Fix Jira Sprint Reporting: Introducing 'Current' and 'Latest' Sprint Fields

We have good news for those who want to use Jira’s Sprint fields in Time in Status reports of Timepiece.

What is a Jira Sprint?

In agile project management, a sprint is a fixed, time-boxed period (typically two weeks) where an engineering or product team commits to completing a specific amount of work. Tracking metrics like cycle time and time-in-status across these sprints is critical. It allows Scrum Masters and project managers to measure team velocity, spot workflow bottlenecks, and ensure the team isn't overcommitting to tasks they cannot finish.

What was the Problem?

Jira issues have a custom field for Sprint info, but this field keeps the Sprint data in a funny way. This field keeps the names of all the current and past Sprints that the issue was part of.

This had a direct impact on Timepiece reports when you wanted to get a “time in status” report. When added as a column to the report, this field displays all the sprint names (not bad, still kinda useful). When selected as a Group By field for an aggregate report, this field still displays all the sprint names, making the grouping totally useless.

What is the Solution?

With this week’s release, Timepiece – Time in Status for Jira is introducing two new fields. Sprint (Current) and Sprint (Latest).

As the name suggests, the Sprint (Current) field displays the name of the current sprint.

• If the issue is in the backlog, it displays “None”.
• When a sprint is completed, the issue is not completed, and it is kicked back into the backlog, this field displays “None”.
• When a sprint is completed, the issue is not completed and moved to another sprint; this field shows the name of the new Sprint.
• When a sprint is completed, and the issue is also completed, this field also displays “None” (because the sprint is now gone and all the issues seem to be out of the sprint. This is actually what Jira shows on the issue view page.)

The Sprint (Latest) field, on the other hand, displays the name of the latest sprint that the issue was part of.

• If the issue is in the backlog, it displays “None”.
• When a sprint is completed, the issue is not completed, and it is kicked back into the backlog, this field displays the name of the last sprint that the issue was part of.
• When a sprint is completed, the issue is not completed and moved to another sprint; this field shows the name of the new Sprint.
• When a sprint is completed, and the issue is also completed, the field displays the name of the last sprint that the issue was completed in.

You can use these fields for both Field selection and Group By Field selection.

To learn more about Timepiece – Time in Status for Jira, you can visit the Atlassian Marketplace page.

Fix Jira Sprint Reporting: Introducing 'Current' and 'Latest' Sprint Fields