Jira is an awesome tool to help development teams manage their work. Jira currently offers two types of boards – Scrum and Kanban. Scrum is one of the most popular agile methodologies. Fortunately, agile teams can take advantage of Scrum-ready tools like Jira software to enhance their processes, boost productivity, and deliver substantial business value. Scrum sprints help to break down projects into smaller stories/tasks. Scrum boards also allow teams to track their work in the sprint. A sprint is a timeline in a company’s workflow and development cycle. If you want to learn more about the sprint, keep reading this article to learn step-by-step instructions on how to create a sprint in Jira.
How to create a sprint in Jira?
Step 1 – Create a new sprint at the top of the Backlog from your scrum project
Step 2 – Fill the sprint with stories from your Backlog
Step 3 – Start your sprint
Step 4 – Monitor your team’s progress
Step 5 – Close the sprint
What is a sprint in Jira?
A sprint is a predetermined time a team uses to complete a project from their product backlog. A sprint is not a long period; it is usually a period between one to four weeks long. You don’t use sprint to cover all the issues that need work. Instead, you choose a few issues that have greater importance and use the sprint period to tackle them. By using sprints and dividing the work amongst the team, collaboration improves, and projects stay on track.
How to create a sprint in Jira?
Step 1 – Create the sprint
- Go to Jira and navigate to the top of your Backlog in a scrum project.
- Click on the ‘Create Sprint’ button at the top of your Backlog.
Note: – Please note that you can create multiple sprints at a time. However, you can work on one at a time.
Step 2 – Fill your sprint with stories from the Backlog
Now, you have an empty sprint, so now you need to fill it up with issues from your Backlog.
To add stories to your sprint
- Go to the Backlog.
- Drag and drop issues from the Backlog onto your sprint.
Step 3 – Start the sprint
Your sprint is now set up. To start the sprint
- Navigate to the Backlog of your scrum project.
- Find the sprint you wish to start and click on the ‘Start Sprint’ button.
- Update the ‘Sprint name’ & add a ‘Sprint goal’ and select the start and end date for the sprint.
Note: – You can only start a new sprint once a previous sprint has already been finished. Otherwise, you will need to use a Parallel Sprint feature in Jira.
Step 4 – Monitor your team’s progress
An important aspect of running a sprint in Jira is monitoring your team’s progress throughout the sprint. You can track important details in the ‘Sprint Report,’ which shows the status of all the issues in the sprint. Whether they have been completed or not or recently added.
Step 5 – Close the Sprint
- Go to the ‘Active Sprints’ in your Scrum Board.
- Select the sprint you want to complete from the sprint drop-down option.
- Click on the ‘Complete Sprint.’ Please note all the completed issues will move out of Active Sprints.
Benefits of using Sprints in Jira
Sprints are a great way to manage projects in Jira as they help break down complex tasks into smaller chunks and ensure deadlines are met.
Some of the benefits of using sprints in Jira include:
- In the software industry, sprints are often used as an alternative to project management methodologies like the waterfall model.
- Sprints allow engineers to get feedback in a shorter amount of time while providing better visibility into their team’s project development.
- Sprint can help improve communication and collaboration by keeping the team updated about the tasks that need to be completed and their due date. This allows for a more streamlined workflow.
- It monitors the software application in terms of growth and team.
- It allows the teams to work faster and produce a high-quality software product.
- It helps to work with multiple projects with different sprints.
Best Practices for using Sprint in Jira
The best practices for using Sprint in Jira may vary depending on your systems. Like most agile systems, there is a specific process that works best. Most agile systems are based on the Kanban methodology and use cards to represent work. If you are using a card-based project, having tasks and issues sorted by card makes it harder to find when you need to search for something specific. So, knowing how and why those processes work is important for your success with sprints in Jira.
Here are some of the best practices for using a sprint in Jira:
- Make sure your sprint is configured properly before starting it. This includes setting the sprint duration, goals, and start & end dates.
- Assign issues to the sprint that can be realistically completed within the sprint duration.
- Make the best use of Jira’s sprint reporting features to track progress and identify any issues that need to be addressed.
- Analyze your sprint at the end of the sprint to assess what was accomplished and identify areas for improvement.
Why is sprint planning needed?
Sprint can be quite helpful in understanding the tasks and issues and taking them towards a logical completion. The ability to work on a project with real-time requirements from different teams is what makes it one of the preferred options one would want to go with. It helps to provide a shared understanding of how to take up the project and how it can be approached as a team.
Key Takeaways
Jira software helps teams following agile methodology such as Scrum to organize work and be more productive. Sprints are the most important element of the Scrum framework, and teams depend on them to deliver work regularly. Therefore, it’s a good idea to equip your team with a tool that helps to keep all the sprint-related information in one place. The more you make sprints, the better you will understand it.