Announcing the availability of a new feature: work in time-boxed iterations, often called Sprints if you are using the Scrum framework. A new version (2025.1) of Agile Tools is now available!
There is no better place to read about what Sprint is than the chapter in the official Scrum Guide:
“Sprints are the heartbeat of Scrum, where ideas are turned into value. They are fixed length events of one month or less to create consistency.
A new Sprint starts immediately after the conclusion of the previous Sprint.
All the work necessary to achieve the Product Goal, including Sprint Planning, Daily Scrums, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective, happen within Sprints.
During the Sprint:
No changes are made that would endanger the Sprint Goal;
Quality does not decrease;
The Product Backlog is refined as needed; and,
Scope may be clarified and renegotiated with the Product Owner as more is learned.
Sprints enable predictability by ensuring inspection and adaptation of progress toward a Product Goal at least every calendar month. When a Sprint’s horizon is too long the Sprint Goal may become invalid, complexity may rise, and risk may increase. Shorter Sprints can be employed to generate more learning cycles and limit risk of cost and effort to a smaller time frame. Each Sprint may be considered a short project.
Various practices exist to forecast progress, like burn-downs, burn-ups, or cumulative flows. While proven useful, these do not replace the importance of empiricism. In complex environments, what will happen is unknown. Only what has already happened may be used for forward-looking decision making.
A Sprint could be cancelled if the Sprint Goal becomes obsolete. Only the Product Owner has the authority to cancel the Sprint.”
Scrum Sprints in Agile Tools
Sprints are connected to any of your Value Units, like your products, projects, services, or similar.
You can manage Sprints in the Sprints tab, which is now available. There, you can create new Sprints, edit them, and delete them if in draft state.
Sprints transition through different states
Every Sprint begins as a draft and moves to a desired reviewed state.
Creating Sprints in Agile Tools
Sprints have an important component - Sprint Goal, that is often missing in contemporary tools on the market. Agile Tools encourages good practices that are frequently overlooked in many other leading digital solutions.
There are two places where you can create a Sprint:
in the Product Backlog, and
in the Sprints tab on the Value Unit detail page.
On the Product Backlog page (technically on any Value Unit’s Backlog page), you can quickly convert all the To-do Value Items into a new Sprint by clicking the “Create Sprint” button, as marked in the image below.
On the Value Unit’s Sprints tab, you can create a blank Sprint (not containing any Value Items) by clicking the “Create Sprint” button.
In the Sprint editor you provide:
the Sprint name,
the start and end date,
one (or more) teams doing the sprint,
the Sprint Goal,
the method, and
the success criteria.
Let’s quickly describe each field.
Sprint name is a short memorable name or a key. Agile Tools helps you to generate one, but at the end of the day, it is entirely up to you what Sprint naming convention you will use.
Sprint start and end dates are self-explanatory. Most often Sprints last two weeks.
Teams available for selection are only those linked to the Value Unit for which the Sprint is being created, and not every team is created on the platform.
The Sprint Goal tries to answer the question: “Why is it worthwhile to run the sprint?” Think of the outcome for the end users when the value is delivered.
The method should answer the following: “How is the goal met?” Agile Tools offers several options, such as Releasable product increment, Preview product increment, Spike, Digital prototype, Paper prototype, and Whiteboard. You can, of course, type your method if none of thise suits your purpose.
The success criteria is a short but measurable/quantifiable description of the conditions that, if true, define the success of the Sprint Goal.
Sprint review
On the last day of the Sprint, the whole team will conduct a Sprint Review Scrum event.
Some wisdom from the Scrum Guide:
“The purpose of the Sprint Review is to inspect the outcome of the Sprint and determine future adaptations. The Scrum Team presents the results of their work to key stakeholders and progress toward the Product Goal is discussed.
During the event, the Scrum Team and stakeholders review what was accomplished in the Sprint and what has changed in their environment. Based on this information, attendees collaborate on what to do next. The Product Backlog may also be adjusted to meet new opportunities. The Sprint Review is a working session and the Scrum Team should avoid limiting it to a presentation.
The Sprint Review is the second to last event of the Sprint and is timeboxed to a maximum of four hours for a one-month Sprint. For shorter Sprints, the event is usually shorter.”
In Agile Tools, the Sprint review is an opportunity to write down the outcome to have a “paper trail” of your progress.
One final topic for this product update is a …
Sprint detail page
Every Sprint has a detail page where you can transition to and from various stages, observe and edit Sprint information, and see all the Value Items for the Sprint.
You can also edit Sprint’s Value Items here by selecting the Edit option in the list that opens by clicking on the more (tripple-dot) icon.
Other improvements and news
As always, several improvements were made and a number of bugs anihilated.
Approximatelly one hour of Agile Tools Essentials video clips are now available at https://courses.agile-tools.io/courses/agile-tools-essentials.
First chapters are about OKR Goals and the rest about the work management will follow.
Chapter Four will be about daily work management: Value Items, Workboards, …
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