Multiple Concurrent Sprints in a Single JIRA Project

…or having multiple teams work out of a single project in JIRA.

Out of the box, it might appear that JIRA doesn’t allow multiple teams to work out of a single backlog of work in JIRA, given that backlogs exist in specific individual JIRA projects. As a result, most teams set themselves up with a new JIRA project and work out of that.

This makes things a little difficult, especially for some scaling Agile frameworks such as LeSS (Large Scale Scrum) or Nexus, where having multiple teams operating out of single backlogs is demanded.

There’s a hidden, lesser-known feature in JIRA software that when switched on will enable this kind of operational behaviour and allow several teams to operate out of a single JIRA project.

It’s done by enabling something called parallel sprints in JIRA. To do this you need to have the ‘JIRA Administrators’ global permission.

This JIRA Software knowledge base article explains the simple process to enable parallel sprints.

There appears to be a couple of gotchas, though…

The article explains:

Please note the following caveats when using Parallel Sprints:

The Velocity Chart will not show the velocity per team.

The current implementation assumes that the teams perform estimation identically, which is unlikely in practice.


These could be a deal breaker for some, but there could be workarounds.

I’m not quite sure what the second point refers to. I know JIRA can have story points or time as the estimation unit, so it could be related to that. If it’s in regard to teams and their different considerations of how much effort a story point represents, that makes sense, but I’m keen to see what this looks like in practice.

Velocity charts can be generated manually if needed.

Useful to know if you find yourself with multiple teams needing to work out of a single Backlog using JIRA Software. I’m writing this as a prompt for myself as much as it is for anyone else… ;)

As an Agile Coach, I would like a place to gather interesting resources, So that I don't need to remember so much...

There are loads of different things to remember as an Agile Coach.

Patterns for workshops and different activities, mnemonics, great books, quotes, powerful questions, simulations, games to play, helpful sentence structures for different situations, podcasts to listen to etc etc.

It gets a bit overwhelming sometimes. I’m going to put together a bunch of the most useful bits and pieces I stumble across and maybe collate a few of them into TextExpander snippets, handy cheatsheets and maybe even some Siri Shortcuts.

Stay tuned…

Post-It 101 - Peel no more, pull!

So, it may seem a bit silly, but in the Post-It/sticky note world of Agile, a good technique to promote strong adhesion and reliable viewing is absolutely essential! ;)

The 'secret' is to pull...not peel!

A kinda silly, but hopefully helpful video for those embarking on their Agile journey, on how to properly remove/peel/pull sticky/post-it notes from a pad of notes for maximum adhesion, and so they'll simply sit flat on the wall and you can read 'em!

Control your 4th gen Apple TV with your TV remote

I made another accidental discovery the other day with the new 4th gen Apple TV. My TV remote control works to control player functions on the Apple TV.

Much has been said about how the Apple TV takes advantage of HDMI-CEC for basic control of connected televisions, ostensibly to allow control of volume, automatic input source selection (when the Apple TV is powered on) and power on/off of the TV using the Sleep button on the Apple TV remote.  In addition to HDMI's ability to transfer sound and image information, HDMI-CEC also has other two-way data capabilities to allow basic control of supported displays/TVs.  It seems to work both ways in more ways than I (and perhaps others) have first thought.

When watching a movie on the Apple TV the other night, I found that I could control some functions on the Apple TV using the buttons on my Samsung smart TV television remote - namely fast forward/rewind and play pause.  These buttons are included to manage some of the Smart TV functions such as player controls for on-demand streaming and YouTube etc, but they seem to connect.

Now, I couldn't be 100% sure whether this is operating via IR or taking advantage of the HDMI-CEC standards, which my Samsung TV and the Apple TV both support.  I don't suppose it matters really, but it's a handy thing to be aware of when watching your favourite show or movie and the TV remote is the closest thing to hand.