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We're updating our terminology in Jira

'Issue' is changing to 'work item'. You might notice some inconsistencies while this big change takes place.

Reopen a sprint

This page applies to company-managed projects only.

The difference between company-managed and team-managed projects

To reopen a sprint, you must be a Jira administrator or a user with the Manage Sprints project permission. Learn more about permissions in Jira.

If another sprint is already active, you’ll need to enable parallel sprints before reopening a completed sprint.

To reopen a sprint:

  1. If not already there, navigate to your project.

  2. From your project’s sidebar, select Reports.

  3. If you’re using a company-managed project, select the Sprint Report. If you’re using a team-managed project, select either the Burnup report or the Sprint burndown chart.

  4. Select the relevant sprint from the sprint drop-down.

  5. Select more (…) > Reopen sprint.

  6. Select Reopen.

When you reopen a sprint, this event is recorded in the sprint report and the report will use your new end date.

Depending on the state of your team’s work items, and any actions you may have taken when closing the sprint, Jira may change the status of work items as they appear in the sprint report.

Scenarios for reopening sprints

The diagram below shows you the possible flows when you're reopening sprints, depending on certain scenarios.

A flowchart of questions that should be asked for every individual issue in a sprint that is to be reopened.

In the following sample scenarios listed below, let's assume the following details:

  • You've created a sprint and named it 'Sprint 1'.

  • You've added some work items to Sprint 1, and then started it.

  • Your team is currently working on the work item in Sprint 1.

  • You have a future planned sprint named 'Sprint 2'.

Simple scenarios

Below are some examples of simple scenarios where you may want to reopen a sprint, and the results you can expect.

Scenario details

Expected results

  • You closed Sprint 1, and there were some completed work items in it.

  • All incomplete work items were moved back to the Backlog.

  • All these incomplete work items are still in the Backlog when you try to reopen Sprint 1.

  1. Sprint 1 is reopened successfully.

  2. Sprint 1 contains all the completed and incomplete work items that were in Sprint 1 when it was closed.

  • You closed Sprint 1, and there were no completed work items in it.

  • All incomplete work items were moved back to the Backlog.

  • During sprint planning, you moved all of these work items to the future sprint, Sprint 2.

  • You started Sprint 2, and Sprint 2 is a currently active sprint when you try to reopen Sprint 1.

  • The Parallel Sprints feature is enabled.

Sprint 1 cannot be reopened because all incomplete work items in Sprint 1 when it was closed are now in the currently active Sprint 2.

Complex scenarios

In some cases, you may be able to reopen a sprint, but the results may not be as what you expect them to be. Or you may not be able to reopen a sprint altogether. Below are some examples of complex scenarios where you may want to reopen a sprint, and the results you can expect.

Scenario details

Expected results

  • You closed Sprint 1, and there were some completed work items in it.

  • All incomplete work items were moved back to the Backlog.

  • During sprint planning, you moved some of these work items to the future sprint, Sprint 2.

  • You started Sprint 2, and Sprint 2 is a currently active sprint when you try to reopen Sprint 1.

  • The Parallel Sprints feature is enabled.

  1. Sprint 1 is reopened successfully.

  2. Sprint 1 contains all the completed and incomplete work items that were in the Sprint 1 when it was closed.

  3. The incomplete work items that were in Sprint 1 when it was closed, but are currently in the active Sprint 2 will remain in Sprint 2. This is because work items in an active sprint are not moved during the reopen sprint process.

  • You closed Sprint 1, and there were some completed work items in it.

  • All incomplete work items were moved back to the Backlog.

  • During sprint planning, you moved some of these work items to the future sprint, Sprint 2.

  • You started Sprint 2, and Sprint 2 is a currently active sprint when you try to reopen Sprint 1.

  • The Parallel Sprints feature is not enabled.

Sprint 1 cannot be reopened for the following reasons:

  • There is a currently active sprint, Sprint 2.

  • The Parallel Sprints feature is not enabled.

  • You closed Sprint 1, and there were no completed work items in it.

  • All incomplete work items were moved back to the Backlog.

  • During sprint planning, you moved all of these work items to the future sprint, Sprint 2.

  • You started Sprint 2, and Sprint 2 is a currently active sprint when you try to reopen Sprint 1.

  • The Parallel Sprints feature is enabled.

Sprint 1 cannot be reopened because all of its work items are now in the currently active sprint, Sprint 2.

 

 

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