In the first part of this article (read here), we understood the following:
Our Current Sprint State
Performing Activate/Inactivate Operation
Performing Delete Operation
Performing Add Operation
In this part, we will check certain additional operations, which are crucial as you manage your Sprint hands-on. There are many other operations, which you - the Scrum Master or Product Owner - have to perform in your Scrum project. Detailed, hands-on videos are part of the Mastering MS Project Agile course. See here.
We will start with the modify operation.
Performing Modify Operation
As you proceed with your Sprint, you are also likely to perform several edit or modify operations, such as duration, resources, start date, and end date, among others. This can be done by simply double-clicking on the Card (work item) in the Current Sprint Planning Board view and changing the necessary fields.
As shown for the featured item of Create a new user, I first double-clicked on the corresponding card, and then I can change the resources in the popped-up Task Information dialog box. You can change multiple fields with this option.
You can also select the card, right-click and choose the Information option from the drop-down list to see the Task Information dialog box.
Performing Move Operation
Not every work item included in the Current Sprint will be completed. It’s highly possible that some of the items are not started or are partially complete. In such a case, the items are to be moved into the next Sprint. This is one of the rules in the Scrum framework (see here). Note that the incomplete feature items don’t count toward velocity (see here).
To move a work item into the next Sprint, again you can use the Current Sprint Board view. Select the work item (Card) and use the Move to Next Sprint command from the list.
When you use this command, the item will be moved into the immediate next Sprint, not any other! To be sure, you can verify it in the Sprint Planning Sheet view, which is for all the Sprints in the project. Keep in mind that once a work item is complete, it won’t be visible in the Current Sprint Board or Current Sprint Sheet view. This is because of the Sprint Planning Filter (see here).
As shown in the above figure, the feature Edit an existing user is now part of Sprint 2. Earlier, it was part of Sprint 1.
As it’s moved into the next immediate Sprint, the board status is maintained as Next up. The % Complete value for this work item will also be preserved. Your team can work on this item in the next Sprint.
Performing % Complete Change Operation
While the % Complete mapping is done for the various workflow states in the Board, it’s not written on stone. For example, in our case the % Complete Mapping is %, 10%, 50%, and 100% for Sprint Backlog, Next up, In progress and Done, respectively.
It’s possible that you may want to change this % Complete for a particular work item. This can be done by opening the Task Information dialog box and changing the % Complete value in the General tab. This is shown below.
As shown, for the work item, I’ve changed the % Complete to 20%, in place of the default 10%. You can cross-check this % complete update in the Current Sprint Sheet view.
While you changed the % Complete value to 20%, notice that the Board Status is not changed, and it still remains in the Next up workflow state.
Demonstration and Key Points
Now, let’s demonstrate what we have learned so far, along with some key points to remember while adjusting a Sprint in progress. I’ve prepared the below video [duration: 5m: 29s] for this purpose. For the best experience, you may want to go full screen in HD mode and plug in your earphones.
Conclusion
In some of the cases, it’s possible that while performing these operations, resources may be overallocated. You can quickly solve overallocation using the Team Planner view available with MS Project Online Desktop client, which has the Agile features.
Projects, like human beings, are living entities. Just as every human being changes, so does a project. If the environment is high-churn, then humans must rapidly adapt and adopt, and so does a Sprint project.
This article outlines certain key operations to adjust a Sprint project. I hope it gives you the understanding to perform various operations within a Sprint, the confidence to conduct any operation in a Scrum project, and brings value to your work.
A Sprint is a mini-project within a larger Scrum project, and it's usually timeboxed for two to four weeks. Though timeboxed, a number of things can change within these weeks. In fact, adjustment of a Sprint in progress is the norm, not the exception.
In an environment with rapid changes (see here) in requirements and technological uncertainties, a number of areas such as scope, resources, risk, and even business priorities may change. Agile/Scrum, after all, is all about change. In fact, one of the principles in the Agile manifesto states: Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.
Note: The content of this article has been taken from Mastering MS Project Agile course. See here. It's world's only hands-on, in-depth course to master MS Project Agile.
For a project executed in Agile mode, one can have the following:
Addition, removal, or modification of work items within a Sprint, i.e., changes to the Sprint Backlog.
