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How to Handle Unfinished Tasks in Scrum Sprints

Originally published on LinkedIn

It is common to move unfinished tasks from one sprint to another. Unfortunately, it can have a negative impact on the scrum team and distract general performance. Therefore, it is better to avoid moving tasks that have not been finished to the next iteration.

First of all, it should be discussed at a retro meeting, especially if it happens more frequently. The team should try to answer the question: why are we not able to complete tasks planned in the sprint?

The unfinished task can be moved back to the product backlog and then reprioritized. Maybe it is not so important. It can wait in the backlog so that a more critical task takes its place in the next sprint.

The unfinished task could be split into smaller pieces and delivered one by one in a few iterations.