Sprint Goal
It is drafted jointly at the end of Sprint Planning, once the team and the Product Owner have agreed on which stories will be part of the iteration. The process of formulating the goal ensures that the whole team understands and shares the purpose of the work, beyond the task list.
What the Sprint Goal can be
The value delivered does not always have to be a new visible feature. The three valid types of goal are:
- Implementing a new feature that the customer will be able to use at the end of the sprint.
- Reducing a technical, security, or business risk that could jeopardize the product.
- Testing a hypothesis about user behavior or the feasibility of a solution, whose outcome will guide the work of the following sprints.
Characteristics of a good goal
- Brief: it fits in one sentence, not a paragraph.
- Value-oriented: it describes what benefit is obtained, not what tasks are done.
- Achievable: the team can realistically commit to it with the available capacity.
- Verifiable: at the end of the sprint it is possible to know whether or not it has been achieved.
Example of a weak goal: "Complete stories 12, 13, and 14."
Example of a strong goal: "The user can recover their password on their own without contacting support."
Role during the sprint
The Sprint Goal is not just a piece of text written at the start and then forgotten. During the sprint, it serves as a compass for decision-making:
- If an impediment arises that threatens the goal, the team escalates it urgently.
- If unexpected work comes up during the sprint, the team assesses whether to take it on based on whether or not it affects the goal.
- In the Daily Scrum, the team can focus its three questions on the Sprint Goal rather than on individual tasks.
Common mistake
Writing the Sprint Goal as a list of stories. "Complete the payments module stories" is not a Sprint Goal: it is a summary of the Sprint Backlog. A real goal describes the value being delivered, not the work being done. The difference matters: when impediments arise, being clear about the "why" is what allows the team to make decisions about what to sacrifice and what to protect.
Resources
📄 Product Owner v.2.0 [in Spanish]Free download · Scrum Manager
📄 Scrum Master v.4.0 [in Spanish] — Section: Sprint PlanningFree download · Scrum Manager
📄 Scrum Master en equipos con IA v.1.0 [Scrum Master in Teams with AI v.1.0, in Spanish]Free download · Scrum Manager
See also
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