Why Scrum Teams Need Team Goals
Scrum thrives on purpose-driven work. We already have Product Goals that guide the Product Backlog and Sprint Goals that focus the Sprint’s efforts. But there’s a critical gap: What drives the Sprint Retrospective?
The Sprint Retrospective is meant to be a continuous improvement engine, yet too often, it lacks direction. This is because improvement, like product development, requires clear, measurable goals to ensure progress.
Why Are Goals So Important?
Goals provide:
✅ Clarity – Everyone knows what they’re working toward.
✅ Motivation – A shared objective gives the team something meaningful to improve.
✅ Focus – Discussions stay relevant, avoiding vague complaints.
✅ Measurability – The team can track whether they are truly improving.
✅ Accountability – Commitments turn into concrete actions.
When there’s no goal, retrospectives often fail because:
❌ Conversations become unfocused venting sessions.
❌ The same problems repeat without resolution.
❌ Action items are vague, unmeasurable, and quickly forgotten.
❌ There’s no sense of achievement or progress.
If we expect teams to improve, we need to treat improvement with the same level of intentionality as product development. That means setting Team Goals—longer-term objectives that shape retrospective discussions and drive continuous improvement.
Introducing SMART Team Goals
A Team Goal should be a SMART goal:
Specific – Clearly defines what success looks like.
Measurable – Includes metrics for tracking progress.
Achievable – Realistic given the team’s current situation.
Relevant – Addresses the team’s actual challenges.
Time-bound – Has a target completion timeframe.
How Team Goals Work in Practice
Set a SMART Team Goal – A long-term improvement focus (achievable within 3-6 sprints).
Use It to Drive Retrospectives – Retrospective discussions revolve around progress toward the goal.
Break It Down into Actionable Sprint Goals – Each sprint should have small, measurable improvements contributing to the goal.
Measure and Adapt – Track progress through retrospective metrics.
SMART Team Goals & Retrospective Actions
Here are well-defined Team Goals, along with actionable steps teams can take in retrospectives.
1. Improve Sprint Predictability
SMART Team Goal:
🚀 Increase the percentage of committed Sprint Backlog items completed from 60% to 85% within the next five sprints by improving estimation, limiting work in progress, and addressing blockers early.
Possible Retrospective Actions:
📌 Action: Implement “work-in-progress (WIP) limits” to prevent overcommitting.
📊 Measurable Goal: Reduce average open stories from 10 to 5 at any given time.
📈 Metric: Count of stories simultaneously in “In Progress” per sprint.
📌 Action: Improve backlog refinement by ensuring every story has acceptance criteria.
📊 Measurable Goal: 100% of stories include acceptance criteria before Sprint Planning.
📈 Metric: % of stories with acceptance criteria at the start of the Sprint.
📌 Action: Review past velocity trends before committing to new work.
📊 Measurable Goal: Ensure sprint commitments stay within 90-110% of the team’s average velocity.
📈 Metric: % of sprint commitments falling within this range.
2. Reduce Technical Debt
SMART Team Goal:
🔧 Decrease the number of outstanding critical technical debt issues from 15 to 5 within the next six sprints by allocating dedicated time for refactoring and enforcing coding best practices.
Possible Retrospective Actions:
📌 Action: Dedicate at least 10% of each sprint’s capacity to resolving technical debt.
📊 Measurable Goal: Complete at least one high-impact tech debt item per sprint.
📈 Metric: # of completed tech debt backlog items per sprint.
📌 Action: Introduce automated tests for high-risk areas of the codebase.
📊 Measurable Goal: Increase test coverage from 40% to 70% in critical modules.
📈 Metric: % of test coverage improvement per sprint.
📌 Action: Conduct biweekly peer code reviews to catch technical debt early.
📊 Measurable Goal: Review 100% of new code before merging.
📈 Metric: % of merged pull requests that had at least one reviewer.
3. Strengthen Cross-Team Collaboration
SMART Team Goal:
🔗 Reduce cross-team dependencies causing delays by 50% within four sprints through better planning, proactive communication, and alignment in backlog refinement.
Possible Retrospective Actions:
📌 Action: Schedule joint backlog refinement sessions with dependent teams.
📊 Measurable Goal: Hold at least one cross-team backlog meeting per sprint.
📈 Metric: Count of joint refinement sessions held.
📌 Action: Maintain a dependency board to track blockers from other teams.
📊 Measurable Goal: Reduce unresolved external dependencies from 8 to 3 within two sprints.
📈 Metric: # of unresolved dependencies at sprint end.
📌 Action: Assign a “liaison” for each key dependency.
📊 Measurable Goal: Ensure every external dependency has an assigned owner before Sprint Planning.
📈 Metric: % of dependencies with assigned owners.
4. Reduce Cycle Time for Features
SMART Team Goal:
📉 Decrease the average cycle time for user stories from 12 days to 6 days within the next five sprints by improving handoffs, automating testing, and breaking down work more effectively.
Possible Retrospective Actions:
📌 Action: Introduce a “stop-the-line” policy for stuck stories.
📊 Measurable Goal: Address any story that has been in “In Progress” for more than 3 days.
📈 Metric: Average time a story remains in “In Progress.”
📌 Action: Automate regression testing for high-risk areas.
📊 Measurable Goal: Reduce manual testing effort by 30% within three sprints.
📈 Metric: Time spent on manual regression testing.
📌 Action: Use story slicing techniques to reduce large stories.
📊 Measurable Goal: Keep 80% of stories within a one-day cycle time.
📈 Metric: % of stories completed in one day or less.
Making Team Goals Work
Keep Them Visible – Post Team Goals where the team can see them daily.
Discuss Them Regularly – Check progress in standups and planning sessions.
Celebrate Small Wins – Recognize and share improvements.
Adapt If Necessary – If a goal isn’t working, adjust it instead of abandoning it.
Conclusion: Transforming Retrospectives with Team Goals
If a Product Goal aligns teams toward delivering value, and a Sprint Goal aligns them toward delivering work, then a Team Goal aligns them toward getting better.
By setting clear, measurable, and time-bound Team Goals, Scrum teams ensure that every retrospective leads to real improvement instead of vague aspirations.
💡 Scrum isn’t just about delivering software—it’s about building a team that gets stronger with every sprint. Team Goals are the key to making that happen.
