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We have a mature product that we reuse for new projects. For one project, some tasks were created for already working features. Those tasks were all assigned 1 SP each. So, just as a sanity check, I went ahead and tested a release version of our product in order to close the said tasks.

Now, since I didn't do any work for those features to work properly, in order to reflect correctly what was done for those tasks should I close them unassigned in the backlog directly or put them in the sprint, assign them to me and close them? Am I wrong to assume that the first one would adjust the backlog SPs reallistically and the second option would give a scope change and a false representation of the burndown rate?

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  • Clarification, I spent 10 minutes, going through the list of features that were already working. Also we're talking about like one-third of the backlog. So closing them in the sprint would give a drastic boost to the burndown rate and we couldn't really predict an ECD.
    – pandaman1234
    Sep 6, 2017 at 13:20
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    Then, perhaps you miscalculate the efforts in these stories? you could change their points and add in the sprint.
    – Emerson Cardoso
    Sep 6, 2017 at 13:31
  • @EmersonCardoso honestly I don't know why they gave points to those tasks since they knew it was already working. I guess they intended that a sanity check would be done and would consider it as "work". I think that it could be the best compromise since it would basically do the same thing as closing from the backlog for the reporting. Thanks Emerson. I'll ask the PO to see if he agrees.
    – pandaman1234
    Sep 6, 2017 at 13:35
  • "I don't know why they gave points to those tasks" who are they? If you are a part of the team, you should be involved in the sprint planning meetings.
    – Jory Geerts
    Sep 7, 2017 at 7:37
  • @JoryGeerts I'm not sure how that is related to the question at this point, but let's discuss it anyways. AFAIK, SPs are not attributed in sprint planning meetings, they are in groomings. And yes I should be involved in those meetings too, but the current SP values comes from the initial transformation of requirements in smaller epics/tasks and I was just assigned to the project, we didn't have any groomings since then. Also, we're more in a Kanban process for this project.
    – pandaman1234
    Sep 7, 2017 at 17:52

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You say "I didn't do any work for those features to work properly" but that's not strictly true. While you didn't write any code, you did spend some time testing, and testing is valid work just as much as writing code is.

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Now, since I didn't do any work for those features to work properly, in order to reflect correctly what was done for those tasks should I close them unassigned in the backlog directly or put them in the sprint, assign them to me and close them?

IMO you did some work: you tested it. Therefore, I would include in the sprint, assign it to me and close it.

Am I wrong to assume that the first one would adjust the backlog SPs reallistically and the second option would give a scope change and a false representation of the burndown rate?

IMO since you "worked" in this task during the sprint (testing it and making sure it's still working in this new project), it's OK to have a scope change, and be able to see in the burndown that you added something and closed it.

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