Refinement of Release Plan (see here for release planning), i.e., change in features for the Sprints within a Release.
Refinement of the (Product) Backlog (see here), i.e., addition, removal, movement, or replacement of backlog items, which can be features or stories.
Rolling-wave planning (see here) for upcoming Sprints, as the current Sprint draws to a closure, among others.
In this article, we will specifically learn how to adjust a Sprint which is in progress. We will see the following real-time Sprint operations:
Activate/Inactive Operation
Delete Operation
Add Operation
Modify Operation
Move Operation
% Complete Change Operation
If you’re working hands-on with MS Project to manage your Scrum project, these operations are vital to know. So, let's start with our Current Sprint State.
Current Sprint State – Timeline View
The current situation for our Sprint is shown in the Timeline view of MS Project Agile. Our Sprint is of two weeks duration from September 11, 2023 to September 24, 2023.
As shown in the above figure:
There are 3 items to be delivered: Login to the online trading system, Create a new user, and Edit an existing user, which are 50%, 50%, and 10% complete, respectively.
The Sprint event of Sprint 1 Planning is 100% complete, along with four Daily Scrums. These are indicated with a tick mark for the events.
Our status date is September 18, 2023, which is one week after the Sprint begins on September 11, 2023.
As we proceed, we will perform several operations. These are important to know if you are really working in a Project with multiple Sprints. As any real-world Agile practitioner would tell you, all these operations may happen.
However, before you proceed, there are important instructions you need to know before starting, which are mentioned in the below video [duration: 2m:38s].
Next, let's us see our current Sprint board to understand the status date and various workflow items available in respective workflow states.
Current Sprint State – Current Sprint Board
The current situation for our Sprint is shown in the Current Sprint Board view.
As shown, several items are either complete (shown with a tick mark on the Cards) or progressed as on the status date, i.e., one week into the Sprint.
The % Complete of features and Scrum events for the entire Sprint can be seen in the below Current Sprint Sheet view. You have to add this column.
As shown above:
The features Login to the online trading system and Create a new user are 50% complete, whereas the feature Edit an existing user is 10% complete.
A number of Daily Scrums are complete.
The Sprint Planning event is also complete.
Now, we will proceed with various operations.
Performing Activate/Inactivate Operation
When you try to inactivate a task in any column state, except in the Sprint Backlog state, MS Project software won’t allow it to function! The reason is simple – you can’t inactivate a work item, which is activated and in progress.
A work item (or task) can be inactivated by going to the Task tab, then Schedule group, and using the Inactivate command. It’s highlighted in the below figure.
Now you may be wondering how to inactive such a work item. You have to take it back to the Sprint Backlog state to inactivate. This can be done either in the Current Sprint Planning Board or the Current Sprint Planning Sheet view.
As you can see, the work item is inactivated because of the column state (Sprint Backlog), and the % completion.
Performing Delete Operation
While you can’t inactivate an in-progress task, you are allowed to delete it. You can do so by selecting the work item in the column (workflow) state, right-clicking and using the Delete Task command. This is shown below.
But then the MS Project software will pop up a soft message for you, unlike the hard message shown for inactivation we saw earlier.
As shown for the selected feature item of Edit an existing user, when the delete command is pressed, a message pops up. This message wants you to confirm that you really want to delete it.
If you proceed, the work item will be fully removed from all the views. In other words, the backend database completely removes the work item. Hence, be careful!
Performing Add Operation
This is another operation that MS Project Agile practitioners use. While scope addition during the Sprint is not encouraged, it’s very likely to happen in the real world. Even though you may not want your scope to expand, new tasks related to a feature might come up anyway, and those must be added.
You can add a new task by going to the Current Sprint Sheet view, right-clicking, and using the Insert Task command. Notice that as you add a new work item, the default Board Status used will be Sprint Backlog.
You can also add the new work items using the Gantt Chart view or the using the New Task command of the Current Sprint Board view. After you add a new work item and associate the resources (see here) to it, it can be properly visualized in the Current Sprint Board view with the needed fields. This is depicted below.
A Sprint is a mini-projectand usually has a length of 2 weeks, though it can vary from 1 to 4 weeks. While running Sprints for a big project using Scrum framework, one can run 10, 100, 1000, or more Sprints. The number of Sprints goes-up when the Sprint length is shorter – say 1 week. This scenario highly possible.
