What is a sprint?
A sprint is a fixed-length timebox (usually one to four weeks) where the team commits to a defined slice of work and ships it by the end. It's the heartbeat of scrum and most agile flavours.
The four moments of a sprint
- Sprint planning: the team picks the work and agrees a goal. See our sprint planning guide.
- The sprint: the team ships. Daily stand-ups keep everyone aligned.
- Sprint review: demo what shipped to stakeholders.
- Retrospective: inspect the process and decide what to change. Use our free retro format picker.
How long should a sprint be?
- 1 week: for fast-feedback teams or early-stage products.
- 2 weeks: the most common choice. Long enough to ship something meaningful, short enough to stay accountable.
- 3-4 weeks: only for teams with very long-cycle work. Risk: too much can change in a month.
Common sprint mistakes
- Variable length: sprints have to be fixed-length to make velocity meaningful.
- No goal: a sprint without a sprint goal is just a backlog dump.
- Adding work mid-sprint: kills predictability. New scope waits for the next sprint.
- Skipping the retro: without it, the team never improves.