Sprint Goal

The Sprint Goal gives the Scrum Team a shared objective for the Sprint. It answers the question:
“Why are we doing this work? What impact will it have on our users?”

It helps the team stay focused, especially when things don’t go as planned.

Example
Imagine you're building a web shop. Everything works—except checkout. In Sprint Planning, the Product Owner proposes a Sprint Goal:
“Users can successfully complete a checkout.”

From the user’s perspective, this makes sense. The Developers review the idea and confirm it’s realistic. Then they select Product Backlog Items (PBIs) to support that goal:
– Integrate PayPal
– Integrate MasterCard
– Send confirmation email after purchase

During the Sprint, they discover unexpected complexity. If they focused first on the email, without finishing at least one payment method, the Sprint Goal wouldn’t be met, and the user still couldn’t check out and the company could not start making business either.

The Sprint Goal helps the team make the right trade-offs. It clarifies what matters most—and what can wait. Even if not everything gets done, delivering something valuable is still possible.