Knowing when you have a Shared Sprint

[#1]

When using parallel Sprints in JIRA Software, you're able to run multiple active Sprints simultaneously.

Often enough when working with multiple Sprints, they can sometimes get mixed up and create what is known as a "Shared Sprint". 

Sprints aren't dependent on any Board or Project meaning they are not bound to the Board they were created in and can live across multiple Boards at the same time. This means that it is possible for a Sprint to be displayed in more than one Board.

Although displayed in multiple Boards, it remains one entity and any changes made to the Sprint in one Board will be reflected in all other Boards where the Sprint is displayed as well. This can be intentional or in most cases erroneously.

How can I "accidentally" create a Shared Sprint?

• The Board includes Issues from more than one Project (project in (TEST, AGILE) ORDER BY ASC) and was added when dragging and dropped unwittingly
• When editing the Sprint field, the Issue was added to the wrong Sprint when there's more than one with the same name
• The Issue was moved from one Project to another, keeping the Sprint field value

What are the indicators that suggest you're dealing with a Shared Sprint?

• A Sprint shows up in a Board in which it wasn't created in.
• Making a change to a Sprint in one Board affects a Sprint in another Board.
• A Sprint shows up in a Board after an Issue has been moved to it from another Board.
• Attempting to close a Sprint requires admin permissions in another unrelated Project.

How can I confirm if the suspicious Sprint is indeed a Shared Sprint?

• If changes to one Sprint affects a Sprint in another Board. Verify that these are indeed two different Sprints by checking on their IDs.

• Use the Issue Navigator to search for issues in each Sprint using the Sprint ID. If any of the Sprints contain Issues from more Boards, it will be displayed in all of them.

To avoid such confusion, it is recommended to always use unique names when naming Sprints (like including the project key) so that they are easily identified.

I've accidentally created a Shared Sprint, what now?

1. Identify the Sprints that are incorrectly included to the Board, referring to their Sprint ID
2. If one Sprint is used where there should be two, create a new Sprint in the Board that is missing one.
3. Move the Issues to their respective Sprints by editing their Sprint field value. For large amounts of Issues, this can be done with one bulk operation.

OR

1. Identify the Sprints that are incorrectly included to the Board, referring to their Sprint ID
2. If there should only be one Sprint, remove the none relevant Issues to the Sprint by emptying their Sprint field value.

Additional information

This is applicable for both Next-gen and Classic Software Projects. In efforts to stop the accidental creation of Shared Sprints, the feature request to restrict Sprints per Project was created:

• https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWCLOUD-10805

By adding yourself as a watcher you will receive all communications done on the progress of this feature request.

[Darrel Jackson]

This article needs an update as you can no longer get the sprint ID by hovering over the ... menu in the sprint board.

[Belto]

Hi @Darrel Jackson , I verified on a test site and I see that hovering over the ••• still provides the URL with sprintId at the bottom of the page. Could it be possible that you were looking at a team-managed Board?

This method is only applicable to company-managed Boards.

[Darrel Jackson]

I have verified his in our Jira Cloud Premium instance on a company-managed project. This is using the early access program for enhanced board and backlog.

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-articles/Welcome-to-the-Early-Access-Program-for-Jira-s-enhanced-board/ba-p/2364509#M1276

It no longer shows the sprint ID on hover.

If I disable the enhanced board and backlog view then I do see the sprint ID.

[Belto]

Thank you for confirming. Indeed this method does not apply for the new enhanced board experience. I've sent this feedback to our product team to make sure they take this into consideration.