How to write a Sprint Goal?

Let’s say your team has started a new sprint with high hopes, a shiny sprint goal, and buzzing energy, but halfway through the sprint, reality hits, “Oh, no there’s no way we can complete this”. Sound familiar?

It’s not that your team is not capable; it’s the sprint goal that was off the mark. When you write an ineffective sprint goal, it can lead to overestimation, frustration, and spillover, which can make your team demotivated and less productive.  

But don’t worry! We’ve all been there. 

In this article, we will explore some practical strategies for writing effective sprint goals that align with your product objectives and vision. We will also see some real-life examples and learn how to set and track sprint goals with Scrum Slate. 

So let’s get started! 

What is a Sprint Goal?

In Scrum and agile methodologies, a sprint goal is a measurable and specific objective or desired outcome of a sprint. It acts as a central point that guides your team’s efforts and keeps everyone aligned on what truly matters. Unlike a long to-do list of tasks, a sprint goal focuses on delivering value and solving a specific problem within the timeframe of a sprint. 

The scrum team creates the sprint goal during the sprint planning meeting based on the product goal and stakeholders’ expectations. Afterward, the team selects work items from the backlog based on the sprint goal. A sprint goal doesn’t change during the sprint; however, team can adjust the scope of the sprint when needed. 

A good sprint goal helps the team prioritize tasks, make decisions, and understand the purpose of their daily activities. 

How to Write Effective Sprint Goal?

Writing an effective sprint goal can be challenging, especially for new Scrum teams. However, with the right tools and strategies, you can easily craft an efficient sprint goal that aligns with your business needs, provides value, and is achievable within the sprint timeframe. 

Here are some strategies for writing effective sprint goals:

1. Keep your Sprint Goal SMART 

Follow the SMART framework to keep your sprint goal specific, measurable, achievable, relative, and time-bounded. Instead of a vague statement, the sprint goal should tell what your team needs to achieve by the end of the sprint. It should be realistic, and the team should be able to track it throughout the sprint. 

For Example, instead of writing “Complete the authentication system,” You should write “Create a user-friendly login system that allows users to log in to the application, with no errors and clear error messages for invalid inputs.”

2. Align with the Product Goal

When writing sprint goal,s ensure to review the product vision and goals rather than focusing on the immediate tasks to be completed in the sprint. This will ensure that your sprint goal contributes to long-term product goals and team works in the right direction. 

For example, if your product goal is to increase the user experience by enhancing the app’s onboarding process, your sprint goal should focus on this vision. 

In this case, your sprint goal should be “Redesign the onboarding process to make it more intuitive and user-friendly, reducing user drop-off by 15% in the first week of use,” instead of “Fix bugs in the onboarding screen.”

3. Focus on Outcomes, Not Tasks

Your sprint goal should focus on the outcomes you want to achieve rather than how you will do it or the tasks the team will complete. Once you’ve defined the outcomes of your sprint, the specific task, user stories, and actions to reach the goal will naturally follow. This will enable your team to understand the value and impact of their work.  

For example, instead of saying “fix 10 bugs,” the goal could be “ensure that the login system is fully functional and free of critical bugs.” 

4. Ensure Collaboration with Stakeholders

Stakeholders are your clients, and they have clear expectations and vision regarding the product. They play a critical role in shaping the direction of your product. Collaborating with them during the sprint planning can ensure that your sprint goal is focused on real business needs and that the team is working on the most impactful tasks. 

5. Make It Flexible

Although the sprint goal should remain unchangeable during the sprint, the team might need to change it when things don’t go as planned. Hence, be sure to keep your flexibility so that the team can change it based on challenges and changing requirements during the sprint. If the sprint goal is rigid and the team is unable to change, it could lead to frustration and might delay the important tasks. 

To make your sprint goal flexible:

• Always keep space in the sprint backlog for unexpected tasks and urgent bug fixes. 
• Regularly communicate with your team and key stakeholders to ensure alignment. 
• Set priorities so that if you need to adjust the scope, the most valuable task can be completed first. 
• Make sure the sprint is focused on outcomes, not task list. 

Sprint Goal Examples

So what does a good sprint goal look like?

Let’s first check an example of ineffective sprint goal:

“Complete the authentication system.”

This sprint goal is vague and doesn’t specify what the team needs to achieve during the sprint. Like, whether they need to implement login functionality? Add multi-factor authentication? Or integrate with third-party authentication services?

A good sprint goal will answer important questions like:

1. Why is this sprint important for the product stakeholders and end users.
2. What problems are we trying to solve here?
3. How will we measure the success of the sprint goal?

A better sprint goal will look like this:

“Implement a secure email and password login system with optional multi-factor authentication, improving login speed by 20% and meeting security compliance standards.”

This sprint goal clearly outlines the outcomes, measuring criteria, and what the team needs to build in the authentication system. 

Setting and Track Sprint Goals in Scrum Slate

Once you’ve written an effective sprint goal, it is time to set and track these goals on a project management tool. Scrum Slate is an incredible agile project management tool that helps Scrum teams to stay focused, track progress, and achieve sprint goals. 

Set Sprint Goal

The user sprint goal is to clearly define and set your goal when creating a sprint. You can use this feature to track your team’s progress against the sprint goal with the advanced charts and adjust the team velocity when falling behind. 

After setting the goal, you can add user stories, tasks, and bugs that the team needs to complete to achieve the sprint goal. This feature helps the team to delegate work to team members and track their progress during the sprint. 

Use the Scrum Slate Progress Board to get a clear overview of the work in progress and completion. 

Sprint Management

Scrum Slate Sprints is an advanced feature that helps to plan, execute, and deliver sprint increments with ease. 

It provides tools for effective team management, collaboration, progress tracking, and task delegation. With sprints, you can effortlessly assign tasks to team members and set deadlines so that everyone knows what they need to do and when they need to complete it. This feature helps the team to stay focused and aligned. 

Similarly, you can also set a priority for tasks, user stories, and bugs so that the team members clearly understand what task they need to complete first and vice versa. With custom boards, you can effortlessly customize the tool according to your team’s needs and workflow. 

Track Sprint Goal with Scrum Slate Reports

Scrum Slate provides advanced charts and reports to track your team’s progress during the sprint. With these metrics, you can effortlessly track the team’s velocity and identify areas where your team is falling behind.

You can use burn-up charts to track the work that has been completed and burn-down charts to check the remaining work. This will help you calculate the percentage of the goal achieved in real time. 

Run Successful Sprints with Scrum Slate

Sprint goals play a crucial role in helping the team deliver value and goal-oriented increments during every sprint. They keep your team motivated and aligned with the product goals and stakeholder’s expectations. 

However, setting effective sprint goals requires meticulous planning, team collaboration, stakeholder engagement, and alignment with the product vision and goals. 

With Scrum Slate, teams can simplify their processes from setting to tracking the sprint goal while keeping everything organized and focused. 

So, Try Scrum Slate for free today and enhance your project management experience with its advanced features and tools.