Episode Details

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