A sprint in Scrum is a short period of time wherein a development team works to complete specific tasks, milestones, or deliverables.
In this blog, we will cover the concept of Sprint in Scrum, sprint goals, steps taken before starting the actual sprint, etc.
Sprint Overview
Sprints, also referred to as “iterations,” essentially break the project schedule into digestible blocks of time in which smaller goals can be accomplished.
In simple terms, a sprint is one timeboxed iteration of a continuous development cycle, and within this sprint, a planned amount of work has to be completed by the team and made ready for review.
In Scrum, we typically work in sprints depending on the extent of the overall project. In a sense, one Sprint within Scrum should be a project in itself, with start and finish. We work towards a Sprint goal, we plan, refine, build, deliver, review, etc.
Now the next question comes why do we need Sprint in Scrum?
Working on a six-month-long project can get tedious and leave Agile team members feeling like they’re not making any progress—even when they are. By breaking your project plan into sprints, you allow team members to focus on individual goals and celebrate victories as they occur, rather than waiting for the end of a project.
Here are the 10 benefits of using Sprint in Scrum.
1.) More focus: Dividing the entire project into a series of smaller tasks, ensures that the entire focus of the team is on solving the problem at hand. A scrum project sprint is only over when the final specifications are according to the already decided ‘definition of done (DoD)’.
2.) Reduced costs: A large project would not only take a lot of time and investment. Also, you’ll have to start over in the case of a big change or a mistake by a team member. This will cause project delays and a waste of money. In this case, if we use sprints, any change request can be accommodated in the upcoming sprints and all the previous sprint tasks remain unaffected by a mistake in the current sprint. This in return saves you time and reduces the overall costs of the project.
3.) More transparency: Scrum teams are required to share all the information and every member works while having the same vision of the final deliverable in mind. Since everyone is on the same page; the chances of the project going sideways get drastically reduced and improve visibility and transparency in projects.
4.) Improved morale: Agile methodologies do not restrict team members to the organizational hierarchy. This means that each member’s opinion is given equal importance and respect. This feeling of being valued among the team motivates them to perform even better and align their personal interests with the organization.
5.) Better quality: Quality control is an important part of the sprint review. Since everything is reviewed immediately, and on a microscopic level, you can be sure that your product is up to the standards.
6.) Higher productivity: Sprints in scrum increase the efficiency of the team and allow continuous improvements. This obviously has a direct effect on the overall increase in the productivity of the team. Projects that follow the Agile approach & use the scrum framework are proven to be about 28 percent more successful than others.
7.) Higher customer satisfaction: Since customers are allowed to share their thoughts throughout the project lifecycle, the final product is usually up to their requirements. This allows organizations to retain those customers and increase their business.
8.) Adaptability: Shorter sprints allow scrum teams to change according to the situation and the demands of the customer. The rapid nature of modern businesses requires project teams to pivot quickly and completing short-term goals can help them complete that.
9.) Team building: Project teams often consist of different people who do not interact under normal circumstances. Scrum sprints encourage collaboration between all members of the team and these interactions can help members feel comfortable with each other which can definitely have a positive effect on their overall performance.
10.) Reduced risks: While working in a Scrum project sprint, a scrum team gets multiple opportunities to tackle a potential issue before it becomes a big deal. Through daily stand-ups, members know the problem any member is facing and how to solve it. Now if they face a similar problem in the future, they’ll be ready for it.
Read: Scrum Master Exam Questions and Answers
Sprint Cycle
– Before Sprint
A sprint planning is initiated by the scrum team to discuss the process & the intention behind conducting a sprint.
1.) Sprint Planning Meeting
Before the actual sprint starts, there is a sprint planning meeting. The length of the sprint planning meeting is proportional to the length of the sprint. A four-week sprint should be planned in no more than 8 hours. A one-week sprint should be planned in no more than two hours.
This meeting determines what the goals are for that sprint. Based on the team velocity, a set of features are pulled from the top of the product backlog to the Sprint Backlog for the coming Sprint.
Sprint Goal
A Sprint goal shows the desired outcome of an iteration that provides a shared goal to the team, which goal has to be defined before the team starts the Sprint in order to focus to get this goal. It is a high-level summary of the goal the product owner would like to accomplish during a sprint, frequently elaborated through a specific set of product backlog items. A sprint goal is a short, one- or two-sentence, description of what the team plans to achieve during the sprint. It is written collaboratively by the team and the product owner.
– During Sprint
This is the stage that involves the bulk of the effort of the development team. During this process, the team works to produce a product increment. While the product owner doesn’t typically participate in this stage, they should be available to answer any questions the Scrum team may have during the sprint process.
2.) Daily Stand-up/Scrum Meeting
The daily scrum (also known as the daily standup, or Daily Scrum) during which team members synchronize effort. Daily scrums enable team members to ensure the right things are being worked on by the right people at the right time.
Every morning of the sprint the project team gets together for a short daily standup meeting (under 15 minutes). This meeting takes place at the same time every day and includes everyone on the project. Everyone stands up for the meeting to keep everyone focused and to keep the meeting short. Often a timer is set so that the meeting does not run long.
Read: Project Manager vs Scrum Master vs Product Owner
3.) Sprint Review & Testing
At the end of every sprint, the Scrum team, product owner, Scrum Master, and stakeholders gather together to hold a sprint review meeting to test whether the product increment holds up.
In this stage, the product owner confirms if the functionalities fit the sprint’s requirements and whether the team has accomplished the sprint goal.
-After Sprint
Once the sprint is completed, its time for the Scrum team to come together and discuss and share their experience of the scrum.
4.) Sprint Retrospective
In this stage, the Scrum team, Scrum Master, and product owner hold a sprint retrospective where they discuss the sprint process, identify what was a success, and outline what could be improved upon.
So this was an overview of the entire Sprint process in the scrum.
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