The team counts partially finished stories as done. How should we report them?
Incomplete work misclassifiedKeep incomplete work visible and avoid presenting it as meeting the agreed completion standard. Discuss remaining work and its effect on the goal rather than awarding partial completion credit to improve metrics.
What to do now
- Review the agreed completion standard
- Identify unmet conditions
- Show remaining work honestly
- Adapt the next plan using actual evidence
When to escalate
Escalate when
The reporting triggers a misleading release or acceptance decision.
Who decides
The relevant Scrum accountability or delivery owner
Example
A feature remains unfinished because its required verification has not passed.
Mistake to avoid
Redefining done at the end of the sprint to meet a target.
Prevent a repeat
Inspect useful outcomes and feedback; apply Scrum-specific rules only when the team is actually using Scrum.
Suggested ApprovedFlow setup
- Tasks
- Documents
- Resources
Represent agreed work and evidence with enabled task features; do not imply native Scrum automation or certified Scrum compliance. See the platform
Related cases
- Our work items are too large to finish in an iteration. How should we split them?Oversized delivery batches
- The team estimates stories before understanding them. What should happen?Premature backlog estimation
- The team has different standards for done. How do we align them?Inconsistent completion expectations
- How do we estimate work we have never done before?High-uncertainty estimation