How to handle Velocity/Sprint tracking with ad hoc requests coming in mid-Sprint

Question

Hello,

Our Sprints are 2 weeks long and that has worked pretty well so far (start Mondays and end Fridays). However our business provides requests (prioritization) on Tuesdays but many times that meeting is moved and aligning the Grooming/Planning could be a challenge. That plus the alignment of the releases (which are every other week mid-week) we typically need to take on the additional work in the current Sprint to make the dates.

We use estimates and my reports tend to be inaccurate due to the additions of the new requests. We tend to lower the amount of work for the Sprint knowing the new work will come in the coming days. We are a small team and are able to handle the work fine however from a reporting perspective its a challenge to share this with leadership as the line in the graph goes up (due to added story points).

thank you

Dina Levitan · Answer

Thanks so much! We have been under-planning knowing the requests are coming so I really like your idea of placeholder task!

Jack Brickey · Answer

Hi Dina and welcome to the Community! I feel your pain and in fact accuracy is very dependent upon adhering to the sprint rule - 'thou shall not allow sprint creep'. My best advice and options are:

* get the company to fully support locking down sprints. If something comes in after a sprint starts it can be placed at the top of the backlog for the next sprint.
* if waiting up-to 2wks is too painful consider 1 week sprints. I can't imagine a business that couldn't wait 4d but you never know.
* you mention that the team is able to take on the extra work which is great. However, to me this reads that you are under-planning the sprint and that your velocity capability is higher than what you are accomplishing

If none of the above makes sense then maybe you could create a "placeholder" task of say 3d estimate or whatever used for unplanned activities. Then as you add in sprint creep you can deduct time from the placeholder the amount you are adding in. This seems like a lot of unnecessary work to me but it is something to consider.