What is it
Sprint Stability highlights the ability of a team to maintain work with a stable set of requirements during development of a sprint.
Why it matters
This is a measure that entirely depends on your team’s context.
A core principle of remaining applying the agile method is that teams welcome change in requirements, even late in development. As such, changing requirements may reflect legitimate shift in priorities, or a response to discoveries that require a change in approach. It can also be reflective of a team’s adaptability in responding to the changing needs of their product manager or customer.
Unstable requirements during a sprint can however may be the result of insufficiently planned work. This phenomenon can also be referred to as scope creep and is closely linked to increases in costs and projects going over budget. Having stable requirements increases confidence in a team’s ability to plan, accurately estimate and complete a set goal.
Stable requirements provide a team with a stable goal (fixed scope) to work towards. This can build confidence and lead to a team being able to ship features more predictably. Conversely, changing requirements may also reflect legitimate shift in priorities, or a response to discoveries that require a change in approach. It can also be reflective of a team’s adaptability in responding to the changing needs of their product manager or customer.
What ‘good’ looks like
Your team’s context is the best arbiter of what ‘good’ looks like for your team.
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If your team has prioritised being responsive to customers, low lower levels of stability can be expected.
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Invest in stakeholder management to avoid new work being enforced upon the team mid sprint. |
Resources
predictability/ reliability
Atlassian playbooks