Enable sprints
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A sprint is a fixed time period where a team commits to a set number of work items from their backlog. Sprints are usually one, two, or four weeks long. At the end of the sprint, a team will typically have built and implemented a working product increment.
In Jirascrum projects, sprints are planned on the Backlog screen.
Enable or disable sprints for your team-managed software project
Before you can enable sprints, you must enable a backlog for your team-managed scrum project.
To enable sprints:
Navigate to your team-managed software project.
In the project menu, select Settings.
Select Features.
Use the toggle to enable or disable the Sprints feature.
When you enable sprints:
All work items on your team-managed board will be sent to the backlog with the same status as the column they were in. For example, work items in the In Progress column will be sent to the backlog, with an In Progress status.
Jira creates your first sprint for you. To see it, and start adding work items into the new sprint, select Backlog from your project's sidebar.
Your board only displays work items once you've started the sprint. The board displays only the work items added to the sprint you started. Any other work items (including new work items) appear in the backlog.
If you disable sprints, work items on your active sprint’s board remain on the board, in their respective columns. Work items in other sprints are moved to the Backlog list in your backlog.
Start a sprint
Ready to sprint to your team's goal? To start a sprint:
Navigate to your team-managed software project.
Select Backlog in the project menu on the left.
Add at least one work item to your sprint, then click Start sprint.
Click Start.
When you start a sprint, you can:
Change the sprint's name. (Our team uses local snacks as our sprint names. If we hit our sprint goal, we go out and indulge in that snack. It's a nice ritual.)
Adjust the sprint's duration.
Edit the start and end dates for the sprint.
Add a sprint goal to keep your team aligned and focused on what they want to deliver. This can help your team identify and prioritize the work that pushes towards your goals, and deprioritize less important work.
After you start a sprint:
The work items in your sprint move onto your board.
The board name changes to the name of your active sprint.
The sprint goal appears on the board.
The amount of time remaining in the sprint appears on the board.
Plan, then start a sprint
You can create multiple sprints in your backlog if you want to plan further ahead.
To create a future sprint:
Navigate to your team-managed software project.
Select Backlog in the project menu on the left.
Click Create sprint.
When you create a sprint, a new list appears above your Backlog list.
You can reorder sprints in your backlog by selecting More (···) > Move sprint up/down. You can also move a sprint straight to the top or bottom of your backlog by selecting Move sprint to top/bottom.
You can rename a sprint or give it a goal in advance by selecting More (···) > Edit sprint.
You can add dates to your sprint by selecting Add dates ().
The planned start date automatically updates when you start a sprint
Adding start and end dates to your future sprints is a helpful way to organize and prioritize work. However, this might differ from the sprint’s actual start date.
Reports rely on the start date of your sprint to calculate scope, velocity, and burndown. If the planned start date is before the team actually starts the sprint, then all work added to the sprint would be considered “scope creep”. If the planned start date is after the team started the sprint, all previous activity would be excluded from reports.
To prevent inaccurate reporting, the planned time and date are replaced by a suggested time and date that match the moment you select Start sprint. This can be changed to suit your team.
Create a sprint
You can create multiple sprints in your backlog, if you want to plan further ahead.
To create a sprint:
Navigate to your team-managed project.
Select Backlog in the project menu on the left.
Click Create sprint.
When you create a sprint, a new list appears above your Backlog list.
You can reorder sprints in your backlog by selecting More (···) > Move sprint up/down. You can also move a sprint straight to the top or bottom of your backlog by selecting Move sprint to top/bottom.
You can rename a sprint or give it a goal in advance by selecting More () > Edit sprint.
Add work items to a sprint
From within your backlog:
Click Create underneath the awaiting sprint
Drag-and-drop work items from the backlog into the sprint.
Hold Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac) to move multiple work items at once, or drag the divider up or down to add (or remove) the topmost work items from your backlog to your sprint (or vice versa).
Complete a sprint
To complete an active sprint in your team-managed project:
From your project’s board or backlog, select Complete Sprint.
If the sprint has incomplete work items, choose whether to move them to the backlog or another sprint.
To create a Confluence page for a sprint retrospective, check Create a retrospective page for this sprint.
Select Complete sprint.
If you chose to create a Confluence page for the sprint’s retrospective, a link to it will be added in your sprint’s burndown chart once the page is published.
Work items are considered as complete once they have been moved to the last column on the board. Work items in any other column will be considered incomplete (or “open”).
Disable sprints for your project
If your team no longer needs sprints – for example, if they adopt a Kanban work process – you can turn off sprints for your project. To do this:
Navigate to your team-managed software project.
In the project menu, select Settings.
Select Features.
Disable the Sprints feature.
When you disable sprints, work items on your board will remain on the board, in their respective columns.
Run parallel sprints
Use parallel sprints to run multiple active sprints at the same time. This can be useful when your team wants to split their work to focus on different goals while using the same backlog.
As an example, part of your team might run a sprint for development, while other team members focus on a separate sprint for design. Both sprints would contain work items from the same backlog, but each sprint can be started and completed independently.
To run a parallel sprint:
Go to the backlog in your team-managed project.
Select Start sprint while a sprint is already in progress.
To complete a parallel sprint:
Go to your project’s board view or backlog.
Select Complete sprint to open the modal.
In the modal, select the relevant sprint, then select Complete.
When completing an active sprint with incomplete work items, you can't directly move these incomplete work items to another active sprint. You need to move these work items to the backlog first, and then you can add the work items to the active sprint.
Learn more
New to agile? Check out the scrum guides on our Agile Coach site for information on running a successful scrum team.
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