Working of Sprint

Agile development methodology focuses on Adaptive planning and change management. It focuses on developing and deploying the working software quickly in an iterative manner. This means that instead of developing the product entirely in one go, the product is made iteratively in multiple short and incremental cycles. This article delves into the core concepts and in-depth explanation of the working of sprint and its lifecycle in Agile.

What is a Sprint?

A sprint is a short and fixed time frame during which a specific set of tasks are meant to be performed. An Agile project will be broken down into a certain number of sprints, each sprint lasting for a fixed duration of time.

1. Usually, each sprint runs for 2-4 weeks.
2. A Sprint Planning Meeting occurs before the start of every sprint.
3. That meeting defines what set of items could be developed and delivered in the upcoming sprint.
4. Every sprint has a predefined goal and is meant to be accomplished in such a way that the sprint would culminate with a potentially shippable product increment.
5. During every planning meeting, a Sprint Backlog is created that has a subset of items from the original Product Backlog that the team aims to achieve and develop in the current sprint.

The set of stages in a single sprint can be visualized in the below figure:

Sprint workflow and process

Lifecycle of Sprint

1. Planning

Before the start of each sprint, a sprint planning meeting is conducted. In the sprint planning meeting, the product owner, the scrum master and the development team participate.

1. The fundamental aim of planning phase is to select some set of work items (also known as the user stories) from the product backlog based on their priorities.
2. These set of functionalities will be developed in the upcoming sprint by the development team.
3. Planning phase is important so as to define the goals for the upcoming sprint.

2. Designing

Usually, every sprint targets a set of functionalities. Hence, the designing of the architecture is prepared according to the sprint backlog.

1. The design phase in sprints are carried out by architects from the development team.
2. Their role is to define the structure and describe the components of the product.
3. The architects try out all possible solutions to design the functional components by keeping in mind the challenges that may encounter in that design’s implementation.

3. Implementation

The actual execution of functionalities and tasks are performed in the implementation phase. The implementation is carried out by the software developers in the team.

1. The development is done according to the functional design and structure prepared by the architects in the design phase.
2. Mostly, in the daily scrum meetings, the development team members share their individual progress and what functionalities they’ll be targeting to implement ahead.
3. This makes the implementation phase transparent.

4. Testing

The testing phase in every sprint is carried out by the testers and quality assurance members from the development team.

1. In this phase, the testers evaluate and verify whether the code is up to the mark or not.
2. This is done to ensure that the code and development environment remains bug-free and as per the requirements of the clients.
3. Any mistakes/bugs are rectified in this stage itself before it gets deployed to the end user.
4. Usually, unit testing and service integration testing is performed in this phase.

5. Deployment

Once the testing phase is finished and all the errors are rectified, the iterable product increment is deployed to the end user.

1. In every product increment, some sets of functionalities are embedded in the product which were selected based on their priorities.
2. The advantage of deployment phase is that it allows the user to test the product functionalities through continuous delivery.
3. Also this continuous delivery ensures proper timely feedback from the user about every sprint.

6. Review

After the end of each sprint, a sprint review meeting is conducted between the sprint team and the stakeholders.

1. The stakeholders assess the work done by the team in previous sprint and provides feedback regarding what steps could be taken to optimize the performance of the product.
2. Also, at the end of each sprint, a sprint retrospective is also conducted between the development team, product owner and scrum master.
3. The meeting usually lasts for 1-2 hours and the teams discuss over key takeaways from the previous sprint and what possible mistakes could be improved in the next sprint.
4. The key difference between the sprint review and sprint retrospective is that sprint review focuses on the product, while, the sprint retrospective focuses on the process.

The set of multiple such sprints aggregate up in the development of the complete product. Here, the below diagram reflects a product which is developed through 3 sprints, but the number of sprints in the development of a product may differ as per the set of requirements and design of the system.

Sprint Process

Important Events in Sprint

1. Sprint Planning Meeting

This meeting is usually done before the start of every sprint. During this meeting, all the team members select some set of items (also called User Stories) from the Product Backlog.

1. These items are collectively termed Sprint Backlog and are the ones that will be developed during this sprint.
2. A sprint meeting involves the Scrum Master, Product Owner and the Development team.

2. Daily Stand-Up Meetings

Every day throughout the sprint, the team members conduct stand-up meetings (also called Daily Scrum). The meetings usually last 15 mins and the discussions revolve around all team members. Each member stands and answers some key questions:

1. What I did yesterday?
2. Are there any problems I am facing?
3. What will I do today?

3. Delivery of Increment

At the end of each sprint, a fully functioning increment of the product is shipped for delivery. In Agile, the priority always remains customer satisfaction and fast delivery.

1. The product increment must have satisfied all the quality standards and client requirements.
2. The clients then look into the increment and address the changes they require, if any.
3. These changes then will be discussed in the sprint planning meeting of the next sprint.

4. Sprint Retrospective

This meeting is held after the sprint review meeting. The retrospective usually lasts for 1-2 hours. In this meeting, all the team members including the Scrum Master and Manager discuss the following topics –

1. The key takeaways from the sprint
2. What things went well and what things didn’t?
3. What problems were faced during the sprint?
4. What other possible decisions could’ve been taken at that point?
5. Analysing the merits and demerits faced during the sprint.

Conclusion

In short, Agile sprints are the Heartbeat of Agile development. They are taken into consideration when a product development is divided into multiple sub-operations and functionalities. All the functionalities are mentioned in the Product Backlog. At the start of each sprint, some functionalities are moved to Sprint Backlog which are meant to be completed in that sprint. The iterative collection of multiple such sprints forms a fully functional working product. A sprint is composed of multiple workflow phases like planning, designing, implementation, testing, deployment and review. Thus, the concept of the sprint is very essential in Agile Development Methodology.