How to Create and Manage Sprints in Jira: Backlog, Active Sprint and Parallel Sprints Explained

A sprint in Jira is a fixed time-boxed period where a Scrum team commits to delivering a defined set of work items. Sprints create focus, predictability, and measurable progress. Instead of pulling work randomly from the backlog, teams plan a sprint and work toward completing that committed scope within a short, repeatable time frame.

All sprint planning begins on the Backlog page. The Backlog shows all upcoming work that has not yet been scheduled into a sprint. It allows Product Owners to prioritize items, refine estimates, organize work by epics, and prepare issues for future delivery. When the team is ready to plan, a new sprint is created directly from this page. Jira adds an empty sprint container above the backlog where work can be dragged and prepared for commitment.

Starting a sprint turns planning into execution. When the sprint is started, Jira prompts the team to define a sprint name, start date, and end date. These dates establish the sprint timebox. Once started, the sprint is locked and becomes the team’s active execution cycle.

The Active Sprint page is where daily work happens. It displays all work items in the sprint across workflow columns and provides real-time insight into progress. Teams use this view during daily stand-ups to track completion, identify blockers, and ensure work is moving steadily toward Done. Burndown charts, swimlanes, and quick filters help teams quickly assess sprint health.

Completing a sprint happens at the end of the timebox. When a sprint is completed, Jira moves all finished work into sprint history for reporting and prompts the team to move any unfinished work into another sprint or return it to the backlog. This preserves accurate velocity and sprint reports, which are critical for future planning.

Jira also supports parallel sprints. Parallel sprints allow multiple sprints to run at the same time in the same Scrum space. This is useful when multiple teams share a backlog but work on different delivery cycles. Each team can plan and execute independently while still contributing to the same overall product backlog.

The Backlog and Active Sprint pages together form the full sprint lifecycle. The Backlog is where work is prepared and planned. The Active Sprint is where work is executed and tracked. Parallel sprints extend this model to support multi-team environments.

These concepts are foundational for Jira Scrum projects and are heavily tested on Atlassian certification exams such as ACP-120 and ACP-620. Mastering sprint creation and management ensures accurate reporting, predictable delivery, and smoother Agile execution.

Cameron McKenzie is an AWS Certified AI Practitioner,Machine Learning Engineer,Solutions Architect and author of many popular books in the software development and Cloud Computing space. His growing YouTube channel has well over 30,000 subscribers.