What is the benefit or disadvantage of using "custom" duration when setting your sprint dates?

[Mario Villalobos]

When creating a new sprint, you have the option of selecting a pre-defined duration of 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks and 4 weeks.  Lastly, you can select "custom."  If I select custom, does this provide a grace period of sorts in the event I do not start on the custom start or end date?

[Peter Scherer]

Hi Mario,

The "custom" option when setting a sprint's duration simply lets you manually select a start and end date and time for your sprint, which does not need to be set to a specific iteration interval, like 1, 2 or 4 weeks. Technically speaking, that's about the only difference between that option and the pre-defined choices. This could be useful in cases where, for instance, you'd start a sprint on a Monday, and end it on a Friday.

Speaking in terms of best practices though, you'll want to consider if the start and end dates you select will make sense for you and your team, and how that would impact your sprint metrics at the end of the day. Keep in mind that the length of your sprint will in part determine your eventual burndown, team velocity, capacity and so on.