Sprints split a project’s work into short, fixed periods, each with a clear goal and a planned capacity. This guide covers the full sprint lifecycle in DeskFactor: planning a sprint, adding work to it, starting it, tracking it while it runs, editing it, completing or cancelling it, and reviewing past sprints.

Who can manage sprints?

What you can do with sprints depends on the permissions your role has in Settings → Roles & Permissions, under the Sprints group:

  • Create Sprints — plan new sprints
  • View Sprints — see the Sprints tab and sprint details
  • Edit Sprints — edit sprints, start them, and cancel sprints that haven’t started yet

Important: Only the project’s Project Manager (the person set as Project Manager on the project) can complete or cancel an active sprint. Other users can open these options, but DeskFactor won’t let them finish, and the sprint stays active.

Before you begin

Make sure you have:

  • An existing project, with its team members added
  • A title, start date, and end date for the sprint
  • Tasks ready to plan into the sprint, if you’re planning the scope now (you can also add them later)

Step 1: Open the Sprints tab

Open your project, then go to Execution → Sprints. The tab shows:

  • The active sprint at the top, with its dates, team size, story points, progress (for example, “3/8 tasks completed”), and three health indicators: Blocked (the number of blocked tasks), Team Load (balanced or overloaded), and Health
  • Upcoming — sprints that are planned but haven’t started, with their dates, story points, and status
  • A board of the active sprint’s tasks (see Step 5)

If no sprint is running, No Active Sprint is shown instead.

Step 2: Create a sprint

Select Add Sprint at the top right. In the Create Sprint panel, fill in:

  • Sprint Title * — at least 3 characters, for example “Sprint 12 – Payment Integration”
  • Status * — leave this as Planning (“Sprint is being prepared and is not yet active”). You start the sprint later, in Step 4.
  • Start Date * — today or later, and not before the project’s start date
  • End Date * — available once you pick a start date. It must be at least one day after the start date.
  • Planned Capacity — the team’s total capacity for the sprint, in hours. Optional.
  • Sprint Goal — what the sprint should achieve. Optional, but recommended.
  • Additional Notes — any supporting context. Optional.

Create Sprint becomes available once the required fields are filled in. Select it to save. A “Sprint created successfully” message appears, and the sprint is added to the Upcoming list.

Tip: You can plan several sprints ahead. They wait in the Upcoming list until you start them.

Step 3: Add tasks to the sprint

There are two ways to add tasks to a sprint:

  • Choose the sprint in a task’s Sprint field when you create or edit the task
  • Select New Task on the active sprint’s board. The new task is added to that sprint automatically.

To check what’s planned for an upcoming sprint, select View Details from its ⋮ menu. It shows the sprint goal and the tasks in the sprint.

Step 4: Start the sprint

When no sprint is active, each sprint in the Upcoming list has a Start Sprint button. Select it to start the sprint. A “Sprint started successfully” message appears, and the sprint moves to the top of the tab as the active sprint.

Important: A project can have only one active sprint at a time. Complete or cancel the current sprint before you start the next one.

Step 5: Track the active sprint

The board under the active sprint shows its tasks in one column per status. You can:

  • Search the sprint’s tasks, and filter them by assignee or priority
  • Drag a task’s card to another column to change its status
  • Switch to a list or timeline with View as
  • Add a task to the sprint with New Task

If your role allows it, you can also select Add Status to add a status column for the project (with a name, a category, an optional description, a display order, and a colour), or drag a column’s handle to change the order of the statuses.

Sprint Deep Dive

For a fuller picture, select Open Sprint Deep Dive from the active sprint’s ⋮ menu:

  • Summary — tasks and story points completed, out of the total
  • Task Distribution — how many tasks are in each status
  • Risks & Alerts — Critical Issues and Warnings, such as blocked or overdue tasks, work waiting in review, high-priority tasks that haven’t started, tasks added after the sprint started, overloaded team members, and a sprint ending soon with work still open
  • Key Tasks — the high-priority, blocked, and overdue tasks that need attention

Step 6: Edit a sprint

Select Edit Sprint from the sprint’s ⋮ menu. What you can change depends on the sprint’s status:

  • Planning — every field
  • Active — a banner explains that “Some fields are locked while the sprint is active.” Status, Start Date, and End Date can’t be changed, but you can still edit the Sprint Title, Planned Capacity, Sprint Goal, and Additional Notes.
  • Completed or Cancelled — nothing; all fields are read-only

Save Changes becomes available once you change something. A “Sprint updated successfully” message confirms the save.