Do not confuse Sprints at Scale with Agile at Scale, where multiple teams can work on multiple Sprints.
Now, questions can be:
How do you manage so many Sprints?
If you are using a software tool, how do you manage them?
Is it possible to have the current Sprint being shown first in the tool? (with all other Sprints)
Is it possible to show the work items for the current Sprint first? (a view showing all the Sprints)
These questions are very pertinent for any Scrum Master, Product Owner or an Agile Project Manager. In fact, recently I received such questions from Agile practitioners, who have been using my courses.
Let’s see how to manage a large number of Sprints and the answers to the above questions.
Our Plan with Epics and Features
Our current plan is shown below and at a high-level:
There are 5 epics, from Epic 1 to Epic 5.
Each epic is broken into 10 features. In total, there are 50 features.
These features will be associated with the respective Sprints.
One feature will be completed in one Sprint. For example, feature 50 will be done in Sprint 50.
This is shown below in the Gantt Chart view of MS Project.
These you can add in the Gantt Chart view or you can use the Sprint Planning Board or Sprint Planning Sheet views.
As shown, we have features numbering up-to Feature 50. When you switch to the Sprint Planning Sheet, you will get the following view.
Plan for the Sprints
To associate with Sprints, we need to create the Sprints first. These can be done using Project tab > Properties group > Manage Sprints command.
As you can see, we have 50 Sprints planned now.
Associate with the Sprints
One can use various possible views to associate the feature items with Sprint, but the most used ones (and recommended by my courses) are the Sprint Planning Board and Sprint Planning Sheet views of MS Project Agilesoftware tool.
Using the Sprint Planning Board, for example, I’ve associated a number of features items as shown.
You have to simply drag and drop the items from the No Sprint column to the respective Sprint column. But then we have some constraints here!
When it reaches Sprint 5, then the board view on the left does not show the feature items. If you have to associate with Sprint 50, then you have to drag it all the way up-to Sprint 50, which is on the extreme right.
If you want to see only the last 3 Sprint items, i.e., Sprint 48, Sprint 49 and Sprint 50, then we also have to use the horizontal scrollbar to the end.
Hence, the better view to use in this case of having a large number of Sprints will be the Sprint Planning Sheet view. This is shown below.
As shown, you have to just scroll down and associate the Sprint in the popped-up, drop-down or show-up list. Isn’t is very easy this way?
Show the Latest 3 Sprint Items first
Another issue is to show the last 3 Sprint items first. This cannot be done using the Sprint Planning Board view as the filters, groups are disabled in this view.
But you can circumvent it using the Sprint Planning Sheet view and applying the built-in Sprint group.
Do note the change in order from from Ascending to Descending. That way, the latter Sprints will be shown on top.
Sprint Grouped View
As you apply the above modified Sprint group, you will have the latter Sprints and the associate work items shown on top. The initial Sprints such as Sprint 1, Sprint 3 or Sprint 5, will be shown towards the bottom.
Another Way to Show
Some of you may not want to apply to the Sprint group, but just want to see the latter Sprint items on top for quick usage. In that case, you have to change the sorting and sort it by Sprint ID as shown below.
The Sort command dialog box can be seen by going to View tab > Data group > Sort > Sort By... command.
Do note the change the order of sorting to Descending. That way, the latter Sprints and associated work items will come on top.
When you apply this sorting, the Sprint Planning Sheet will come as shown below.
As shown:
The work items for Sprint 50, Sprint 49 and Sprint 48 are shown on top.
The work items for Sprint 1, Sprint 2 etc. are towards the bottom.
In this case, we didn't apply any group, but just sorted items with Sprint ID field.
In a recent webinar series on Agile with respect to Kanban, there were discussions on customizing the needed commands for all Scrum or Kanban tools directly in the MS Project Ribbon. This saves time, makes the commands easier to find and operate for beginners, and is also quite useful.
You can watch webinar series on Practical Kanban below:
The content of this article will be applicable for Hybrid-Scrum, Hybrid-Kanban as well as plain Scrum and/or Kanban projects.
