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Should you have concurrent sprints?

Last post 05:31 pm February 14, 2017 by Ian Mitchell
1 reply
Jason Clack
12:07 pm February 14, 2017

Hello everyone,

I am just venturing in to the world of scrum as, having moved in to the role of Product Manager (which we never had before) we really needed some overall direction to our development.

As I'm still relatively new to it all, I have a question regarding concurrent sprints, as we have a differing of opinion here.

We are only a small company and our development team consists of 3 people. Up until now we have produced a sprint with however many items on it. Generally they'll last for 1 or 2 weeks, then we'll produce another and that will be worked on. However, the next sprint contains several items (standard sprint items), but there is a major item on there which will likely last a month at least (large new feature), but only one person will be working on that item.

Now, should we carry on with sequential sprints and the major item will simply appear on each sprint until it is completed? Or should the major item sit on a completely separate sprint that runs concurrently with whichever the current standard sprint is?

My current preference is that we only ever have 1 sprint and the major item will simply span several sprints, but I am interested in other opinions on this in case I am wrong.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Jason

Ian Mitchell
05:31 pm February 14, 2017

> ...there is a major item on there which will likely last a month at
> least (large new feature), but only one person will be working on that item.

Why will only one person be working on that item? Where will the teamwork be? How will you have transparency over the team's work in progress for that item, and be assured of being able to release its value within one month?

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