Scrum doesn’t inherently prescribe any set day to start a sprint. This begs the question if the topic bears any merit. And if yes, then what might be the best suitable day to start a sprint? We believe this is a topic of some importance, and will try to make my point through the next few paragraphs. Let’s take a two week sprint scenario as an example for the purpose of this exercise.
Teams consider Mondays best to start sprints, being the first day of the week. A point we don’t quite agree with. Let us look at this scenario starting backwards. Sprints planned this way end up on a Friday or “fun day”- prone to being lean on account of long weekends or planned holidays. This invariably leads to diluting the ‘sprint end day’ activities through poor participation. A situation far from ideal, given that the last day of a sprint is when the sprint is reviewed, and team achievements are showcased to a wider audience.
Here are a few points why Monday or Tuesday of the week may not be ideal days to start a sprint .
Monday : people are usually in a weekend hangover mode and could experience Monday blues leading to lower energy levels or less focussed sprint planning. Starting sprint planning may be difficult as many are usually busy finishing the leftovers from Friday thereby sprint planning could be less productive.
Monday or Tuesday : If a sprint starts on these days it must end on a Thursday or a Friday which again lands us in the same spot as mentioned in the previous paragraph.
After evaluating the reasons why Monday or Tuesday are not ideal it leaves us with Wednesday Thursday. Midweek is always more productive as the team is in the zone of finishing the work . Also Mon and Tues are enough to tie the loose ends and to get started with a new sprint on Wednesday or Thursday.
The reason why Friday is not an ideal option to start a sprint is simply that the upcoming weekend that follows Friday makes it difficult for the team to pick from where they left and getting the right momentum is generally difficult.
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In Contrast
Let us also contradict ourselves, when we finish the sprint on Friday then a team member has a relaxed weekend with no thoughts lingering around and they are ready for a fresh start on Monday ????
If you start a sprint over mid-week, say Wednesday, then it might happen that the team mates who are feeling pressure of lagging behind may use the weekend as an opportunity to finish the work. It causes a work-life imbalance and that may end up making the team more stressful.
To mitigate this, the Scrum Master’s role is crucial to protect team members in setting right expectations, plan their work effectively and also be conscious to finish it within the working days.
To Summarize all the above points, it is best to start a sprint on Wednesday or Thursday and end it on Tuesday or Wednesday, so as to keep the energy levels high and maximize throughput using focus time.
Additionally, in our experience we have seen some really bad practices wrt starting and ending a sprint. We have composed a few pointers which must be avoided while sprinting.
5 Things To Avoid While Sprinting
Dont cancel or stop the sprint midway unless the sprint goal becomes meaningless as the business has changed its direction
Don’t change the duration of the sprint based on the work intake of the team. Here capacity planning during the sprint planning event is the key. Also, we should learn to split the work-items into small valuable items to avoid spill-overs.
When is sprint finished? Don’t advance the end date to accommodate holidays on the first & last day of the sprint, instead reduce the capacity of the sprint. As it will keep the rhythm intact. For holidays falling in between the sprint, adjusting the capacity is the key.
Don’t extend the sprint if the work has not been completed. Such practices take away the core of scrum framework where the idea is to incrementally deliver outcomes in fixed iterations as it leads to habit formation and create a fat-free environment for the development to be more productive. The worst that could happen is spill-over to the next sprint and that’s OK as we will retrospect and try to improvise in our next sprint.
Don’t shorten the sprint if the work items have been completed earlier than planned. In such a scenario, you may pull the work from the backlog and start working on it.
Teams should think on the reasons shared for preferring a Wed/Thur as the start of the sprint. And, if the other cadence works well for your team, then please go-ahead with that. The whole point of sprinting is to fail faster by shortening the feedback loop and creating valuable outcomes incrementally.
How To Start A Sprint?
Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you start a sprint:
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