Don't Overload the Sprint
- Mary Iqbal
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
When a Scrum team has been working together for a while and completing the same type of work Sprint after Sprint, they develop a sense of how much they can typically accomplish. Whether the team estimates work using story points or simply tracks the number of Product Backlog items delivered per Sprint, they establish a natural cadence for what they can reliably complete.
It may be tempting to push the team to deliver more by overloading the Sprint with extra work. But don’t do it! One of Scrum’s core values is focus, and that value exists for a reason. A team that focuses on delivering a reasonable amount of work will accomplish more than one that tries to take on everything at once.
Here’s why deliberately planning more work than the team can realistically deliver is a bad idea:
Loss of Focus – When a team is overloaded, priorities become unclear. Team members jump between tasks, making it harder to complete anything efficiently.
Lower Quality – Rushing to finish too much work leads to more defects, technical debt, and overall lower-quality results.
Burnout – Constant pressure to deliver beyond capacity leads to frustration and exhaustion, which hurts both morale and long-term productivity.
Inconsistent Predictability – Teams that regularly overcommit struggle to establish a reliable velocity, making forecasting and planning difficult.
Increased Work in Progress (WIP) – More work started but not finished means the team isn't delivering value. Work that lingers from Sprint to Sprint slows down progress.
Undermining Continuous Improvement – Teams need time to reflect, learn, and improve. Overloading a Sprint reduces the space for experimentation and process refinement.
Instead of pushing a team beyond its capacity, support them in maintaining a sustainable pace. A focused team delivers better results, builds trust, and continuously improves over time.
Don’t deliberately plan more work than the team can deliver. Let them focus, and they’ll accomplish more in the long run.
Discover more Scrum myths in Illustrated Scrum Myths by Mary Iqbal. Packed with over 100 full-color illustrations, this fun and engaging book shines a light on the myths that get in the way of delivering real value.