Bas Vodde

It is unfortunately common to use a digital Sprint Backlog. I say unfortunately because of the negative impact a digital Sprint Backlog tends to have on team dynamics and collaboration. Using a digital tool for a Product Backlog might also be common but is less harmful. Digital Sprint Backlogs should be avoided! I’ve observed four reasons why digital Sprint Backlogs are used, where each reason is a reflection of a team or organizational dysfunction.

1. The Team Is Not Co-Located. Dispersed teams are common, as many companies pretend co-location doesn’t matter and allow organizational stupidity to disperse the majority of their teams. Check out my article related to this, titled “Co-location Still Matters”. Dispersed teams often end up quickly deciding to use a digital Sprint Backlog, yet I’ve known many teams that manage fine with Post-It Sprint Backlogs, white boards, video, and photos.

2. Mandated Sprint Backlog Tool. Although I have often inquired about the benefits of “harmonizing” the Sprint Backlog tool, the reasons to do so are still unclear to me. The most common response is a desire for better in-Sprint progress tracking. This is a clear sign Scrum is being misused for micromanagement purposes, as in-Sprint progress tracking is the responsibility of the team. Another frequent response is to derive metrics from the Sprint Backlog, but metrics that make sense to people and instances external to the team are derived from the Product Backlog and not from the Sprint Backlog.

The Sprint Backlog is for the team—not for the Scrum Master or Product Owner and definitely not for management. It helps the team take a shared responsibility and to manage their work toward creating a releasable product Increment. What tool (or not) to use is up to the self-managing team. Management that mandates a tool doesn’t seem to understand Scrum and how it was founded on self-managing teams. That is the real problem to solve.

3. Sprint Planning with a Computer. Computers cause boring meetings. They centralize discussions, with the typing person becoming a bottleneck. Computer-centric meetings are dreadful events and waste people’s time as they stare at the ceiling while waiting for the typist to finish. They become life-sucking events that make people wish they’d chosen a life as a bus driver.

Computerless meetings can be much more productive and fun. Meetings automatically decentralize when the focus is on conversation and using cards or Post-It notes to invoke collaboration. Everyone writes in parallel. Sub-groups emerge and later merge again. And the cards on the table provide an overview of what was done. Sprint Planning is shared software design and ought to be fun!

4. The Scrum Master Adds Tasks to the Sprint Backlog. Scrum Masters who touch the Sprint Backlog will own it and become fake Scrum Project Managers. Here is a non-digital Sprint Backlog from a team I worked with:

This Sprint Backlog is the software design of the system, with boxes in two different colors representing the current system and the design envisioned, respectively, for this Sprint. The Post-It notes are the tasks that need to be done. This is the “to-do” column of a task board Sprint Backlog.

I’m not suggesting that your teams should work this way. This is how this team worked—they owned it. That is the most important reason for never using digital tools for Sprint Backlog. When using a digital tool, the tool determines the way the team works. Without a digital tool, the team can own and improve their own way of working.