Sprint Length for New Scrum Teams

There is often debate about the sprint length especially for teams new to scrum.  It seems that new scrum teams have a tendency to gravitate towards a longer sprint length i.e. 4 weeks.  The common validation for longer sprints includes:

• Less pressure on the team when learning a new methodology
• Reducing the overhead of starting/stopping sprints
• The difficulty in delivering functionality in a short (2 week) sprint cycle

Although these may be valid points, there are many reasons as to why a new scrum team would benefit from a shorter sprint cycle such as:

• More rapid feedback that keeps everybody engaged and focused
• Increased visibility of progress to all stakeholders
• Less overall risk by exposing issues quicker
• Enables the team to establish their velocity and cadence quicker
• Decreased opportunity to introduce changes into the sprint
• Limits the work in progress

The key to dealing with the inherent pressures associated with learning a new methodology is ensuring the team has a good scrum master, scrum coach and scrum training.  This will also reduce the sprint planning overhead and produce user stories sized correctly to be completed in a shorter sprint cycle.  The team will then realize all the benefits of a shorter sprint cycle with an overall result of delivering value to the customer more rapidly.