So you’re doing the agile thing during your Salesforce project. Your two week sprints are full of user stories. Each user story is allocated points, which represents the level of development complexity and ultimately, the time to deliver the story.
The project manager (PM) usually knows how many points can be delivered in an average sprint. This is usually determined through past experience, number of team members, the skill level of the team, personal time off, etc.
Let’s say a team can deliver 20 points in a sprint. The user stories with the highest business priority are usually allocated to the sprint first. The points are added, until 20 are reached.
Since 20 is just an estimate, sometimes the team can work faster than expected. So it’s not uncommon for the PM to allocate stretch goals.
Stretch goals are user stories that are added to the end of the sprint. These additional stories are only developed if the initial stories are completed.
The takeaway
The purpose of stretch goals is to add some optional user stories to a sprint. Developers may be able to stretch themselves to complete these bonus features, but it’s not required.
And it reminds me of the saying, “The reward for hard work will be even more work”.