Now, before creating the customized Ribbon for your work, you need to know where the commands are consolidated together in the ribbon! These will be available in Backstage view > Project Options > Customize Ribbon tab > Customize Ribbon. Then select the Tool Tabs from “Choose commands from:”.
(If low visibility, please click on the images to enlarge)
Sprint Tools and Task Board Tools (Scrum and Kanban)
Now, under the Tools Tab of Customize the Ribbon:
For Scrum, you have the Sprint Tools.
For Kanban, you have the Task Board Tools.
The following commands are available in Sprint Tools and Task Board Tools.
As you can see, for Sprint Tools (used for Scrum projects), the commands are:
Views group > Task Board, Planning and Sprint commands
Sprints group > Manage commands
On the other hand, for Task Board Tools (used for Kanban projects), the commands are:
View group > Sheet command
Customize group > Customize Cards, Show % Complete Mapping commands
There are also Task Sheet related tools and commands, however, they are legacy commands.
Now, we are going to create one custom tab and two custom groups to manage Scrum projects.
Custom Tabs and Groups for Scrum Or Hybrid-Scrum Projects
To create the custom tab, you can go to “Customize the Ribbon:” on the right side of Project Options. There click on New Tab command, which will create one new tab with a new group.
Rename the newly created tab as Scrum Management and the group as All Sprint Commands. Also, add another group under Scrum Management as Other Commands. After you performed these operations, you will have the following view on the right side of Project Options > Customize the Ribbon.
Add the Necessary Commands
This step is about adding the necessary or needed commands into the newly created groups under the tabs. Under “All Sprint Commands” group, we will have:
Planning (from Sprint Tools)
Sprint (from Sprint Tools)
Task Board (from Sprint Tools)
Sheet (from Sprint Tools)
Customize Cards (from Sprint Tools)
Show % Mapping (from Sprint Tools)
To add them into the group, use the “Add >>” command in the middle. After you add, you will get the following view.
Similarly, for the “Other Commands” group, we will add the following commands:
Also, do note that you enable the checkbox for the Scrum Management custom tab. If you don’t, then the custom tab won’t be visible. Did you read the previous two lines? Those are important!
Visualization the (Hybrid) Scrum Management Tab
Finally, when you click OK on the previous window, you will find the newly created Custom Group of Scrum Management available in the ribbon. It’s shown below. If you are doing purely Hybrid-Scrum Management, you can just rename the tab as "Hybrid-Scrum Management". (click on the image to enlarge)
As shown, we have all the needed commands to manage are in the Scrum Management tab now and all these commands are directly available in just ONE TAB. Is not it easy, convenient?
Managing Hybrid-Agile Projects
I've shown a few frequently used commands in this post. When you manage Hybrid-Agile projects, you may have additional commands needed. These commands can be added into "Other Commands" group.
As noted earlier, initially it can be a good practice, when you are not very familiar with the location of all the commands available across the various tabs in the ribbon.
I frequently interact with Agile and Hybrid-Agile practitioners who use my Mastering MS Project Agile course and/or Certified Hybrid-Agile Master Professional (CHAMP) certification course. For interactions, I mostly use direct video calls because that way one can quickly learn the problems faced by them and whenever possible, I can provide a quick solution then and there. Both these courses are of high quality, go from beginner mode to an expert level and put you in a path of solid skills on Agile and Hybrid-Agile management, respectively.
One of the recent questions I faced is the below one:
“There are a number of Sprints in my Agile plan. But when I open the task board, all these tasks are shown in the Task Board view. I don’t want to see them there! What should I do?”
The above question is by a keen learner, Ravi O'Reilly. You can read her review and experience.
This article will demonstrate how to achieve this result and get the solution to the problem.
The Fundamentals
First, a few lines on the basics or the fundamentals. MS Project Agile has many board and sheet views for working with Scrum (Sprint), Kanban and Waterfall. Specifically, irrespective of the methodology or framework used, Task Board is available under View tab > Task Views > Task Board view.
By default, this board view will show all the tasks that entered in another view, say the Gantt Chart view. In the below case, I’ve added five tasks to the project plan and they are represented below.
As you can see, we have five tasks – Task 1 to Task 5, and they are not associated with any Sprints.
Now, when I go to the Task Board view, we get all the tasks in that view.
