Sprint Management

Set up recurring sprint schedules, automate issue management, and configure capacity planning for your team.

Sprints are fixed time periods where your team commits to completing a specific set of work. Zenhub's sprint feature helps you organize issues into time-boxed iterations, track progress with burndown charts, and maintain consistent delivery cadences.

When you set up sprints in Zenhub, you're creating a recurring schedule that automatically generates future sprints based on your team's cadence. This eliminates the need to manually create each sprint and provides predictable planning cycles.

Creating your first sprint schedule

Click the green + Create icon in the top-right corner of your workspace and select Sprints. This opens the sprint creation panel where you'll configure your recurring schedule.

In the Sprint Schedule section on the right side, specify your first sprint's start and end dates using the calendar interface. A two-week cadence is recommended for most teams — it provides enough time to complete meaningful work while maintaining frequent delivery cycles.

Once you select your sprint dates, Zenhub automatically calculates the cadence and displays the next 8 upcoming sprints in the Upcoming Sprints section.

Managing upcoming sprints

The Upcoming Sprints section shows your next 8 scheduled sprints with their date ranges. Each sprint can be customized before it begins.

Renaming sprints
Hover over any sprint name to see the edit icon appear. Click it to rename the sprint with a title that reflects your team's goals or the features you plan to deliver.

Adding sprint goals
Each sprint has an Add a brief Sprint goal field where you can document the sprint's objective and key deliverables. This helps align the team on what success looks like for that sprint.

Sprint automation

Zenhub provides automation to reduce manual sprint management tasks, accessible in the Automatically add Issues to a sprint section.

Move unfinished issues to the next sprint
Enable this toggle to automatically move open issues from a completed sprint into the next sprint. This ensures work doesn't get lost between sprint cycles.

Build new sprints from the backlog
When enabled, this feature automatically populates upcoming sprints with issues from your backlog pipeline. At the end of your current sprint, Zenhub builds the next sprint using issues from the configured backlog pipeline. This requires pipeline mapping — in the Workflow configuration section, click Pipelines configured to map which pipelines represent each stage of your workflow.

Capacity management
The Add up to the first [X] story points setting shows a recommended capacity based on your team's average velocity from recent sprints. This helps prevent overcommitment and maintains a sustainable pace.

Modifying sprint schedules

Click the green + Create icon and select Modify recurring sprints to adjust your schedule. You can change sprint cadence using the Sprint Schedule dropdown, enable or disable automation settings, or turn off sprints entirely using the Turn off sprints button at the bottom of the panel. Changes apply to future sprints and don't affect currently active sprints.

FAQ

Q: Can I change sprint dates after they're created?
A: Yes. You can modify the recurring schedule, which affects future sprints. Active sprints should be changed carefully to avoid disrupting team commitments and reporting accuracy.

Q: What happens to issues when I turn off sprints?
A: Existing sprint assignments remain intact for historical reporting. Future sprints won't be created, but you can still manage issues on your Work Tracker without sprint organization.

Q: Can I have different sprint lengths for different workspaces?
A: Yes. Each workspace manages its own sprint configuration independently, so teams working on different products or cadences can set up entirely separate schedules.

Q: What if my team doesn't use story points?
A: The capacity recommendations require story point estimates to function. Teams not using story points can still create sprints manually but won't benefit from velocity-based capacity suggestions.

Q: How do I create a shorter sprint to account for holidays?
A: Zenhub doesn't support changing the duration of a single sprint directly. The workaround is to stop the existing sprint schedule on the last day of the active sprint, then create a new sprint schedule with the shorter duration.

Q: Can sprints be longer than 4 weeks?
A: Zenhub sprints are designed for shorter iterations, typically no longer than one month. For longer-term planning, consider using Releases or parent issues to manage objectives that span multiple sprints.