Sprint start and stop in Jira - how does this impact Jira Align Metrics?

Question

Hi all,

Here is the use case we are looking to "solve" for - wondering if anyone has any insights:

Our two week sprints end on Wednesdays, start on Thursdays and this is how they are hard coded in our Jira and Jira Align projects. Our teams are global so depending on the timezone, some teams choose to technically end the sprint in Jira early on Thursdays to take advantage of the working hours before the rest of the global team is online. However we are unsure how this may impact the sprint metrics being fed to Jira Align.

Does anyone know if the metrics are calculated based on the official start/end hardcoded for the sprint OR if the metrics are based on when the sprint is *actually* started and stopped?

Thanks for any insight!

Allan Maxwell · Answer

No ...it will not matter.  Jira Align uses something called "sync" sprints.  Each team on the same ART (or any team using the same Program Increment) can create their own Jira Sprints with slightly differing start and end dates.  These real Jira Sprints will typically automatically map to Jira Align sync sprints.  The number of days that they are allowed to vary is configured by your Jira Align Admin.  Even real Jira Sprints that do not fall within the configured range can be manually mapped to Jira Align sync sprints as needed.

Diane Reid · Answer

Thanks Allan! Ok assuming this is the case, it would not matter if the *actual* sprint start/stop in Jira matched up with the pre-defined sprint length in JA. We can also try testing this in our sandbox to confirm but wanted to get some insight from the community. Thanks again for taking the time to reply!

Allan Maxwell · Answer

I believe all of the Sprint metrics in Jira Align key off the Sprint Id rather than Sprint Dates.  For example, if a Story is completed in Sprint 3 you will get credit for completing the story even if the team keeps the Sprint 3 open until Friday.