But the requirement is not to show any “No Sprint” task or “Sprint 1, Sprint 2, … Sprint N-1” task in the Task Boards. Simply put:
Tasks which have “No Sprint” should not be shown in the Task Board view.
In addition, any task is associated with Sprints, they should also not be shown at all in the Task Board view!
So, what to do?
Let’s see the solution!
Create A Custom Filter
The Task Board does NOT have a filter applied. However, one can create a custom filter and apply it to the task board.
There are two scenarios.
First Scenario: You don’t want to show the “No Sprint” items. This is actually the question that we started with. Hence, I’ll try to address that first.
In our custom filter, we will have the following conditions:
Show on Board field equals Yes
Summary equals No
% Work Complete does not equal 100%
Active equals Yes
Sprint does not contain No Sprint
The last field condition informs the “Sprint” field (available in MS Project Agile) will not contain “No Sprint”. This is depicted in the below figure.
As shown above:
The filter name is Custom Task Board Filter. To create a filter, you have to go to the View tab > Data group > No Filter drop down and choose 'New...' filter command.
This filter has all the needed conditions, including the condition which will not show the Sprint containing the “No Sprint”.
Again, do note the last condition. This will filter out all the tasks, which are not associated with any Sprints.
Apply Custom Filter To the Task Board View
Now, you have to apply this filter to the Task Board view in MS Project Agile and the result is shown below.
If you want you can create a Custom Task Board view and apply the recently created Custom Task Board Filter into the custom view. This is also an accepted practice and indeed, a good one. However, to keep it simple, I'll use the existing Task Board view.
As you can see, all the tasks which are having “No Sprint” in the Sprint field are no longer visible.
Another Scenario
There can be another scenario as well, which can come-up.
Second Scenario: You don’t want to show not only the “No Sprint” items, but also tasks associated with any Sprint. In other words, you don’t want to show any Sprint related items (No Sprint, Sprint 1, Sprint 2, … Sprint N-1) in the view.
This is also asked by my course users. Because they want to see the Scrum/Sprint related items only in the Sprint related board views such as Sprint Planning Board view, Current Sprint Board view etc. However, they want to show the Kanban related items in the Task Board view.
This also can be done and you just have to change the filter conditions, which will exclude any string containing “Sprint” word.
For example, in our list of tasks items, we have the following tasks associated with various Sprints.
As shown above:
Task 1 and Task 2 are associated with Sprint 1
Task 3 and Task 4 are associated with Sprint 2 and Sprint 3, respectively.
Task 5 is not associated with any Sprint.
When you switch to the Task Board view, we get the following.
The Custom Task Board filter has been applied, but we have still 4 tasks visible!
How is that possible?
This is because the filter condition tells not to display the task associated with "No Sprint". But, all other tasks will be shown. Hence, we have to change our custom filter - more precisely the last condition! The modified filter will be the following.
Next, when you apply this modified Custom Task Board filter to the Task Board view, you can fully filter out the tasks associated with any Sprint (Sprint 1, 2, 3 … N-1) or No Sprint.
Is is not simple and very effective?
You can customize the view anyway you want.
MS Project Agile and Customization
MS Project Agile provides high flexibility with custom boards, custom views, custom filter, custom group and of course, you also have many programming options with various custom fields and functions.
You can effectively use them to apply in your job in a leadership role and/or as a management professional.
The Mastering MS Project Agile course has a dedicated lesson for this purpose. It’s part of the Lesson – 7: Custom Agile with MS Project Agile.
To see the complete index of this course, including the customizations possible in MS Project Agile software, you can refer to this link.
The course comes with a full money-back guarantee!
The free article follows.
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Takeaway: A Sprint is considered to be a mini-project within a Scrum project. Like every project has to be closed, a Sprint, also has to be closed. However, many Agile practitioners do not follow this practice. In this article, we will take a scenario for Sprint in a Scrum project and follow the steps needed to close a Sprint Project.
We will begin with a scenario for a project, proceed with various steps to close the Sprint within a release, and learn a variety of functionalities available in MS Project 2019 Agile. Then, I will demonstrate the closing steps. Keep in mind that closing a Sprint differs significantly compared to the closing of a traditional project with MS Project.
