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Understanding issues concerning the definition of Sprint goal

Last post 11:01 pm December 4, 2017 by Ian Mitchell
1 reply
Hans-Henning Kübler
01:38 pm December 4, 2017

Hallo dear scrum team and community,

During the reading of The Scrum Guide (Nov. 2017) I came across the sentence that makes me a little bit wondering (page 11; first sentence of section Sprint Goal):

The Sprint Goal is an objective set for the Sprint that can be met through the implementation of Product Backlog.”

According to my impression it would make more sense to have here “implementation of Sprint Backlog” or for the case this is not defined yet “implementation of Product Backlog Items”.

I personally assume there is just the word "Items" missing. I assume the authors just want to assure that the Sprint Goal is a part of the Product Backlog. Am I right or is there something I got wrong here?

Thanks for clarification! Hans-Henning.

Ian Mitchell
11:01 pm December 4, 2017

Remember that a Product Backlog doesn't just consist of items, it also has organizational mechanisms which are expressed through decomposition and ordering. A Sprint Goal may relate to those organizational constructs as well as the individual PBIs.

A Product Owner can structure the Product Backlog in any way they like, including in terms of Sprint Goal candidates such as Minimum Viable Products or other features which could make the work of certain future Sprints coherent. The quality of this structuring should be improved during Product Backlog refinement. A useful and achievable Sprint Goal may then be agreed and committed to by team members during each Sprint Planning session.

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