How do I review completed sprints with Sprint Summary?

Sprint Summary provides AI-generated reviews of completed sprint work, automatically analyzing closed issues and organizing them into thematic groups. This tool transforms manual sprint review preparation into instant, comprehensive summaries perfect for demos and stakeholder updates.

Understanding Sprint Summary functionality

Sprint Summary uses AI to analyze completed sprint work and create structured summaries. For sprints with closed issues, you'll see a banner prompting "Get your Sprint Review summary now!" with a blue "Generate your Sprint Review" button.

For sprints without closed issues, Sprint Summary displays a message: "No issues were closed during this sprint" with an explanatory note that no issues were found.

Accessing Sprint Summary reports

Navigate to the Reports section and select "Sprint Summary." Use the Sprint dropdown at the top to select different sprints for analysis. The interface will show either the generation prompt for unprocessed sprints or existing summaries for completed analyses.

Generating and managing sprint summaries

Click "Generate your Sprint Review" to create an AI summary. During generation, you'll see a loading screen with "Generating your Sprint Review summary" and a progress indicator, along with Sprint Review insights like "1 team member worked on issues assigned to this sprint."

After generation, the interface displays several new elements:

• Generated by Zenhub AI indicator showing the summary source
• Next update: today dropdown showing scheduled generation times and options
• Velocity: X issues completed → link that navigates to the Team Velocity report
• Regenerate button for creating updated summaries

Scheduled generation and updates

Click the "Next update: today" dropdown to view AI scheduled generation details:

• Generations happen 3 times per sprint with automatic replacement of previous reviews
• Next updates showing specific timing options:
  • "A few days into the Sprint"
  • "Before end of Sprint"
  • "At Sprint end"

Each timing option displays the actual date and time when the next generation will occur.

Generated summary structure

The AI creates a high-level summary paragraph describing sprint accomplishments, followed by organized issue groups like "API Development" and "Other issues." Issues are categorized by theme with collapsible sections for easy navigation.

Manual editing options

Click on the generated summary text to access editing mode with:

• Summary and Preview tabs for content editing
• AI refinement options: Rephrase, Make it shorter, Make it longer, More technical, Less technical
• Rich text editing toolbar for formatting
• Save and Cancel buttons to apply or discard changes

Issue listing and completion tracking

Sprint Summary displays all completed issues in organized sections with clear visual indicators. Issues are grouped thematically (like "API Development" and "Other issues") and can be collapsed or expanded for easier navigation.

Each issue shows:

• Issue title and repository reference (e.g., "auto-recycling-app #9527")
• Issue/pull request icon indicating the work type
• Completion status relative to sprint timing

"Completed after sprint ended" indicators

Issues closed outside the sprint's official timeframe appear with "Completed after sprint ended" markers. This transparency helps teams identify:

• Scope creep during the sprint
• Work that carried over past the sprint deadline
• Issues added to the sprint retroactively after completion

These indicators provide valuable context for retrospectives about sprint planning accuracy and scope management.

Integration with sprint workflow

Sprint Summary integrates seamlessly with Zenhub's broader sprint management functionality, providing continuity from planning through execution to review.

The summaries reference work tracked through Sprint Burndown reports, creating connections between progress tracking and accomplishment documentation. This integration ensures comprehensive sprint lifecycle visibility.

Historical sprint summaries support velocity analysis and capacity planning by providing qualitative context to quantitative metrics like story points completed and cycle times.

Troubleshooting Sprint Summary issues

If Sprint Summary isn't generating automatically, verify that your sprint contains completed issues during the sprint timeframe. The AI requires actual closed work to analyze and summarize.

Check that your sprint has proper start and end dates configured, as the AI uses these boundaries to determine which work belongs to the sprint analysis.

For teams not seeing expected issue categorization quality, ensure that issues have descriptive titles and appropriate labels. The AI relies on this metadata to understand work context and create meaningful groupings.

FAQ

Q: How often are Sprint Summaries generated automatically?
A: Sprint Summaries are generated automatically on a scheduled basis for sprints with completed issues. You can manually regenerate a summary once per day if needed.

Q: Can I edit the AI-generated sprint summary?
A: Yes, you can manually edit both the summary text and issue organization. However, manual editing disables automatic scheduled generation for that sprint.

Q: What information does the AI use to create summaries?
A: The AI analyzes issue titles, descriptions, labels, pull request information, and commit messages to understand completed work and create thematic categorizations.

Q: Why don't I see a summary for my completed sprint?
A: Sprint Summary requires completed issues within the sprint timeframe. Ensure your sprint has closed issues and proper start/end dates configured.

Q: Can I use Sprint Summary for sprints without story point estimates?
A: Yes, Sprint Summary works with any sprint containing completed issues, regardless of whether those issues have story point estimates.

Q: How long are Sprint Summary reports retained?
A: Sprint Summary reports are retained for historical reference and can be accessed for both open and closed sprints through the sprint selection dropdown.