Note: When you edit a sprint, Planned Capacity shows a Suggested Capacity (for example, “360 hours”), based on the sprint’s current team size and length. It’s only a suggestion and doesn’t fill in the field for you.

Step 7: Complete or cancel the sprint

Complete the sprint (Project Manager only)

From the active sprint’s ⋮ menu, select Complete Sprint. The Close Sprint dialog shows:

  • The sprint’s end date and the story points completed
  • Counts of its unfinished work: Incomplete, Needs Review, In Progress, Not Started, and Blocked
  • Every unfinished task, grouped by status

For each unfinished task, choose where it goes next: one of the upcoming sprints (listed with their dates and status), or Move to backlog. Tasks without a target sprint move to the backlog. To send all of them to the same sprint, pick it under Bulk action: Move all to and select Apply to all.

Select Close Sprint. A “Sprint closed successfully.” message confirms it.

Note: Each item is moved on its own. Moving a story to another sprint doesn’t move its tasks, so choose a target for those tasks as well.

Cancel the active sprint (Project Manager only)

If the sprint has to stop early, select Cancel Sprint from the active sprint’s ⋮ menu instead:

  1. In the Cancel Sprint dialog, choose where each unfinished task goes, as you would when completing a sprint, then select Cancel Sprint.
  2. Enter a Cancellation Reason of at least 20 characters (up to 2,000), for example “Scope changed after the client review”.
  3. Select Cancel Sprint to confirm, or Go Back to return to the previous step.

A “Sprint cancelled successfully” message confirms it. Cancelling a sprint can’t be undone.

Cancel an upcoming sprint

To drop a sprint that hasn’t started, select Cancel Sprint from its ⋮ menu in the Upcoming list. It’s cancelled straight away, and no reason is needed.

Important: Sprints can’t be deleted, and cancelling one can’t be undone. Check that you’ve picked the right sprint before you cancel it.

Step 8: Review past sprints with Sprint History

Select Sprint History at the top right of the Sprints tab to see completed and cancelled sprints, with the most recent first. Each sprint shows:

  • Its dates and completion percentage
  • Baseline Velocity — the story points planned when the sprint started (the baseline) and the sprint’s total
  • Carried Over — how many unfinished tasks moved on when the sprint ended
  • Any story points added after the sprint started (for example, “+4 pts added”)

Use these figures to plan a realistic amount of work for your next sprint.

What happens after?

  • The sprint moves from Planning to Active, then to Completed or Cancelled
  • Unfinished tasks go to the sprint you chose for them, or to the backlog
  • The sprint’s results are kept in Sprint History for future planning
  • You can start the next upcoming sprint

Common Issues

Create Sprint stays greyed out
Fill in the Sprint Title (at least 3 characters), Start Date, and End Date. These are required.

Past dates can’t be selected
A sprint can’t start in the past, or before the project’s start date.

End Date can’t be selected
Pick a Start Date first.

The end date isn’t accepted
The end date must be at least one day after the start date.

Start Sprint is missing
Another sprint is already active. Only one sprint can run at a time, so complete or cancel the active sprint first.

Status and dates can’t be changed while editing
This is expected. Status, Start Date, and End Date are locked once a sprint is active.

Save Changes stays greyed out
Change at least one field. There’s nothing to save until something changes.

Completing or cancelling the sprint doesn’t work
Only the project’s Project Manager can complete or cancel an active sprint. Ask them to do it, or ask your Organization Administrator if the project’s manager needs to change.

Cancel Sprint stays greyed out in the reason step
The cancellation reason must be at least 20 characters long.

A task ended up in the backlog
When a sprint closes, any unfinished task without a target sprint moves to the backlog. Open the task and set its Sprint field to add it to another sprint.

A story’s tasks stayed in the old sprint
Stories and their tasks are moved separately. Set the Sprint field on each task that should move.

Suggested Capacity seems wrong
It’s calculated from the sprint’s current team size and length when you open Edit Sprint. If the team has changed, close the panel and open it again.

Expected Result

  • A sprint exists with the right title, dates, goal, and capacity
  • Once started, its progress, health, board, and Deep Dive are visible on the Sprints tab
  • Completing or cancelling the sprint accounts for every unfinished task
  • The sprint appears in Sprint History with its results

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