Our Project Scenario *** UPDATED ***
In our project, there are a number of releases, and each release has a number of Sprints. The decomposition pattern can be in a variety of ways, such as:
Product > Epics > Features > Iterations > User Stories
Product > Iterations > User Stories
Product > Releases > Iterations > Features
Product > Releases > Iterations > User Stories
Product > Features > Releases > Iterations > User Stories
Product > Features > Epics > Iteration > User Stories, among many others
In our case, the pattern will be: Product Backlog > Project > Releases > Sprint/Iteration > Features > Tasks. This is to maintain consistency with my earlier piece on Agile release planning. If you are working with any other decomposition pattern, you can still follow the steps laid out in the below video [duration: 4m:55s]. I’ve prepared the video in support of this article, so that readers will have understanding of the scenario. For the best experience, you may want to go full-screen HD and plug-in your earphones.
When using MS Project with its Agile features, the following depiction is visible in the Sprint Planning Sheet view. This view shows multiple releases within a project and multiple Sprints in every release.
You may be wondering about the empty Resource Names column. It’s empty because resources are assigned to tasks, not the Releases, Sprints, or features. The features (or stories) will be summary tasks because they are finally broken down to tasks, to which resources will be assigned.
Specifically, for Sprint 1, which is under consideration in our case, we have the following view using the Current Sprint Planning Sheet view.
In the above figure, I’ve applied a custom grouping: Sprint and Features. This enables a better visualization. I’ve also added the % Complete in-built column.
Looking at the above figure:
Sprint 1 has three features: ‘Login to the online trading system’ (100% complete), ‘Create a new user’ (100% complete) and ‘Edit an existing user’ (40% complete).
The feature of ‘Edit an existing user’ has a number of incomplete tasks, as the Scrum team could not complete these tasks.
The Daily Scrum events are not all complete. Hence, the summary task of ‘Daily Scrum’ is shown to be 88% complete.
Set the Status Date *** NEW ***
This update is as on the final day of the Sprint, i.e., September 23, 2022. The status date can be set by going to the Project tab > Properties group > Project Information dialog box and setting the ‘Status date:’ field.
You can also set the date by selecting ‘Status Date: command’ under the Status group of the Project tab. Some practitioners find this way to be quicker.
As you complete the task items, or move the items across the workflow states, it’s likely that some of the items will remain in a Not-Done, or unfinished state. Items with unfinished status can be tracked in ‘Sprint Backlog,’ ‘Next Up,’ ‘In Progress,’ or any other custom state or column you define. This situation leads us to our next step.
Move the Incomplete Items to Next Sprint
The tasks or items which are planned for the current Sprint, but could not be completed, are usually moved to the next Sprint. This can be done in the Current Sprint Board view.
As shown above, we have a number of tasks under the feature, ‘Edit an existing user,’ in the Sprint Backlog. All these incomplete tasks should be moved to the next Sprint by selecting the task item and choosing the ‘Move to Next Sprint’ command after right-clicking. This has to be done for all incomplete tasks.
Check the Daily Scrums
Incomplete Daily Scrum events need to be closed. Otherwise, they will remain on the Board and Sheet views, which may create problems while managing and tracking the next Sprint.
The filter option is available at the far-right part of the board view. Select the ‘Daily Scrum’ summary task to display all the Daily Scrum events, as shown below.
With the filter applied, the incomplete Daily Scrum events will be visible in the board view. Select the incomplete ones and simply move them across to the Done state.
Complete All Sprint Events
Other than the Daily Scrum event, there are events such as Sprint Planning, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective. The Sprint Planning event happens on the first day of the Sprint. By this time, the event should have been closed. If it’s not done already, you must close this event’s associated task.
However, the last two events of Review and Retrospective happen on the final day of the Sprint. It’s easy to forget to close these two events as the current Sprints ends, and the next immediately starts.
These last two events can be closed in the Current Sprint Board view.
As shown, we now have only two tasks in the Sprint Backlog workflow state: the events of Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective, which are highlighted. These events can be closed by dragging and dropping them into the Done column.
Ensure the Sprint’s Completed Features
At this stage, all tasks have been closed or have been moved into the next Sprint, if they remain incomplete. We have also closed various Sprint events. Now, it’s a good idea to review the features with the associated task to ensure that the percent completion is 100% at the overall Sprint level.
