Should the Sprint be closed right after the Retrospective

Doesn't the Sprint "close" when the allotted time-box for it ends?

In Scrum, there's no concept of "closing a Sprint". However, some tools (for example, Jira) do use this terminology. In this case, I prefer to close the Sprint prior to the Sprint Retrospective (and even the Sprint Review) so that the data and metrics are available for the team to review and use to help with any discussion.

When I read this, I also felt you were probably referring to the Jira terminology. The problem with tools is that they often either inadvertently or deliberately misrepresent Scrum to fit their existing product, or provide what the creators believe is a better or more marketable user/customer experience.

The teams I work with "close" the sprint during Sprint Planning. This is so that if work takes place in the time between Scrum events (the Sprint Review ends at 17:00, and the Sprint Retrospective starts at 09:30 the next day), the board remains visible, and such work can be made transparent.

The metrics that the teams use are unaffected by this decision, so doing it at that moment doesn't cause any negative side-effects.

If what you meant by "close the Sprint" is the same as end the Sprint, then yes.



You should think about Ian's question: "Doesn't the Sprint "close" when the allotted time-box for it ends?" 

The Scrum guide says: "Other than the Sprint itself, which is a container for all other events, each event in Scrum is a formal opportunity to inspect and adapt something."



"A Sprint Review is held at the end of the Sprint to inspect the Increment and adapt the Product Backlog if needed."



"The Sprint Retrospective occurs after the Sprint Review and prior to the next Sprint Planning."



If you are using JIRA, I think you should close it after the Sprint Retrospective because JIRA logs the elapsed time so if you leave it "open" over the weekend, and close it on Monday at 9:00 AM, it will log the end time of that Sprint as Monday 9:00 AM.



Hope this helps.

Is it a good practice to close the Sprint immediately after the Sprint Retrospective?  As a practicing Scrum Master, this is something that I'm still not sure of.  Thank you for the response in advance.

The Sprint is time boxed. It automatically end when the time box end.

This questions is related to a tool (Example: Jira, etc.). If this is the case, yes we need close the sprint on D10 (assume the sprint length is 2 weeks and the last day of the sprint is working day) after the sprint retrospective.

Thanks.

If you are using a software say JIRA, yes you need to close it . But theoretically speaking it is a time boxed event and gets closed with the timebox without saying.