Change Sprint Name [Bulk Change]

[Hardip Singh]

Morning Friends [from the UK]

I think closed sprints cannot renamed but I'll ask the question anyway and explain a little more.

Our previous Scrum Master renamed the sprints at the start of the year to sprint 1, sprint 2 etc. However, we already had sprint 1 and sprint 2 from past years.

Another Scrum Master has recently renamed the current and future sprints to 2022-Sprint 13, 2022-Sprint 14. This makes more sense going forward but looks odd on the reporting as the naming convention switches [I know, it’s a 1st world problem].

I wanted to rename sprint 1-12 (in 2022) to correspond with the 2022 naming convention as this would align everything. I decided to explore the bulk change method e.g., grab the sprint ID for sprint 1 in 2022, go to the issue navigator, select sprint = 12345 and perform the bulk change on all the issues in that sprint to 2022-Sprint 1.

I'm a little unsure about performing this operation if the bulk change can indeed do this e.g.:

1. Will this overwrite the sprint field with a single sprint. If so, this would be inappropriate because based on the 4th open issue in the screen grab, we have issues that have been in multiple sprints and the history would be lost; or

2. Will this method work because the issues in the closed sprints would not have changed even after the sprint name is changed, and therefore the history will be preserved?

Again, all of this could be academic as it might not be possible. If so, then its case closed!

As always, I hope you're having a great day wherever you are. And thanks to anyone that takes the time to reply.

Stay happy, holy and healthy.

Regards
Hardip

[Walter Buggenhout · Accepted solution]

Hi @Hardip Singh,

Using bulk change is not going to help you to update sprint names. What it actually does, is updating the link between the issues and the sprint they are in. In other words: you would not be updating sprint names, but essentially assigning issues to different sprints.

It does not make much sense to update past (closed) sprint names. However, going forward, applying a decent naming convention for your sprints is definitely not a bad idea.

A sprint belongs to a board. To update sprint names, first of all navigate to the scrum board the sprints were created in. There, in backlog view, update the names of your current and upcoming sprints that you can see. Updating the sprint name there will automatically be reflected in all issues already assigned to those sprints. There is nothing more you would need to do, except agreeing on your naming convention amongst your team(s) and applying that to your future sprints.

Hope this helps! 

[Hardip Singh]

Hi @Walter Buggenhout 

Thanks for the detailed explanation that makes perfect sense.

So essentially my cunning plan of assigning sprint 1 issues to a called 2022-Sprint 1 cannot work because there is no sprint by that name! I imagine this would either fail or in the worst case, orphan those issues in terms of their sprint aligment.

Our backlog items aren't aligned to sprints unless they have been prioritised by the PO and therefore moved into a current or future sprint by the Scrum Master.

Thanks again for replying. Your answer makes perfect sense!

Have a great day.

Regards

Hardip