We carry unfinished work into every sprint. What should we inspect?
Persistent delivery overcommitmentInspect work size, dependencies, quality, and actual capacity rather than treating carryover as a moral failure. Use the evidence to improve selection and completion practices.
What to do now
- Review why items remained unfinished
- Split oversized work into usable slices
- Account for realistic capacity and interruptions
- Select less work and verify the result
When to escalate
Escalate when
Repeated carryover prevents a usable outcome or hides major constraints.
Who decides
The relevant Scrum accountability or delivery owner
Example
The team selects fewer items after finding that review capacity, not coding speed, limits completion.
Mistake to avoid
Increasing planned velocity to compensate for missed work.
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 sprint goal changes every few days. How should we respond?Unstable sprint purpose
- A stakeholder wants to add work directly to the sprint. Who handles it?Uncontrolled sprint work intake
- The vendor contract is still open after delivery. Who should close it?Unfinished commercial closeout
- Delivery is accepted, but financial records are unfinished. Can the project close?Different delivery and financial closure states