Adding Hardening Sprint in Jira

[Arian Lori-Amini]

We are applying SAFe framework for our planning and delivery model and need to inset a hardening sprint after every 3 sprints. Is there a way in Jira to create these sprints in advance and drop the team velocity for the hardening sprints? our goal is to stabilize code in the hardening sprint and no new user stories to work on...

as an example , when team estimated an Epic, its telling me we have 8 sprint of work to finish it based on story points. However that would mean 8 sprints back to back with no hardening sprint. If we do 1 sprint of hardening after every 3 sprints then the delivery of that epic, would not be exactly 8 sprints rather 8 sprints + 4 hardening sprints would be more like 12 sprints duration for delivery

has anyone been able to use hardening sprints in Jira and pre create these sprints...?

Thanks

[Earl McCutcheon]

Hello Arian,

With the practice of hardening sprints the general rule is to avoid them unless necessary as an ad-hoc practice rather than a continual intigration, referencing the Scrum Dictionary:

Using a Hardening Sprint is not recommended and the need for it should be addressed by improving engineering practice. If the need for hardening exists, it should be done a little at a time by using Cleanup Stories within the Sprints.

Some additional resources on this topic:

• Do We Need a Hardening Sprint?
• Death to the hardening sprint

Overall, Atlassian has worked with cPrime and SAFe® to create a white paper detailing our recommended approach to supporting SAFe® using Atlassian products.  I would recommend reviewing this white paper that can be downloaded from here:

- https://www.cprime.com/atlassian/jira-safe

Regards,
Earl