The document discusses the importance of defining a clear Sprint Goal in Scrum. It provides 5 reasons why the Sprint Goal is essential: 1) It gives the development team flexibility, 2) It unites the team, 3) It motivates the team by giving context to their work, 4) It helps with focus and decision making, 5) It manages stakeholders' expectations. The document also provides examples of good and bad Sprint Goals and final thoughts on key characteristics of an effective Sprint Goal.

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5 Reasons Why We Need to
Give Special Attention to the
Sprint Goal !!!

2. Abdul-Malik Muhaimin/Senior Director-Agile Practice
Organizations InitiativesFun Fact:
Served 8 proud years in
the United States Air Force
Weights and Measures
Permitting System

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The Sprint Goal
The Sprint Goal is an important part of
Scrum.
It's like a burning torch that unites the
Development Team and helps it move
forward during the Sprint.

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1.The Sprint Goal gives the Development Team
some flexibility
When developing innovative products, things often don't go as planned. If a team
knows their Sprint Goal, they can regroup and achieve the Goal, even with less
functionality than planned.

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2. The Sprint Goal unites the Development Team.
The Sprint Goal lays the ground for teamwork;
it explains why team members need to work
together as one instead of pursuing separate
initiatives.

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3. The Sprint Goal gives sense to the tasks and
motivates the Team.
People tend to be more enthusiastic and enjoy their work when they understand what
it's for and how they contribute to the common cause.
For example, a Sprint Goal can be worded as follows:
“Make product catalog manageable for our sales
department”
VS
“Update XML and parse source files on product catalog”

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4. The Sprint Goal helps with focus and
making decisions.
The Sprint Goal helps highlight the essence and ignore everything irrelevant during the
Sprint. When a new task appears, ask yourself if it is related to the current Sprint Goal.
If YES, the Scrum Team can consider including it into
the Sprint Backlog.
If NO, there is a solid reason to postpone it.

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5. The Sprint Goal helps manage stakeholders'
expectations
• Stakeholders don't need to
know all the details of the plan
that the Scrum Team is working
on during the Sprint. Often, the
Sprint Goal is enough to satisfy
their curiosity.

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Example Of Bad Sprint Goals
•“Modify source records to allow for
data injections”
•“Complete the committed set of
key features for module dashboard
”
•“Make progress on backwards
compatibility”
•“Complete recheck FTP”
•“Finalize call mechanism ”

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Example Of Good Sprint Goals
•“Allow customers to log in to the various products
with OpenID (single sign-on)”
•“Create a dashboard with basic widgets for the most
common two platforms”
•“After purchase, guide customers through the set-up
and configuration of [Product A]”
•“Allow users to order by using pre-paid credits”
•“Translate user-facing sites and messages to the
user’s language”

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Final Thoughts
Your Sprints Goal should:
• Be singular
• Have flexibility
• Unite the team around 1 common goal
• Motivate the team
• Help with focus when making a decision
• Manage stakeholder expectation

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Source Information
Scrum Guide: https://www.scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html
Sprint Goal Templates: https://www.romanpichler.com/blog/sprint-goal-template/
Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En3ifkDYgHM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1tJW1dGaxM