This will look like the figure below, in the Current Sprint Sheet view. At the highest level – after applying the grouping for the Sprint – we have 100% completion for the entire Sprint.
Note that for the ‘Edit an existing user’ feature,’ we have only one completed task: ‘Design and develop.’ Remaining tasks have been moved into the next Sprint, which in our case is Sprint 2. This synchronizes with the previous step and confirms that it is complete.
After completing this step, you may have the following questions:
Where can one see the tasks (associated with features) moved into the next Sprint?
Are the tasks properly placed as part of the next Sprint?
Are the tasks properly associated with the Release?
Will the workflow state (anything other than Done state) be preserved when moved into another Sprint and Release?
To answer the above questions, we will move to the next step.
Review the Sprints within a Release
The Sprint completion within a release can be confirmed with the Sprint Planning Sheet and Sprint Planning Board views. In MS Project, when a Sprint gets completed, both the Sprint and Sprint work items are removed from these Sheet and Board views. Though it may be confusing initially, in fact, it’s quite logical: because the Sprint has been completed!
For our case, the current release plan after Sprint 1’s completion is shown below in the Sprint Planning Sheet view. This not only ensures that the concerned Sprint (Sprint 1) has been completed but also ensures its reflection in the release plan.
As shown:
Sprint 1 items are complete. Hence, the Sprint and its associated items are not reflected in the Sprint Planning Sheet view. However, you can change the built-in filter to display the items.
The tasks under ‘Edit an existing user’ feature are now part of Sprint 2. These items are highlighted under the Task Summary Name column.
The other feature items such as ‘Buy a stock’ and ‘Sell a stock” were previously planned to be part of Sprint 2, and they are highlighted.
The Feature flag is showing as enabled for both of the above two feature work items, whereas the flag is disabled for the task items moved from Sprint 1.
All the tasks are not only properly associated with the next Sprint (Sprint 2) but also with the release (Release 1).
You can also cross-verify this in the Sprint Planning Board view, which is shown below. The Sprint 1 column in this view is now completely empty.
In MSP, it is by design that a completed Sprint is not available in the Spring Planning Board. This is because in both the Sprint Planning Board and Sprint Planning Sheet views, the filter applied is Sprint Planning Filter.
If you want to see all the Sprints plus all the associated features and tasks with % completion, you can customize the filter and apply it to the view or create another custom view. The video below explains this process in more detail.
Plot the Velocity Histogram *** NEW ***
Another practice that is followed by Agile practitioners using MS Project is to build a Velocity Histogram. The velocity histogram is one of the most used reports used by Scrum Masters, Product Owners or Agile Project Managers – the last one considering Hybrid Agile project.
Velocity histogram is a vertical bar chart with a pair of bars showing velocity metrics over a series of Sprints. The first part of the pair is usually the planned velocity, whereas the second part of the pair is the actual velocity. When plotted together, one can quickly infer and interpret the data, which can also be used for forecasting. A sample velocity histogram is shown below.
You can learn more about building the velocity histogram in this article.
Demonstration, Review and Analysis
We covered the major steps to close a Sprint for a Scrum project. Now we will demonstrate, review, and analyze the steps that we have learned so far. The below video [duration: 6m: 21s] is taken from my course, Mastering MS Project 2019 Agile, and explains how to close a Sprint in more detail.
Conclusion *** UPDATED ***
Closing a Sprint is an important step that should be done diligently by the Agile Project Manager or the Scrum Master.
Leaving the tasks and events open, directly updating the % Complete column field for the tasks without moving the tasks across the board, or updating the previous Sprint’s tasks in the current Sprint creates confusion for your team members. It also results in wrong reports, such as the Velocity Report, Burndown Chart, or Burnup Chart. More importantly, your plan will no longer be correct.
It’s also pertinent to note that only the features which are completed will count towards velocity, not the ones which are partially complete. Even one task item remaining incomplete should not count toward velocity. If you are using stories and story points to estimate for planned and actual velocity, then your project plan should have the proper velocity calculation in MS Project.
Everything you need to close a Sprint for a Scrum Project is available at your fingertips with MS Project. Go ahead and close your Sprint rapidly and elegantly…and sprint for the next Sprint!
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