What's recommended for blocked stories from one sprint to the next?

[Malika]

Hi, 

if you have blocked stories for e.g. in testing and they are still blocked at the end of a sprint. They are reliant on some other in progress stories or external input. What is the recommendation for the next sprint? Do they go in the backlog or in the new sprint? 

[Marios Marneros · Accepted solution]

Hey @Malika , this is a very good question. Normally when planning the next sprint you would put all the unfinished work in the backlog and reprioritise it. If the unfinished story is still blocked and will be blocked for a while would you want to add that in your sprint? I would say it would be better to deliver the story that is blocking this one first before bringing it in. 

The fact that the testing is relying on another story means that you might want to re-think how stories are being broken down. You can try the INVEST principle which focuses on a story being: Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small and Testable.

Let me know if you have any more questions! Please accept this answer if it was helpful!

[Malika]

Yes that's what I wanted to hear and it makes sense. Thank you @mario