Comments on: Prioritising stories within a sprint? http://blog.valtech.co.uk/scrum/prioritising-stories-within-a-sprint/ Aggregated works of Valtech UK consultants Sun, 18 Dec 2011 21:16:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: David Draper http://blog.valtech.co.uk/scrum/prioritising-stories-within-a-sprint/comment-page-1/#comment-131 David Draper Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:48:12 +0000 http://www.agiledesign.co.uk/scrum/prioritising-stories-within-a-sprint/#comment-131 I see a risk of us violently agreeing :) First of all, "Priority:Must" as you put it is not helpful, for me prioritisation is simply this one first. This is a distinct conversation from scope i.e. must vs. won't. As with any guideline there are exceptions - I don't propose for a moment that we replace common sense with prioritisation. The focus of the post was in response to common advice given to Scrum teams. Limiting WiP (in terms of stories) in this context is achieved by the sprint. The question posed was "should we prioritise stories within a sprint?". My response was yes, this could be combined with task level WiP limits though this is not common. I see a risk of us violently agreeing :)

First of all, “Priority:Must” as you put it is not helpful, for me prioritisation is simply this one first. This is a distinct conversation from scope i.e. must vs. won’t.

As with any guideline there are exceptions – I don’t propose for a moment that we replace common sense with prioritisation.

The focus of the post was in response to common advice given to Scrum teams. Limiting WiP (in terms of stories) in this context is achieved by the sprint. The question posed was “should we prioritise stories within a sprint?”. My response was yes, this could be combined with task level WiP limits though this is not common.

]]> By: Ruud Rietveld http://blog.valtech.co.uk/scrum/prioritising-stories-within-a-sprint/comment-page-1/#comment-127 Ruud Rietveld Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:06:17 +0000 http://www.agiledesign.co.uk/scrum/prioritising-stories-within-a-sprint/#comment-127 You say you recommend using prioritisation in a sprint. I think I want to achieve the same result, but I would not call it prioritisation. You say prioritisation helps because: * The team is challenged to find ways to move stories to Done faster * The team is encouraged to collaborate and help each other out in favour of picking new tasks * We bind people to tasks late, prioritisation helps them select tasks according to team need rather than specialisation * Where a sprint commitment is missed we loose 1 story rather than a bit from each story. I do not see how prioritisation helps in that. You only need to say that you want to limit WiP. "Priority: Must" has never incentised people to work harder. Prioritisation can also work against you: If there is time left at the end of the sprint for only the smaller bottom unstarted story, and not time enough for a higher-up unstarted story, you have to start the higher-up one, and will end the sprint with two unfinished stories instead of one. You say you recommend using prioritisation in a sprint. I think I want to achieve the same result, but I would not call it prioritisation.
You say prioritisation helps because:
* The team is challenged to find ways to move stories to Done faster
* The team is encouraged to collaborate and help each other out in favour of picking new tasks
* We bind people to tasks late, prioritisation helps them select tasks according to team need rather than specialisation
* Where a sprint commitment is missed we loose 1 story rather than a bit from each story.

I do not see how prioritisation helps in that. You only need to say that you want to limit WiP. “Priority: Must” has never incentised people to work harder.
Prioritisation can also work against you: If there is time left at the end of the sprint for only the smaller bottom unstarted story, and not time enough for a higher-up unstarted story, you have to start the higher-up one, and will end the sprint with two unfinished stories instead of one.

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