The misinterpretation of the word “Sprint” within SCRUM
Introduction
First of all I want to say this.
Opinions are like assholes. Everybody has one...
I wont go any further but there are a lot of spinoffs for this quote. Do read on with a little skepticism.
The word "Sprint"
I keep having some difficulties using the word Sprint for every 2 week cycle of our product every time i think of what the word means to me. These sprints never stop! The moment a Sprint ends a new sprint starts...
In real life you at least can catch your breath and do some sleeping before travelling towards a new Sprint. And no a retro isn't good enough. (SCRUM police) A new sprint starts the moment a sprint ends! The retro is also done within a sprint. (/SCRUM police)
I am a native Dutch speaker so my interpretation of the word sprint might differ. But to me a sprint instills going as fast as you can to finish first. Of course you obey the rules that wont disqualify you from winning the sprint. But the word rush comes into mind every time I think of a Sprint. Finish it! no matter what. This meaning gives a feeling of haste which isn’t gonna deliver cleaner code or less technical debt.
After finishing a sprint in real life I know i'm not physically capable of starting another sprint immediatly. So if you want to get in a flow as a team you have to actually stop rushing and start the discussion by talking to eachother. Take the time to make clear everyone is on the same page and we all see the same goal.
After all, SCRUM is a talk facilitating framework isnt it?
The word "Sprint" also means individuality to me. Which is unwanted considering your are a SCRUM team trying to get in a groove or flow together.
Just goofing around, but calling it an relay race (estafette) can be a better name! This also instills handovers and teamwork to be done with each other. The result is the same for the whole team if you compare it to a real life relay race. But still the aspect haste or rush is present here.
You of course don’t have to change this name but discussing this topic with your team is a thing you can do! Discuss this matter together with your, DOD, Acceptance Criteria and Sprint goal. At least make sure everyone understands that you don’t want the rush aspect that comes with the term sprint. Better do it the best you can obeying all defined rules. Instead of cutting corners in some grey area where nobody sees you do it!
Change that name!
And if we need another name. We can maybe use Development Cycles? This way we can call it Cycles like Linear does. Or call it Flows. For our 2 week Flow I have this Flow goal in mind.
For a name change to work we have to all agree on using this name. Tools like Jira already define a lot of these names that aren’t changeable. We as the development team are in a lucky position where Jira is only used for our backlog and administration purposes. But our physical Scrum board is our single source of truth of what we are trying to accomplish.
Our sprints only get registered on a higher level in Jira. All daily tasks that flow out of sprint planning arent registered within our Jira.
Do not change that name!
The word "Sprint" itself isn't a problem to me actually. But the word does bring things to my mind I do not like in our Sprints.
We dont want individuality in our Sprints.
We dont want to cut corners in Sprints.
We dont want to finish first at the cost of other aspects in Sprints.
We need to keep a keen eye on refining our DOD and using the right kind of Acceptance Criteria for our issues to keep the quality high. And most important define a proper Sprint goal every sprint and make it physical. Another name for Sprints isn't gonna change that. We as a team will need to make it happen to instill quality over speed.
Changing a word like "Sprint" wont mean anything if you dont foster an environment in which the words rush and haste aren't words that describe the work ethics. A sprint is just about an x week development cycle everyone understands, it shouldn't be at all related to haste and rush.