Working with Scrum Sprints

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Scrum Mate provides agile teams with all the necessary features to run proper Scrum sprints without the hassle of complicated administration.

Sprint planning

Scrum teams can plan their sprints in the backlog, or on board. Using a two-phase sprint planning as described in the official Scrum Guide is easy with Scrum Mate.

1

During Sprint Planning phase one, teams can select user stories from the backlog and move it at the top. With the help of dividers, teams can easily review the total estimated effort of stories selected to the next sprint.

2

The team can discuss user stories, take notes on story cards together with the Product Owner.

3

Once the team finished phase one of the sprint planning, they can drop the selected user stories to the team board.

This article describes,  how to move user stories to the board.

4

The team can continue with sprint planning phase two on the board.

5

The team can check the total sum of estimated work at the bottom of the board.

Starting the sprint

Once the team has finished sprint planning, they can start tracking the Sprint. Please note, that according to the Scrum Guide, the sprint planning is part of the Sprint, so in Scrum terms, the Sprint had already started.

To start tracking the sprint:

1

Click on the running man icon on the top left icon set

2

Define the goal of the sprint (optional, but recommended)

3

Set the last day of the sprint (required)

4

Start tracking the sprint

When the sprint started, the board header will turn into a blue to color to indicate that the sprint is running.

Finishing the sprint

Scrum Mate doesn’t finish the sprint automatically, a user with Process Master access right can finish sprints. To finish the sprint:

1

Click on the flag icon on the top left icon set

2

Select if you want to “Clean up the board when finishing” the sprint. If the checkbox is checked, all stories in columns other than “Completed” will be moved back to the product backlog. If the checkbox is unchecked, uncompleted stories will remain in their position.

3

Click on the “Finish sprint” button.

4

User stories from the last (Completed) column will be moved to the “Delivered” list.

Changing the sprint goal or deadline

Click on the flag icon on the top left corner of the board. On the sprint details popup, change the name or the deadline. Changes will be saved immediately. Click outside of the popup window to close it.