New version same issues.. Sprint on multiple releases.

Question

I have TFS 2012 / VS 2012 setup with the Scrum 2.0 template, or Agile for that matter..

What is the best practice for a Team to work on items in multiple releases in a single sprint?

This doesn't seem possible as each release breaks down into a sprint.  We don't want to run 2 sprints concurrently in the same team.

We simply need to work on Release 1 - A Service pack release and Release 2 - a new version in the same sprint. 

If we inverted the iteration tree from:

Release 1

Sprint 1, Sprint 2

Release 2

Sprint 1, Sprint 2

to:

Sprint 1

Release 1, Release 2

Sprint 2

Release 1, Release 2

We lose the ability to query a specific release properly.  We can't be the only company doing this.  What is the best practice for One Team of people to Sprint on work in multiple releases?

Answer 1

Hi Gavin,

Thank you for your post.

First, we may need to know what release mean, and what sprint mean. For example, if you want to release R1, it means current closed or completed user story/backlog has reached the release requirements, so the team want to release R1. In short, release mainly focus on the function. Sprint/iteration is mainly focus on time, that is to say, in the first/second/... period, we need to those works.

In theory, release and sprint have no relationship. Product backlog contains all active backlogs/user stories, means, all the request form customer. We then decide move which backlog/usesr story to which sprint/iteration, and link child task to the backlog/usesr story that developer will work with it. 

But, in actual work, we may design the team plan that relate them together. For example, if our customer need to see a beta version product before a specific deadline, we may move some backlogs/user stories to sprint 1, it means completed those backlogs in sprint 1, we can release them as beta version.

Customer requirement and team work process will both effect on the team work plan and update. So, you can design your team plan based on what customer want to get, when to get. Then decide what to do first, what to next. The interaction between customer's need and team work is one of the principles of agile /scrum development.

About backlog/user story and sprint/iteration, you can refer to http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh500404

Regards,

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Lily Wu [MSFT]
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