Why do so many Scrum Teams “carry over” work from Sprint to Sprint?

Why do so many Scrum Teams “carry over” work from Sprint to Sprint?

What’s intended at Sprint Planning is the break down or decomposition of items pulled from the Product Backlog that the Development Team believes can be completed (that can get to done) during the Sprint. This is called “Topic One” in Sprint Planning or “What can be done this Sprint”?

What is a ScrumMaster?

What is a ScrumMaster?

In a recent Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) course, a student new to Scrum was a bit confused by the repeated reference to the ScrumMaster as a “coach”.  “What do you mean coaching or when does this coaching happen?” was the question raised.

Working Agreements Video

In Certified ScrumMaster courses a common concern of new Scrum Masters is how to be a more effective coach and help their teams improve.  One thing any Scrum Master can do to immediately add value and help the team that they are serving is to facilitate the creation of Working Agreements.  Maybe you’ve referred to these as Team Norms, Core Values or Rules of Engagement but for our purposes I’m going to refer to them as Working Agreements.  Why are these important for a Scrum team? Without working agreements, it’s really just a collection of people and not really a team. An effective Scrum Master, as active facilitator, can certainly help the Development Team and Product Owner create these agreements.

Accountability Layers

In the ocean (as marine biologist and Tom Clancy fans well know) there is a point where warm surface water and cold water from below meet. It’s called the Thermocline layer. It’s where the heat from the sun can’t sufficiently heat the water relative to the cooling currents from below.