Work Spilling Over? How to Know if You’ve Got a Rollover Habit - Mike Cohn
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Mar 5, 2025
Explore the intriguing world of agile methodologies where unfinished tasks can spill over from sprint to sprint. Discover the common causes behind this phenomenon, from overcommitment to external pressures. Learn why habitual spillover can be detrimental to team performance and get actionable tips to break the cycle. Plus, find out how to effectively manage unfinished work when it inevitably arises. A deep dive into enhancing team accountability and communication awaits!
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insights INSIGHT
Impact of Changing Work
Teams often face swapped or altered work mid-sprint, impacting completion rates.
Distinguish between splitting work for sizing and true carryover.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Zero Carryover Teams
Lee Henson claims his teams, after a couple of sprints, have no carryover.
He believes this expectation is achievable and will explain how.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Head Start Strategy
Encourage teams to start the next sprint's top item early for a head start.
This avoids commitment issues and allows pulling it in as 'done' if finished.
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A key agile principle is the value of getting work done by the end of each iteration. Yet one of the biggest complaints I get from agile leaders is that teams never finish what they say they will during a sprint. Instead, teams consistently let the unfinished work spill over (AKA roll over or carry over) from sprint to sprint. Spillover is such a prevalent problem for agile teams that I want to devote several tips to talking about it.
First, I’ll explain what spillover is and how to know if it’s a problem
Next, I’ll describe why habitual spillover is so bad
Third, I’ll give you some ideas for how to break your team’s rollover habit
Finally, I’ll talk about what to do with unfinished work when spillover happens. After all, while spillover shouldn’t be a habit, every team will occasionally have unfinished work at the end of the sprint
Team members were too optimistic and brought too much into the iteration
The team was interrupted more often during the sprint than expected
Some of the work took longer than expected
Externally: A boss or important stakeholder can exert pressure by telling a team what must be done or by establishing unrealistic expectations.
Internally: Some teams allow their optimism and high expectations of themselves to create pressure to do more than is reasonable.
What Is Spillover? Why Does It Happen? Spillover is when a team arrives at the end of one sprint with some unfinished work that needs to be finished in a later sprint. It happens when a team overcommits to what they can achieve during the iteration timebox. This is usually because:
Spillover is not a bad thing in and of itself. It’s unrealistic to expect a team to finish everything it starts, every sprint. In fact, it’s normal and desirable for a team to occasionally aim a little high for what they can accomplish in a sprint, and come up short. When Does Spillover Become a Problem? Habitual spillover, though, is different. Habitual spillover is when a team almost always commits to more than they can finish in the sprint. These teams rarely finish what they think they will. As a result, the end of the sprint becomes an arbitrary date, and work is just carried over into the next sprint as if it’s no big deal. It is a big deal. (I’ll talk more about why it is a big deal in next week’s tip). The most common reason teams develop a habit of taking on more work than they can finish is pressure. That pressure can originate: One Thing to Do This Sprint One thing you can do right away to help stop habitual spillover is to make the problem visible. At the next sprint end, make a note of how many items the team committed to versus how many were 100% done. Even better: look back and do this for a handful of prior sprints. Bring this information to the retrospective and ask the team why they think unfinished work has become a pattern for them. Then ask them for one thing they could try next sprint to prevent it from happening. Don’t forget to hold them accountable to trying that idea (whatever it is) during sprint planning and as the sprint progresses. While you’re doing that, I’ll be getting my next tip ready for you. Next week I’ll be writing about why spillover is such a bad habit to fall into and how breaking that habit can help you succeed with agile.
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