Sprint Backlog
Description
In it, user stories are broken down into units of a suitable size for tracking progress daily, as well as for identifying risks and problems without complex management processes.
The whole team collaborates on building this backlog during Sprint Planning, specifying for each work item the effort expected to complete it. This effort is commonly estimated in points or ideal time using techniques such as planning poker. During Sprint Planning, the developers may, if they so decide, break the stories down into smaller tasks. In that case, it is advisable for a task to take no more than one working day.
How It Is Built
It is the developers' territory. They are the only ones who can modify it during the sprint. It also provides direct visual communication, and the development team uses it to review the progress of the sprint every day.
Criteria
The Sprint Backlog must define and be aligned with the Sprint Goal, which marks a milestone in the progress toward the product vision. In addition:
- It should include only the necessary information:
- List of stories or tasks.
- Person responsible for each work item.
- Its current status and the remaining "effort" to complete it.
- It should serve as a means to record, at each Daily Scrum, the "effort" remaining for each work item.
- It should make daily, direct consultation and communication within the team easy.
Format and medium
Common media include:
- Physical board or wall where the team works, so that it is visible to everyone.
- Shared spreadsheets.
- Collaborative or project management tools such as Todoist, Flow, Trello, Jira, or Linear.
The most appropriate approach is to use whichever format is most convenient for everyone, taking into account the criteria described above.
During the sprint, the team updates the remaining time for each work item on it daily. At the same time, it uses this data to plot the burndown chart, which shows the work consumed.
Common mistake
Confusing the Sprint Backlog with the Product Backlog. The Product Backlog is the inventory of all the product's pending work, managed by the Product Owner. The Sprint Backlog is the work committed to for the current iteration, managed by the developers. The Product Owner cannot modify the Sprint Backlog during the sprint (they can only do so if the team explicitly agrees and the impact on the Sprint Goal justifies it).
Resources
📄 Scrum Master v.4.0 [in Spanish]Free download · Scrum Manager
📄 Scrum Master en equipos con IA [Scrum Master in Teams with AI, in Spanish]Free download · Scrum Manager
See also
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