Iterations is here to support sprint planning!

When it comes to work (and life!) things change, priorities shift, and 💩 happens, even with the best laid plans. The inevitable unpredictability in software development makes it critical to know what’s being worked on and what’s coming next so everyone stays focused and moves quickly.

This is why we are thrilled to introduce Iterations in Shortcut to provide first-class support for sprint planning and management. With Shortcut Iterations you’ll be able to plan and manage your work in timeboxed periods, visualize your work with reports and dashboards and optimize your team’s performance over time.

Read on to see Shortcut Iterations in action:

Easily visualize and organize work by Iteration

Create Iterations to manage and track the number of Stories and Points your team is working on. Choose a time period that makes sense for your team. We recommend that you keep them short (~1-2 weeks long) so you can be more responsive to changing demands and keeping the time periods consistent, for more actionable reporting.

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Add Stories to an Iteration using the Story Panel

You can also add a Story to an Iteration from the Stories page individually or speed things up by adding Stories in bulk!

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Bulk add Stories to an Iteration

Build a Space using Iterations so you can easily access a view of your most important work on the Stories page using the Iterations Filter.

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Create a Space from Iterations

The Iterations Manage Page is a great way to get a pulse on what’s being worked on. Use the dashboard to keep your team focused on the most important tasks or pivot by moving Stories into or out of Iterations if something changes.

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Move Stories from one Iteration to another

If you’ve ever wanted to see exactly what you should be working on, use the Iterations Detail Page to filter a view that shows you your most important work.

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Use Iterations filters to zoom into the exact work you

Reporting for better prioritization

On every Iteration Detail Page there is a Burndown Chart and Cumulative Flow Diagram. These are great for sharing pacing with other stakeholders on your team or getting a quick snapshot of how things are going.

Use the Burndown Chart to see how much work is left vs the time in your Iteration. Course-correct if your team is overwhelmed or take advantage of how quickly your team is shipping work and the extra time you might have in an Iteration.

The Cumulative Flow Diagram will show you all the Stories in the Iteration and how the number of Stories in each Workflow State has grown/shrunk over the timespan of your Iteration. This report is useful for identifying trends over the course of your Iteration such as when work is being completed or when work is getting stuck.

Iterations Pro-tips

• Use the same length Iterations over time, preferably non-overlapping, to provide that simple, consistent velocity data
• Work as a team - seems like a no brainer - but it’s important!
• Optimize for the long-term

For more Iterations best practices check out this great blog post by our Senior Product Manager, Victor.

Coming in the future (so you can plan for the future)

Soon you’ll be able to utilize the Velocity Report to plan for future Iterations. Velocity reports will help your business stakeholders understand how much work you can likely accomplish going forward, providing a bit more predictability to help plan for business goals more broadly.

Leave a comment below to share how you’re using Iterations!

Want more hands-on training for Iterations? Register for the Getting started with Iterations webinar on Wednesday, June 26th 12 PM ET. or watch this video!

Happy Creating!

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