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How to Create and Run Scrum Sprints?

Scrum turns a project's backlog into short, time-boxed sprints your team commits to, plans, and delivers against, instead of working off one long list. It lives inside a project's Backlog, Sprints, Kanban, and Reports tabs, which appear once the project is created from the Scrum template.

Watch this video walkthrough to see it in action.

Continue reading for step-by-step instructions.

What Is Scrum?

Scrum is a project type in ProProfs Project that organizes work into a prioritized backlog and fixed-length sprints, rather than a single running task list. Only one sprint can run at a time, so the whole team always has one clear, current focus instead of several competing lists.

Why Use It?

Scrum gives a team a repeatable rhythm for planning, tracking, and reviewing work, instead of reacting to whatever looks urgent that day.

Your backlog keeps growing with no order: sprints force the team to commit to a prioritized, manageable slice of work instead of an endless list.
You can't tell if the team will finish on time: the sprint burndown chart flags whether the pace is on track before the deadline arrives, not after.
Standups turn into status hunts: the Kanban board and sprint reports give everyone one place to see what's done, in progress, and stuck.

Example Use Cases

A scrum master plans the next sprint by dragging prioritized backlog items into the sprint panel until it reaches capacity.
A developer drags their task across the Kanban board as they pick it up, test it, and finish it, instead of updating a separate status document.
A project manager opens the sprint report before a stakeholder review to show the burndown chart and what each teammate delivered.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Create a Scrum Project

Step 1: From the All Projects page, click Create a Project to open the project template gallery.

Step 2: Click the Scrum template card, then click Use Template.

Step 3: Optionally, type a short project goal into the Describe your project box so ProProfs can suggest a starter backlog.

Step 4: On the Details tab, choose a Scrum Type: Team managed, where one team runs its own sprints, or Company managed, Click Save to create the project.

Step 5: Set the sprint defaults Settings like, measure of effort, sprint length, and the weekday sprints start.

Build the Backlog

Step 7: Open the project and go to the Backlog tab.

Step 8: Click the add-item row at the bottom of the backlog table, type the task title, and press Enter to add it.

Step 9: To add several tasks at once, click Add Multiple Tasks and paste a list, or pull tasks in from another project.

Step 10: Fill in each task's Assignee, Status, Priority, Type, and Epic directly from its row, and click the Story Points cell to size it.

Note: story points size a task by complexity, not hours: 1 is very small, 2 small, 3 medium, 5 large, 8 very large, and 13 means the task should be split, it is too large for one sprint.

Create a Sprint

Step 11: In the Sprints panel next to the backlog, click New Sprint, or Create Sprint if this is the first one.

Step 12: Name the sprint and set its Sprint capacity, the most points or hours the sprint can hold.

Pull Tasks Into the Sprint

Step 14: Drag a task from the backlog table and drop it onto the sprint panel to commit it.

Start the Sprint

Step 15: Click Start Sprint on the sprint panel to move the team onto the Kanban board.

Track Work on the Kanban Board

Step 16: Drag task cards across Kanban columns as work moves forward, or click + Add Task at the bottom of a column to add work mid-sprint.

Complete the Sprint

Step 17: Click Complete Sprint, available from both the Backlog and Kanban views, once the sprint's work is done.

Step 18: Review the summary, then click Complete sprint to confirm.

Note: finished work is archived with the sprint and counts toward velocity. Unfinished items move back to the backlog automatically, nothing is duplicated.

View Sprint Reports and Summary

Step 19: Open the Reports tab and choose a sprint from the dropdown at the top, or select all sprints combined.

Step 20: Review the tile row for headline sprint numbers, the donut chart for a status breakdown, and the burndown chart to see if the sprint is on track.

Pro Tips & Interactive Settings

Tip: story points size a task by complexity, not hours worked: 1 very small, 2 small, 3 medium, 5 large, 8 very large, 13 too large, split it into smaller tasks.

Settings: sprint capacity is set per sprint, but the effort measure, sprint length, start weekday, naming pattern, and non-working days are project-wide defaults set once and applied to every new sprint. Change them anytime from Sprint settings in the project header.