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Enable sprints

This page is for team-managed projects

If the lower-left of your project sidebar says you're in a company-managed project, check out these company-managed project articles instead.

Learn more about the difference between company-managed and team-managed projects.

A sprint is a fixed time period where a team commits to a set number of issues 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 Jira Software, 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 project.

To enable sprints:

  1. Navigate to your team-managed software project.

  2. In the project menu, select Settings.

  3. Select Features.

  4. Use the toggle to enable or disable the Sprints feature.

When you enable sprints:

  • All issues on your team-managed board will be sent to the backlog with the same status as the column they were in. For example, issues 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 issues into the new sprint, select Backlog from your project's sidebar.

  • Your board only displays issues once you've started the sprint. The board displays only the issues added to the sprint you started. Any other issues (including new issues) appear in the backlog.

If you disable sprints, issues on your active sprint’s board remain on the board, in their respective columns. Issues 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:

  1. Navigate to your team-managed Software project.

  2. Select Backlog in the project menu on the left.

  3. Add at least one issue to your sprint, then click Start sprint.

  4. 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 issues 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:

  1. Navigate to your team-managed Software project.

  2. Select Backlog in the project menu on the left.

  3. 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 ().

Screenshot of a backlog showing current sprints, and future sprints. The cursor hovers over the "Add dates" field.

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.

Learn more about reports in team-managed projects.

Create a sprint

You can create multiple sprints in your backlog, if you want to plan further ahead.

To create a sprint:

  1. Navigate to your team-managed project.

  2. Select Backlog in the project menu on the left.

  3. 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 issues to a sprint

From within your backlog:

  • Click  Create issue underneath the awaiting sprint

  • Drag-and-drop issues from the backlog into the sprint. 

Hold Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac) to move multiple issues at once, or drag the divider  up or down to add (or remove) the topmost issues from your backlog to your sprint (or vice versa).

Complete a sprint

To complete an active sprint in your team-managed project:

  1. From your project’s board or backlog, select Complete Sprint.

  2. If the sprint has incomplete issues, choose whether to move them to the backlog or another sprint.

  3. To create a Confluence page for a sprint retrospective, check Create a retrospective page for this sprint.

  4. 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.

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:

  1. Navigate to your team-managed Software project.

  2. In the project menu, select Settings.

  3. Select Features.

  4. Disable the Sprints feature.

When you disable sprints, issues 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 issues from the same backlog, but each sprint can be started and completed independently.

To run a parallel sprint:

  1. Go to the backlog in your team-managed project.

  2. Select Start sprint while a sprint is already in progress.

To complete a parallel sprint:

  1. Go to your project’s board view or backlog.

  2. Select Complete sprint to open the modal.

  3. In the modal, select the relevant sprint, then select Complete.

When completing an active sprint with incomplete issues, you can't directly move these incomplete issues to another active sprint. You need to move these issues to the backlog first, and then you can add the issues 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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