SMART GOALS

Creating Goals

S for specific: during each sprint planning, the team agrees on a specific set of tasks to achieve, and commits to doing them. The tasks (and the user stories), answer the questions of what do I want to accomplish, purposes/benefits of accomplishing the goal, who is involved, where it takes place, and constraints.
M for measurable: the list of these tasks, plus the movement of the tickets throughout the sprint, from development to code review to QA to release (or whatever your flow is), answers the questions of how much work and when will it be accomplished.
A for attainable: functioning Agile groups don't typically commit to something in the planning stage unless it is clearly attainable -- all the pieces are there to know how to accomplish it
R for relevant: questions like is it worthwhile, is it the right time, does it match our other efforts -- stories and tasks don't get pulled into a sprint, and committed to, unless the answer is yes to all these questions (typically...YMMV)
T for time-bound: a sprint is necessarily time-bound, be it 2 weeks, 3 weeks, more, or less.

1. Identify the experiences that advance a person as a developer.
2. Select a particular experience to pursue.
3. Pursue that experience to completion. (Achievement unlocked!)
4. Reflect on that experience. Really soak it in. [A]
5. Return to Step 2, this time selecting a new experience.