Sprint closing and starting. Burn down charts and Scope change

[Thandi Velaphi]

Good day team...I have a challenge which i'm hoping you are able to help me with. When I close off a sprint I know that best practice say's all incomplete stories should be put in the backlog. So in preparation for the next sprint (sprint planning), should we have a look at all back-logged items to review if they will then be worked on in the next iteration? Reason I ask this is, is if I automatically change the sprint date on an active sprint it causes a scope change to that sprint and also affects the burn down chart. Am I off the mark or is the correct way to do this?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

>When I close off a sprint I know that best practice say's all incomplete stories should be put in the backlog.

Um, actually, no, the best practice is to review the list and take most or all of the incomplete ones into the next sprint.  You committed to dealing with them in this sprint, why would they not be at the top of the list for the next?  You thought they were highly important for this sprint, why not do them in the next one?

>So in preparation for the next sprint (sprint planning), should we have a look at all back-logged items to review if they will then be worked on in the next iteration?

Yes.  Sprint planning is all about what to do next.

>if I automatically change the sprint date on an active sprint it causes a scope change to that sprint

Yes, it will.  Don't do that if you can avoid it.

[Thandi Velaphi]

Thank you Nic this does make sense.

[Fabian Lim · Accepted solution]

Hi @Thandi Velaphi

If you want to keep true to the reporting, yes you should not move the stories to a future sprint until you close the sprint.  

So in your sprint planning you should identify the stories that won't be completed for the new sprint with a label for example.

But at the end of the day, you do what works best for your team.

[Thandi Velaphi]

Appreciate and thanks for the guidance Fabian