Sprint Goal
Objective describing what sprint aims to achieve
A Sprint Goal is a concise objective describing what the sprint aims to achieve, providing focus and purpose beyond merely completing individual stories. This goal guides team decisions, maintains coherence, and communicates intent to stakeholders. Sprint Goals are created during Sprint Planning after reviewing Product Backlog and selecting items. The goal articulates why selected items matter and what business value they deliver. For example rather than just list stories, goal might be Enable users to customize dashboards or Improve checkout conversion for mobile users. The goal should be single focused objective achievable within sprint, providing enough flexibility for team to adjust details, connecting to product strategy and vision, and communicating value not just features. Effective Sprint Goals provide multiple benefits: maintaining focus when distractions arise, guiding prioritization of discovered work, enabling flexibility in achieving objective, communicating purpose to stakeholders, and motivating team through meaningful goals. During the sprint, when unexpected issues arise or priorities seem to conflict, the Sprint Goal guides decisions. If completing everything isn't possible, what's essential for the goal? The goal also enables team flexibility: if requirements change but goal remains valid, team can adapt approach while maintaining commitment. Sprint Goals should be crafted collaboratively between Product Owner proposing business objectives and Development Team confirming achievability. They appear in Sprint Review as context for demonstrating work. Best practices include keeping goals focused on single objective, ensuring team understands and buys into goal, referencing goal in daily standups, and evaluating sprint success based on goal achievement not just story completion. Common mistakes include vague meaningless goals, multiple conflicting objectives, goals that are just lists of stories, or ignoring goals after planning. Product managers should propose Sprint Goals tied to strategy, ensure clarity on why work matters, and evaluate success holistically against goals. Strong Sprint Goals transform sprints from task completion exercises into purposeful increments delivering meaningful value.
Discover Sprint Goals in Scrum. Learn how clear objectives provide focus and guide decision-making within sprints.