What is a Micro-sprint?
An agile approach for Higher Education
What is a Sprint?
The term Sprint in the context of the (Agile) Scrum framework is defined as:
“a time-box of one month or less during which a ‘Done’, useable, and potentially releasable product Increment is created” (Scrum.org).
There are four stages to each sprint -
- Plan: set the goal for this sprint and identify what needs to be done to develop something useable
- Do: the team work on the current sprint tasks to achieve the overall sprint goal
- Review: the team and relevant stakeholders review the sprint tasks to determine whether they are ‘done’
- Reflect: the team reflect on the current sprint process to improve the process for the next sprint
Applying Sprints to the Higher Education Context
There are many roles across Higher Education Institutions, including research and teaching focussed academics (and many who do both) and a wide range of professional services and support roles. And there are students - lots of students, who study many different disciplines and engage in extra-curricular and non-curricular activities, which contribute to their student experience of Higher Education.
This diverse, multi-faceted breadth and depth of roles and activities present challenges when attempting to co-ordinate effective teams. Everyone is busy, we all have priorities and are involved in several projects at any one time, teaching or studying several course units or modules, working on several research projects and supporting many other colleagues and students. It is therefore unrealistic to expect staff and students to work together during sprints lasting between 2 and 4 weeks, focussing entirely on the goals of that sprint. However, we believe the sprint approach to teamwork which follows the four events of planning, doing, reviewing and reflecting are fundamental to ensuring effective processes for team working and result in improved project outcomes and high-quality outputs.
Micro-sprints
Therefore, we have developed a refined sprint process called Micro-sprints, which adhere to the four key events of sprints, but in a more manageable time frame which is suitable and adaptable for the Higher Education context. Micro-sprints are underpinned by the values of Scrum and the broader values and principles of Agile, including courage, focus, commitment, openness, and respect for and trust in the team.
We have been working in multidisciplinary project teams which include students, professional services and academic colleagues using the Micro-sprint approach. We find that 3-hour sprints are effective, productive and manageable for most teams, considering people’s time commitments. The transparent, flexible and accessible nature of the sprints and the supporting online tools mean that team members can easily drop in and out of sprints and/or collaborate remotely, without diminishing their contribution to the team, the goals of the sprint and the broader project.
An example of a 3-hour micro-sprint looks something like this:
- Plan (20% / 30 minutes)
- Do/build (50% / 90 minutes)
- Review (20% / 30 minutes)
- Reflect (10% / 20 minutes)
The timings can be adapted to suit, but ensuring the team follows the four events of the Micro-sprint is crucial.
Micro-sprint Tips
- Keep each sprint manageable, therefore don’t try to accomplish too much by setting unrealistic goals (using SMART goals is a good approach).
- Include regular team checks within the sprints to discuss task progress and give/get feedback. You don’t need to wait until the review stage to do this.
- Aim to continually improve, not just the outcomes and outputs, but the process too.
- Ensure that you check for acceptance – does your product align to your users’ requirements? In educational/curriculum design projects, do your learning activities align with the intended learning outcomes?
- Finally, you must include time for each stage of the sprint, with reflective practice being a crucial part of the process for improvement, evaluation and developing the team.
