Why does the burn down not start with total points carried over from prior Sprint?

Marisa Randall

Today, our team began a new Sprint but instead of the burn down starting with the total number of points (including the carry over from the prior Sprint) it started with the points sitting in next Sprint, and then bumped the line up when we added the remaining stories from the prior Sprint to the new Sprint. Is there a way to ensure the burn down line begins with the total number of points including the carry over from the prior Sprint without bumping the line up with the additional scope changes?

Scott Theus

Hi @Marisa Randall,

I'm assuming you added the stories after the new sprint became active. If so the increase is reflecting additional scope added to the sprint after it started, and thus shows you already behind. If you want to just add the stories that did not finish to the next sprint then you will need to do so before you close out the current sprint and start the new one. 

But...keep in mind that this could cause difficulties later on as the size of your sprints grow without increasing the velocity of your team.  By tacking on the roll-over from the last sprint you are actually overstating the sprint team's capacity and placing them in an unwinnable situation where they can never finish a sprint.

As a best practice, sprints that don't finish completely are failed sprints, and should trigger a new planning cycle during the retrospective. For example, say your team's velocity is well established at 28 points. When you plan your sprints you plan for 28 points in each so the team is operating at capacity. If the team only finishes 24 points then you recalculate your velocity at around 26 points (suing the last 3 sprints), move the unfinished stories in to the next sprint and select 4 points worth of stories to go into the backlog and re-plan the following sprints. 

-Scott