Team Target Completion Sprints vs. Target Sprints

[Georgi Gogichev]

Hi Atlassian / Jira Align Community :)

What is your experience with the following fields?

Team Target Completion Sprints is on the program board and we have also Target Sprints in the feature view. 

There is no connection between them, so the Team Target Completion Sprints can be set but the Target Sprints values  are empty.

How are you working? Do you maintain two fields, or is there a way to do it smarter?

One of the use cases is that users want to export feature data and see information about the sprint target. If I see it right, we have to maintain it double. 

[Jennelle Stearns · Accepted solution]

@Georgi Gogichev - These are 2 different fields.  Let's use an example of 2 teams in the same prorgam/art  who are working on the same feature.

On the Program Board, the feature will show up in both Team A and Team B's Unplanned Sprint.  The Team Target Completion Sprint is when each team believes they will be completed with their portion of the feature (based on user stories, dependencies, etc).  Team A may determine they are going to complete their items for this feature by Sprint 3 so that is what they will select in the Team Target Completion Sprint, and Team B may determine they will complete their items by Sprint 4 so that is what they will set their Team Target Completion Sprint.  When you hover on the Feature, you can now see the dependencies, objectives, and all the teams working on the feature and the expected completion of their work for a feature.

The Target Start and Complete Sync Sprints are for the feature as a whole.  This can be used for Planning so Product Management can share their vision of when they would like it to complete.  Then many companies will update these dates at the end of PI/Quarterly planning based on the info in the Program Board.  In our example, they would look to see what is the earliest sprint one of the teams begins working on the feature, and the completion is based on when the last item should be completed.  So in our example, let's say looking at all the work Team A and Team B need to do, it looks like Team A begins working on it in Sprint 1 so that will be the Target Start Sync Sprint Date, and Team B is the one that has the last items to complete which is Sprint 4 so that would be the Target Completion Sync Sprint Date.  These dates can be adjusted as you progress thru the PI/Quarter or some customer like to leave what they were coming out of PI planning so they can see slippage (stories showing outside of those initial dates).  

Summary:  Team Target Completion Date is when each team plans to complete their portion of the work for a Feature.  Target/Completion Sync Sprint - Are the start and end dates for the entire feature and not for just a specific team.

[Georgi Gogichev]

Thanks for your quick answer! Your explanation is easy to follow and understandable :)

Our (pain) point is that we have to track (every) feature through multiple teams to get the earliest and latest sprint and manually set the values in the second field. In case of changes at team level, we have to update them too. 

On the one hand, there is no connection / sync between both fields. On the other hand, we can't see the Team Target Completion Sprints value in the feature. And in a way, it is also double maintaining. 

Or am I on the wrong way and there is a smart way to keep it up to date?

Images and screenshots are welcome :)

[Jennelle Stearns]

@Georgi Gogichev Yes, there is some work in both areas but let me see if I can give you a couple of recommendations/tips.  As you finish Quarterly/PI Planning, click on the feature in the program board and glance thru the dates for stories and dependencies ignoring what is highlighted in blue (since that is team specific based on where you opened the feature on the program board).  This allows you to see it holistically across all the team in your program/art.  Click on the top of that detail slide out page, click on the name and it will immediately open the feature so you can update the start and completion dates.

Continue to use and update the items (keeping them up to date) in your Program Board throughout the PI/Quarter.  On the Program Board, if you click on the feature, you see the end date that was originally determined coming out of the PI/Quarter (Feature Target Completion Sprint), and if you open the feature, you may see a triangle next to the dates which also lets you know they are different.  The best way to see the changes is on the roadmap.  If you set it at the end of PI/Quarterly planning, you can actually see the changes and how it may be moving out by numbers showing before/after your bars.  This lets you see instantly whether they started earlier than planned and/or it is taking longer to complete the feature than planned.  Please see the screenshots I have added.

[Jennelle Stearns]

[Georgi Gogichev]

Hi @Jennelle Stearns  thank you for your effort and very detailed feedback!

I have some more questions about your approach. Which data is set by you manually, and which is set via assignment in the PI planning?

If I have understood it correctly, there are some views and possibilities we can use to be up to date and get some warrnings, but we have to fill the fields (for example, Target Sprint Start and Completion) manually. So when we have 50 features and our PI planning is over, we have to do it initially 50 times? 

[Jennelle Stearns]

@Georgi Gogichev That is correct you would have to set the Target Sprint Start and Target Completion manually for the 50 features (in your example).  During the PI planning and possibly during Execution (if the original target completion changes), the teams would update the Team Target Completion Sprint so the Program Board is showing accurate info which is extremely useful for Scrum of Scrums and PO Syncs.

[Georgi Gogichev]

Thank you @Jennelle Stearns It will be greate if Atlassian improve on that issue :)