Creating the Sprint Backlog
In Agile Software development, the sprint backlog is the collection of work that a team expects to finish within a sprint. Where the product backlog contains all stories planned for an entire product, the sprint backlog is smaller, and only contains stories that the development team has committed to finishing within the sprint. The sprint backlog is formed from items originally in the product backlog. Collecting a small set of items gives the Scrum team something to focus on during a single sprint, and drives development on a product for the duration of that sprint.
Because items in the sprint backlog are committed to being finished within the sprint, it is important that the Scrum team create a sprint backlog that is manageable. Teams follow a thin line between too many stories and story points, and too few. The sprint backlog should contain enough work to keep the Scrum team busy for the entire sprint. Simultaneously, the sprint backlog should not contain so much work that the Scrum team cannot finish in time. Any items that are committed to the sprint backlog should expect to be finished by the end of the sprint. Stories that are not finished at the end of a sprint return to the product backlog and must be reprioritized.
Process
The process of creating the sprint backlog differs from team to team and project to project, but many core concepts remain the same. For nearly any Scrum team, the sprint velocity is the most important figure in creating the sprint backlog. Velocity refers to the average number of story points that a team completes within a sprint. New teams and projects will lack a historical velocity, as they have not completed previous sprints with any number of stories. However, as teams work together, they build a history of completed sprints. Teams can then use this history to calculate an average of how many story points they have been able to finish in each sprint.
Recommended Further Reading
The following materials may assist you in order to get the most out of this course: