How to remove an active sprint from the "Sprints" field in Jira Cloud?

Question

Hey! Is there a way to remove only an "active sprint" value from the sprints field and keep the values of the completed sprint via automation? I would like to create an automation?

I know we can totally clear the field via automation but I would like to only remove the active sprint value? For example -  when a custom field "Team" changes it's value, just remove the active sprint from that issue?

If not via native Jira functions maybe by Script-runner cloud?

Thanks,

Bharat

Bill Sheboy · Answer

Although you could use what I described to remove the active sprint, have you considered inverting this symptom to align more with Scrum practices:

* The team identifies the work / value they can deliver in sprint planning, and assigns it to their sprint
* At the same time, they could add their team indicator to the custom field you describe
* Because the team only commits to a goal they believe they can achieve, they take the time to understand requests before adding them to the sprint
* This has the added benefits of more reliable planning, delivery, and forecasting for future sprints, while preventing errors in other teams' sprint tracking
* And, stakeholders may both appreciate the honesty and improved ability to forecast value delivery

Lucas Modzelewski _Lumo_ · Answer

I would still consider breaking up that task into smaller pieces assignable to different teams involved. Even if Team A is no longer working on the task, they may have already done some work and spent time (burning story points) to prepare it for another team - especially if you have parallel sprints enabled. So, from the initial “X” story points with their input, it might now be a smaller “x” in another team’s sprint. Breaking such tasks into smaller pieces can better reflect the work done by each team.

I also wouldn’t allow this behavior in the long run, as it suggests sprint planning wasn’t done properly and it wasn’t evaluated before the sprint start whether the team could complete the work.

In one of the teams I worked with, we agreed to include only items we were 100% sure we could deliver in the sprint. The rest stayed in the backlog, and if we finished our committed tasks early, we would then add more to the active sprint instead of removing items from it. After a few two-week sprints, we became better at estimating what could be done. We started with 80% capacity as our baseline and sometimes delivered up to 120%. Over time, the law of averages kicked in, and we consistently worked at around 95–105% of our planned capacity.

Bharat Kalia · Answer

Hey @Bill Sheboy - So basically we use a custom field to assign work to teams and it's a single select list custom field. We are looking to remove the story from the active sprint for that particular team once the team has been unassigned or changed.

Teams understand that the scope will change but as a whole they don't want to keep the story in their sprint if the team has been updated.

Thanks,