On this #AskArtisan video, let’s talk about SPRINTING through and around holidays! I get asked a lot how holidays should impact a Sprint, and the short and easy answer is that holidays can impact the Sprint as much or as little as the Scrum Team decides, in whatever ways the Scrum Team decides, as long as they decide it during Sprint Planning.

I think the reason this question gets asked a lot is because Scrum best practices do put some emphasis around the idea of trying to keep #SprintLength somewhat the same, because this helps a Scrum Team acclimate to the amount of work that they can do in a given period of time, and this kind of predictability and scheduled repetition gives teams and individuals a baseline to use as they try to maximize productivity and make progress towards improvements. Of course, it goes without saying that Sprint Length uniformity is helpful to Product Owners because it makes it easier for them to predict where a product’s development will be several months from now by knowing the approximate amount of work that a team completes in a standard Sprint.

So, if you’re planning a Sprint that’s going to carry you over Christmas holidays or something like that, then it needs to be addressed in Sprint Planning. Look at office or company holidays and employee leave time and vacation time, and figure out if you want to adjust your Sprint Length by adding days to make up for the number of lost days during the holiday, there’s nothing wrong with that at all! As long as it’s done during Sprint Planning, you and your team can make whatever decisions you need to regarding the Sprint.

Be sure to check out more of our #AskArtisan video series!