Input
To create an effective sprint backlog, there are several required inputs. Possibly the most important is the sprint planning meeting. In this meeting, team members work together to break down user stories into tasks. The Scrum team only creates tasks for enough user stories for the next sprint. Working on user stories for future sprints may end up as wasted effort. Not creating enough tasks means the Scrum team will not have enough work to stay busy for the entire sprint. Sprint velocity is a very important metric for the sprint planning meeting since the Scrum team needs to plan out just enough tasks to take up the entire sprint.
For developers, this means generating enough tasks for development and debugging to stay busy. Underestimating or excluding testing may leave developers without enough time to finish all of their tasks. Overestimating tasks, or allocating too much time for debugging may mean they finish work early and find more tasks to work on until the end of the sprint.
As with any style of project management, it is vital that the team have tools to track progress. In Agile, the Scrum team often uses the sprint planning meeting to decide on sprint tracking tools. They can discuss what tactics and software tools best fit one particular team. There are numerous tools and tactics available. What works for one team may not be best for another team. The main goal is to make sure that development is on pace to be finished by the end of the sprint. Developers must make sure that the sprint tracking tools account for development and testing. Just completing new development for a feature does not mean the entire feature is finished. They must be able to monitor and leave time for testing and bug fixes after developers have written the new code.
Recommended Further Reading
The following materials may assist you in order to get the most out of this course: