What is a sprint in Jira? Start to finish

The short answer

A sprint is a fixed period, one month or less, in which a team works on a set of work it chose at the start. In Jira, a sprint is a container on a scrum board: the team moves work items into it, starts it with a start and end date, works through it on the board, and completes it at the end. Unfinished work then moves to the backlog or the next sprint.

The idea comes from the Scrum Guide, which describes sprints as fixed-length events of one month or less, created for consistency. A new sprint starts immediately after the previous one ends.

Why teams use sprints

A sprint gives a team a short, fixed horizon. Instead of everything being due at once, the team agrees what it will finish in the next few weeks and protects that from constant changes. The Scrum Guide gives each sprint a single objective, the Sprint Goal, and places four events inside it:

• Sprint Planning, where the team decides what to do and why;
• Daily Scrum, a short daily check on progress toward the goal;
• Sprint Review, where the team shows what it finished;
• Sprint Retrospective, where the team looks at how it worked and what to change.

Jira does not run these meetings for you. It holds the work they are about.

A sprint in Jira, from start to finish

1. Plan it

On the Backlog page, the work is grouped into sprints and a backlog. The team drags work items from the Backlog section into the next sprint, or selects Create sprint and drags work into the new one. Order matters: the work at the top of the sprint is what the team expects to do first.

2. Start it

Atlassian's steps for starting a sprint:

1. From your space navigation, select the Backlog tab.
2. Find the sprint and select Start sprint.
3. Update the Sprint name if you want to.
4. Select the Start date and End date.
5. Add a Sprint goal if desired. Atlassian notes the goal also appears on the Sprint Report and Burndown Chart.
6. Select Start.

Jira then opens the Active sprints page, which shows the work in the new sprint.

3. Work through it

During the sprint, the board is the team's shared picture of progress. Everyone moves their own cards from left to right as they start and finish work, and comments when something changes. If you are new, the beginner's guide covers the everyday moves.

4. Complete it

At the end, someone with the right permission selects Complete sprint. Atlassian's help for company-managed spaces says:

• a work item counts as complete once it is in the last column of the board;
• unfinished work items can move to the backlog, to any future sprint already created, or to a new sprint;
• all subtasks must be Done before the sprint can be completed, and a parent work item that is not Done moves to a future sprint or the backlog.

To complete a sprint, you must be a Jira administrator or have the Manage Sprints permission.

How long is a sprint?

The Scrum Guide sets the upper limit at one month and leaves the exact length to the team. In Jira you choose the start and end dates each time you start a sprint, so the length is your team's choice. Ask your team what theirs is; the board's sprint name and dates show it.

Your part as a team member

• Keep your cards current. The sprint's progress is only as accurate as the board. Move your card when you start and when you finish.
• Raise problems early. If something you own will not make it, say so before the last day, so the team can decide what to do.
• Do not add work quietly. Dragging a new ticket into an active sprint changes what the team committed to. Put it in the backlog and tell whoever plans the sprint (see backlog vs sprint).
• Finish before you start. Near the end of a sprint, getting something from review to Done is worth more than starting something new.

What sprint reports show

Because Jira knows what was in the sprint and when each item reached the last column, it can draw reports such as the Sprint Report and the Burndown Chart, both of which show the Sprint goal. If cards are not moved when the work happens, those reports are wrong, which is one more reason to keep your own cards up to date.

Practise the last days of a sprint

The end of a sprint is where boards get busy. Agile Board Practice has a lesson on a practice board two days before a sprint ends, where you pick up the most urgent ticket, finish work, clear a flag and hand work over, with feedback on every step.