Prevent a story from moving out of the sprint before it closes

Question

Hello,

I have a user who is trying to hide that they didn't complete a story at the end of the sprint.  In the hour before sprint review they will move all their stories into the next sprint that they didn't finish.  If the team calls them out, they become hostile and defensive.

There are times when a team must move a story out and into the backlog, but the closer to the end of a sprint, as Mike Cohn says, it becomes "game-ey" to hide that a story did not close and deprive the team from learning how to plan better next time.

Is there a permission an admin could use to prevent a user from moving a story from one sprint to another, at least for an hour? (lol)

Thanks

Josh Costella · Answer

Hi @bruce chalupsky

Regardless of when the ticket is moved out of the sprint, that will be visible in the Sprint Reports in the board as a change of scope.

If simply coaching the employee is not an option, you could consider restricting who has the ability to manage sprints as @Shikha Verma suggested. But now you are creating overhead and removing trust.

Ultimately, I never recommend adapting your tools to address bad behavior. This is a people & process issue, not a tool one.

Shikha Verma_xy1o3z · Answer

Hey @bruce chalupsky While there isn't a straightforward way to prevent a user from moving a story in the last hour of a sprint via permissions, you can use workflow controls, restricted sprint management, audit trails, and team agreements to manage this.