If your Scrum Team regularly reaches the end of a Sprint, but they haven’t completed a “done” increment, it is demoralizing. Beyond that, there are other negative consequences of having nothing to show for your efforts. Here are a few of them:
Nothing to Show at the Sprint Review
The most apparent problem resulting from not having a “done” increment is that there is nothing to show at the Sprint Review. The whole point of the Sprint Review is to inspect the increment. With nothing to look at, it’s a total waste of time. Of course, you could explain why you didn’t complete anything, but unless there’s an exceptional reason, it still looks terrible to miss achieving your goals repeatedly.
No Value Delivered
Another result of not delivering a “done” increment is that you realize no value. There’s no credit for partially finished work – only for working product. Every Sprint should provide something of business value for customers, stakeholders, or both.
Loss of Trust with Stakeholders
When a Scrum Team conducts Sprint Planning and chooses which items to work on, they commit to achieving the Sprint Goal. Not meeting the Sprint Goal is disappointing to stakeholders, who expect to see an increment to inspect. If you repeatedly continue to deliver nothing, your stakeholders lose trust in you, pull away, and may cease participating in important Scrum events.
Lower Average Velocity
A Scrum Team‘s average velocity is a forecasting tool to help guide the team in how much work they can complete during a Sprint. It lowers the team’s velocity if work isn’t finished during a Sprint. While this may initially be alarming, the team will (hopefully) take on less work in future iterations, giving them a better chance of accomplishing their Sprint Goal.
Scrum looks Bad
While Scrum isn’t a magic bullet, it is supposed to provide incremental delivery of valuable working product. The reputation of Scrum is damaged when Scrum Teams don’t deliver a “done” increment. When Scrum appears to be failing, there’s a risk that leaders might decide it’s not an effective way to work, and they could decide to disband the team.
Work gets Carried Over
When you don’t finish anything in a Sprint Backlog, according to the Scrum Team‘s “Definition of Done,” the items may be moved back into the Product Backlog or carried over into the next Sprint. Unfortunately, this is a bad habit to adopt, which I have seen many teams do. Carrying work over doesn’t feel good to you or your stakeholders.
Leaders Question what they’re Paying For
If I’m paying the bill for a Scrum Team to develop a product, but they can’t show me a “done” increment at the end of a Sprint, the obvious question I’ll ask is, “what am I spending my money on?” There is typically a fixed cost for a team for each Sprint, and that number isn’t usually small. So, what did I get for my money? The answer is, sadly, nothing!
Retrospective can Degrade into a Blame Game
When a Scrum Team falls into the habit of not delivering a “done” increment each Sprint, their Retrospective may degrade into a blame game. Rather than honestly assessing the root cause of the team’s inability to deliver, people start pointing the finger at other team members, trying to protect themselves; this is shattering to team relationships and their ability to work well together.
Team Regresses
A Scrum Team that doesn’t deliver a “done” increment each Sprint is not a high-performing team. Instead of growing and getting better together over time, the team regresses to an earlier phase of team formation. If they were previously in the “norming” stage, they’ll go back to “storming” and may never get back out of it.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, the result of not delivering a “done” increment can cause many negative consequences. It’s a bad habit to get into and won’t make you, your team, or your stakeholders happy. If this is a problem for your Scrum Team, do a root cause analysis and take corrective action quickly so that you can turn the ship around.
How about you? Have you been on a Scrum Team that couldn’t get things across the finish line to “done” within a Sprint? If so, what other consequences have you seen occur? Please share your story with me in the comments below!