You know how 2 week sprints are the de-facto go-to pattern for many teams? I don’t believe they are the best for teams and we should all consider 1 week sprints instead, and I’ll tell you why.
The Downfalls of 2 Weeks Sprints
- Longer meetings to plan for 2 weeks
- Need more Context
- Hard to estimate how much work can be accomplished
- Over commitment is easy
- Doesn’t accommodate changing requirements
- Doesn’t accommodate newly discovered scope as well
- Doesn’t accommodate surprises that pull for attention away from the team (support, external teams)
- Can create anxiety when falling behind, especially considering work remaining
- PMs have less certainty on sprint progress
- Slow feedback cycle
The Upsides of 1 Week Sprints
- Tighter feedback loops
- Shorter meetings
- Allows team to be more precise in their commitments
- Forces team to think about the now (highest priority).
- If scope or focus change occurs, only interrupts 1 weeks worth of work.
- If over commitment occurs it is smaller and easier to correct.
- Generally feels more exciting, each week starts anew.
- Weekly routine lightens the mental load
Won’t 1 Week Sprints have more meetings?
Since we have only one week to plan for, we must have more meetings, and this take more time right? Surprisingly you’ll spend less time in meetings!
Touching base on a weekly basis there are fewer surprises and thus fewer ‘new’ topics that need to be introduced.
For instance, when we are driving a car, it’s natural to drift a little side-to-side within our lane. But, instead of large jarring adjustments every minute, we make many frequent little adjustments keeping us centered on the road and therefore moving smoothly around every turn along the way.
Similarly, frequent touch bases are simpler and shorter, and therefore also keep the team in sync moving smoothly through their work.
Now let’s take a look at what a 1 week sprint schedule might look like.
The 1 Weeks Sprint Schedule
Here is what a possible 1 week Sprint Schedule could look like.
Outside of this schedule there still may be additional team meetings such as Project Planning, Project Kickoffs, or Planning Quarter Roadmap.
Standup (15min) – Everyday at the same time, occasionally bundled with other team meetings.
* Touch base to talk about work in progress
* Update team members of any changes or needs
Week Scope (30min + 15min Standup) – The kickoff for the week.
* Review Previous Sprint metrics, work completed
* Review Previous Sprints remaining stories that will cary over to this weeks sprint.
* Define the weeks big picture focus for the team
* Pull in new stories & Prioritize them
* Pull in/out stories until matches teams throughput (don’t compromise and over commit!)
* Confirm the scope committed to
* End with Standup
Grooming (15min + 15min Standup) – Looking forward to future work and estimating stories
* Start with standup
* Introducing upcoming work & projects
* Breaking down, defining, and estimating stories
* Delegating project leads for spike work
Retro (30min) – How can the team improve
* Depending on how well the team is running this can be every 2 weeks instead of every week.
* Retros should always focus on how the team can improve to become the best team.
* Retros can be sometimes heavy. Therefore Thursdays tend to be best to avoid ending the week with any weight.
Demos! (15min + 15min Standup) – Celebrating the weeks wins!
* Start with Standup
* End the week with great for team morale
* An open form where any team member may share work (in progress or completed) from the week
* Great for knowledge sharing
* Ends the week on a high note.
(expand each section above for a detailed description & structure)
Bundling Team Meetings with Standup
Folks tend to prefer fewer meetings. A clever tool to utilize – combine meetings together that have the same or similar attendees.
In the sample 1 week sprint schedule above, we’ve combined Weekly Scope, Grooming, and Demo meetings with standup. This takes 9 meetings down to 6. Everything is simpler and lighter.
Summary
It’s worthwhile to consider switching your team to 1 Week Sprints. They will give your team more energy and more accurate commitment to their work. 1 Week Sprints will set your team up for even better success.
What does your team use? Would you ever switch?
(cover photo credit: Jonathan Stassen / JStassen Photography)