The struggle to craft a Sprint Goal can come from a Product Owner without real decision authority, a Product Owner who does not communicate the Product Goal, or work that does not suit Scrum. Four-week Sprints and a ten-person team do not explain it.
Exam Question
Your Scrum Team has been working together for over a dozen Sprints. The Scrum Team consists of 10 members. Each Sprint takes four weeks. As a Scrum Master, you observe that the Developers are hardly collaborating; during the Sprint, members are working on their own items. You also notice that the items on the Sprint Backlog are mostly unrelated. You suspect that the lack of a Sprint Goal might be the cause.
Although you have encouraged the use of a Sprint Goal, both the Product Owner and the Developers have concluded that they are unable to create Sprint Goals based on the wide variety of items on their Product Backlog.
What can explain why this Scrum Team is struggling to craft a Sprint Goal?
(choose all that apply)
- A. The Sprints are too long.
- B. The Product Owner does not have the mandate to make decisions about items on the Product Backlog nor their ordering.
- C. The Product Owner is not communicating the Product Goals that they want to achieve in upcoming Sprints.
- D. Scrum might not be the best framework for the work done by this team.
- E. The Scrum Team is too big.
Correct Answer
B, C and D.
Why This Is the Correct Answer
A Sprint Goal draws on the Product Goal and the ordered Product Backlog. If the Product Owner lacks a mandate over ordering (B), the Product Backlog becomes a mix of unrelated requests, and no coherent objective emerges. The Scrum Guide says “For Product Owners to succeed, the entire organization must respect their decisions.” If the Product Owner does not communicate the Product Goal (C), the team has no direction to connect Sprint work to. And if the work truly is a stream of unrelated small requests (D), it may be better suited to a flow-based approach than to Sprints built around a single goal.
Why the Other Options Are Wrong
A. The Sprints are too long. Sprint length does not stop a team from defining a goal. Four weeks is within Scrum’s limit of one month.
E. The Scrum Team is too big. Ten members is within the Scrum Guide’s typical size of 10 or fewer people. Size does not explain unrelated items.
Exam Tip
When a team cannot form a Sprint Goal, look upstream: the Product Goal, the Product Owner’s authority and the nature of the work. Team size and Sprint length are usually red herrings.
Key Takeaways
- Sprint Goals depend on a clear Product Goal.
- An unempowered Product Owner produces an incoherent Product Backlog.
- Scrum may not suit every kind of work.
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