An interesting question came up during a recent Sprint Planning session; this is a topic that somehow escaped my list of “Great Agile Debates,” but since it’s currently on my mind, I decided to write a quick blog about it (Full disclosure: I had a little bit of help from ChapGPT4).
The question is: “Should Sprint Backlog Items (aka User Stories) be assigned to an individual, or left un-assigned?” Keep in mind that I am talking about the Story level – not the Task level (that’s another topic for another day).
I have seen some teams that don’t do any assignments and others that do. There are compelling arguments both ways, and I have also received conflicting advice from different Agile coaches that I have worked with over the years. Having observed it being done either way, I have my own opinion about this (but I’m always willing to be convinced otherwise).
From my experience, I prefer to have developers “volunteer” for stories (not be volun-told), rather than having them be assigned by someone else (say, a manager). By signing up for an item, it means that you’re the primary contact for that story, and this helps people more clearly communicate about it. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the person is solely “responsible” for completing the item – in agile, the whole team is ultimately accountable for delivery. Also, each story could have multiple supporting tasks that are done by different team members, and having a single point person is less confusing.
On the flip side, it’s nice to leave some things unassigned. Some teams I have been on only made Story assignments for the top few items in the Sprint Backlog during Sprint Planning – maybe one per team member. Then when a Story was completed, the team member picked up the next item on the board, in order of priority. The potential problem with this is that not all team members have the same skills and knowledge. However, I think this is a good opportunity for people to learn new skills and move away from being exclusive specialists to becoming more generalists.
All that said, here are a few pros and cons for either leaving Stories unassigned or assigning them:
Leave Stories Unassigned
PROS:
- Promotes collaboration and cross-functional teamwork.
- Allows team members to choose stories that align with their strengths and expertise.
- Encourages the opportunity to cross-train on items that might be new or unfamiliar.
- Fosters a sense of ownership and accountability for the whole team’s overall success.
- Helps ensure that work is flowing efficiently by allowing team members to pick up stories as they become available.
Assign Stories to Individuals
PROS:
- Provides a clear point of contact for stakeholders and other team members to discuss specific stories.
- Can help manage dependencies and ensure that work is being completed on time.
- Provides clarity around who the point person is for a particular story.
- May help ensure that team members are working on stories that align with their strengths and expertise.
CONS:
- May lead to uncertainty around who is responsible for a particular story.
- Can make it difficult to manage dependencies between stories.
- May require additional communication and coordination among team members to ensure that work is being completed effectively.
CONS:
- Can create silos and limit collaboration between team members.
- May result in knowledge gaps if team members are only working on stories in their assigned areas of expertise.
- May lead to a lack of flexibility if team members are not able to take on additional work as needed.
- Can make it difficult to adjust to changes in the project scope or timeline.
At the end of the day, I don’t think there’s necessarily a right or wrong answer to this question. I think it’s a matter of team needs and preferences. There could also be a happy medium that applies the best of both worlds. In my case, I take it on a team-by-team basis and experiment with what works well, and what doesn’t, and in true empirical fashion, use the data to inspect and adapt.
What do you think? What does your team do in terms of assigning User Stories (or not)? I’d love to hear about other people’s experiences, so please share your thoughts with me in the comments section below!