Suggestions for managing a sprint process with a post-sprint 1 week staging phase?

Question

We manage a web based software, and our process involves to main components:

1. The initial sprint, where the task is performed, QA'd, code reviewed, and upon completion of this sprint, merged into a staging environment.

2. A week long staging period, where the new logic is available only in a separate testing environment, through which our users can play with and test new features/changes, with the opportunity to report any issues they experience.

I am trying to figure out the least tedious way to do this, while also still being able to run a burn down chart. Right now, we just have a Staged status in our sprint, but there are two problems with that:

1. When I close the 2 week sprint, all of the staged tasks are brought into the next sprint. I'd rather have them in a completely separate sprint I think.

2. The staged status is not a complete status, so my burndown chart doesn't see those as completed. If I make it a completed status, then when I close the main sprint, I would not be able to easily say to transition all of the tasks into another sprint.

I am not an expert in JIRA yet, so I am hoping there is some way I am not seeing to handle this situation. Any feedback or ideas would be very helpful!

Thanks,

Billy

Billy Dinsmore · Answer

1. Yes we do.

2. No, during the UAT phase we start a new planned sprint. Our sprints are actually two weeks long, so during the first week of a new sprint, there UAT is happening simultaneously. Then during the 2nd week of the sprint, there is no UAT in progress. At the end of the 2nd week we begin a new UAT phase, and start a new sprint at the same time. Tasks loaded into the sprint are planned based on story points, which is why we don't use kanban.

We do use the backlog to hold all our tasks not in sprint and prioritize them to pull for when we start sprints.

Amie Fudge_slkrrp · Answer

Couple of questions that I will ask and identify what my assumptions are

1. After the dev/QA sprint do you begin another dev/QA sprint while UAT happens? - assumption is yes

2. During UAT phase are you only logging issues found and not fixing them during that time? my assumption is yes

If it were me, I would make a kanban board for the UAT tickets that come in during that stage - at which time they can be triaged and prioritized

If I'm correct on my assumptions, I would then pull those issues (by priority) into the planned sprints moving forward.

Hope that helps

PS:  1 week sprint is pretty short