Backlog and sprint template: a free spreadsheet with an app example.

What a backlog is and what a sprint is

A backlog is the ordered list of everything that still needs to be done on a product or service. Each item is usually a user story: a sentence in the format "as a [who], I want [what], so that [why]." What's at the top is the most important; what's at the bottom can wait or never be done.

A sprint is a short work cycle, from one to four weeks, with a batch of backlog items the team commits to delivering. At the end, the team shows what got done, learns and plans the next one. The template above brings the two together in one table: a backlog of eleven stories for a scheduling app, already distributed across three sprints.

How to fill it in, column by column

Step by step to run the first sprint

1. Write the backlog. Gather ideas and requests and rewrite each one as a story, from the point of view of the person using it.
2. Order by value. The question is: if we could only deliver this, would it be worth it? Whatever is a yes moves up.
3. Estimate in points. Compare the stories with each other: is this one bigger or smaller than H-01? Split the ones with 13 points or more.
4. Define the length and the capacity. A two-week sprint is a good start. Add up the points delivered in the previous one to know what fits in the next; in the first sprint, start conservatively.
5. Plan the sprint. Choose the top stories that fit, and the team pulls them in.
6. Meet briefly every day (fifteen minutes) to see what moved and what got stuck.
7. Close with a review and a retrospective. Show what got done and talk about what to improve in the way you work.

Common mistakes

• A sprint without a goal. A batch of loose stories gives no direction. Write a sentence that says what the sprint wants to achieve.
• Changing scope midway. If an urgent item comes in, something goes out. Otherwise, the sprint never closes.
• Backlog as a dumping ground. Items sitting for six months are noise. Review and delete what is no longer going to happen.
• Stories that are too big. If it doesn't fit in half a sprint, split it. "Payment" is an epic; "pay the deposit by PIX" is a story.
• Using points to compare people. They're for the team to plan, not to rank who delivers the most.

When the spreadsheet template isn't enough

A spreadsheet handles a small team and a few sprints. After that, the work of maintaining it becomes the problem: there's no board by status, nobody adds up the sprint's points, you can't comment on a story or attach an image, and the history of earlier sprints gets lost across tabs. To understand the method behind it, the Scrum guide explains the roles and ceremonies. And if your team works without fixed cycles, the Kanban guide shows the continuous-flow alternative.

Sprints aren't just for software teams either. The post sprints outside IT shows the method applied to marketing, legal and operations.

How to use backlog and sprint in Tasskee

1. Create a project for the product and add each story as a task. Put the user story in the title and the acceptance criteria in the description or the checklist.
2. Record each task's estimate. Priority can go in a custom field (from the Start plan) or in the project's statuses.
3. Create the sprint with a start and end date and move the top backlog tasks into it.
4. Follow the sprint in progress on the Kanban board: to do, in progress, in review, completed.
5. Use automations to notify the assignee when a task stalls, without having to hunt through the board.
6. At the end of the cycle, look at the reports to talk in the retrospective with data, not impressions.

To link the sprints' work to quarterly objectives, see the OKR template. And for a project with milestones and fixed dates, the project schedule is the better-suited format.