resilient and adaptable sprint plan, enhancing the team's ability to navigate unforeseen challenges and consistently meet project milestones.

Software estimates is like a guessing game we all play, although we know very well, they're rarely accurate. I've spent a few years trying to make better estimates with some of the best Solution Architects around. The biggest takeaway is that software estimation is not a science and remains challenging, regardless of experience. Here's some of the best advice I have found around if you're pushed into a corner for an estimate: 1) Start with your best guess. 2) Multiply that by three for the lower range. 3) Then double that for the upper range, so a day's task becomes "3 to 6 days." But be aware that even this method is speculative at best. Working for a team or company that values progress over estimates is the real secret.

Fostering collaborative environment while defining sprint goal is must. Because discussion leads to if-else situation and it overcome challenges with are going to arise. Everyone should be participating in discussion.

Be realistic about what can be achieved in one sprint. Focus on high-value features that will deliver the best customer/business outcomes. It's better to deliver a managable amount of key features, as opposed to a large bucket of small but insequencial features.

Considero mais estes 3 pontos relevantes: - Estimar corretamente o tempo e esforço necessário: Realizar estimativas realistas sobre o tempo e esforço necessários para cada atividade, levando em consideração a experiência da equipe e possíveis imprevistos. -Manter o backlog atualizado: Manter o backlog de produto e de sprint sempre atualizados, revisando e ajustando as atividades conforme necessário durante o desenvolvimento do projeto. -Definir metas alcançáveis: Estabelecer metas alcançáveis para cada sprint, considerando a capacidade da equipe e garantindo que as atividades planejadas possam ser realizadas dentro do prazo estabelecido.