You Can’t Be Effective With Scrum Without a Sprint Goal
A Sprint Goal isn’t optional
Many people, including well-respected Scrum experts, believe the Sprint Goal is optional in Scrum. They argue that a Scrum Team can select a set of items from the Product Backlog and create a plan to complete them without a Sprint Goal.
I disagree wholeheartedly.
Without a Sprint Goal, teams can certainly deliver Product Backlog Items in Scrum. But teams can’t effectively use empiricism. With that, Scrum becomes ineffective.
This may seem like a bold statement, but please hear me out. I will start my plea with the definition of Scrum:
“Scrum is a lightweight framework that helps people, teams and organizations generate value through adaptive solutions for complex problems.” — Scrum Guide 2020
How can you address these complex adaptive problems? I argue that you won’t achieve it by pulling some items from the Product Backlog, aiming to complete them during the Sprint. When doing this, your focus is on completing items, not on addressing complex adaptive problems. To do that instead, you need to use a Sprint Goal. It provides a direction and allows for liberty to adjust course and increase chances to meet the goal.
