Glossary
What does “Sprint” mean?
A fixed period, usually one to four weeks, in which a team commits to finishing a set amount of work.
What it means
A fixed period, usually one to four weeks, in which a team commits to finishing a set amount of work. Sprints give work a steady rhythm of planning, doing, reviewing and improving.
An example
A two-week sprint starts with planning on Monday, has a stand-up each day, and ends with a review of finished work and a retrospective.
Not to be confused with: Release
A sprint is a working period; a release is when work reaches customers. Some teams release every sprint, others less often.
Where you will see it
In Scrum and other agile teams, project plans and team calendars — and in the planning, review and retrospective meetings that start and end each one.
Questions
How long is a sprint?
Commonly two weeks; the Scrum Guide sets a maximum of one month.
What happens at the end of a sprint?
In Scrum, a sprint review of what was built and a retrospective on how the team worked.
Can work be added in the middle of a sprint?
Teams try not to, because it breaks the plan. If something urgent comes up, something of similar size usually comes out, and the trade-off is agreed with the product owner.
Other meeting words
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