What is a sprint backlog?

The Sprint Backlog lists tasks your team intends to do within a project sprint. These items are frequently pulled from the product backlog during the sprint planning session. A clear sprint backlog avoids scope creep by defining exactly what your team will do—and not do—during each sprint.

A sprint backlog is a selection of items (user stories) from the product backlog that you will work on during the current sprint.

The Sprint Backlog is mainly composed of the Sprint Goal (why), a list of Product Backlog items chosen for the sprint (what), and a plan for delivering the Increment (how).

The Sprint Backlog is a strategy created by and for developers. It is an evident, real-time representation of the work that the Developers intend to do during the sprint to meet the Sprint Goal. The Sprint Backlog is updated throughout the sprint. It should be detailed enough to check their progress in the Daily Scrum.

The Importance Of Forming A Sprint Backlog

Compiling a sprint backlog provides teams with a clear perspective of what they need to accomplish to achieve sprint success. It also allows debating what is possible, what needs to be prioritized, and how the strategy may have changed since the previous sprint.

The Advantages Of Having A Sprint Backlog

The development team must contribute to determining the size and effort required for each sprint backlog item before assigning them to members of the group. After all, they are responsible for completing all of the work!

By giving the development team the ability to determine and arrange their workload, you reduce the likelihood of overly ambitious activities and staff fatigue on your team.

In a similar vein, the development team is responsible for providing time estimates for each item based on the anticipated speed of completion.

This prevents unreasonable turnaround times, allowing the sprint to go on schedule and protecting staff well-being. Furthermore, as the development team gains more experience, they will be able to examine their velocity in previous sprints, allowing them to picture better how many tasks they can complete in the currently scheduled sprint.

Team members can be confident that they are working on the correct item at the right time if they agree on the tasks that you should include in the sprint backlog. The inclusion of any additional requirements or studies identified during the sprint is outside the scope of the current sprint, but they can be discussed and added to the sprint backlog.

How To Use Sprint Backlogs

The strategic analysis phase of developing a sprint backlog is the first step. The software development team will analyze the items with the greatest priority in the current product backlog.

These things — typically documented as user stories — will be transferred into the sprint backlog. The team will identify all of the tasks required to complete the user story.

To ensure that the entire team is on the same page as to what has to be done first, it is good to put the user stories in priority order.

Once all of the elements on the list have been completed, the team must examine the feasibility of each story and the job contained within it.

It is vital to jot down the size and projected work required to finish each task to assist sprint and resource planning.

Who Is In Charge Of Maintaining The Sprint Backlog?

The sprint backlog is a shared responsibility in the majority of teams. The scrum master, product owner, and development team work together to prepare the sprint and ensure that the tasks involved have realistic timescales for completion before the sprint begins.

The development team should be responsible for updating the product owner and scrum master on progress; if they start to fall behind, the rest of the team needs to be made aware immediately.

Because of the collaborative nature of the sprint backlog, you may choose to record the information in a shared spreadsheet or some other location that is completely visible to everyone working in the sprint backlog. However, alternative, more user-friendly templates are available to assist with the planning, prioritization, and tracking the sprint backlog.