Sprint Commander

User Manual

1. Installation

Sprint Commander is a Jira Cloud app that installs as a dashboard gadget.

Installing from Atlassian Marketplace

  1. Go to the Atlassian Marketplace
  2. Search for "Sprint Commander"
  3. Click Get it now
  4. Select your Jira Cloud site
  5. Confirm the installation

Adding the Gadget to a Dashboard

  1. Navigate to a Jira dashboard
  2. Click Add gadget
  3. Search for "Sprint Assist" or "Sprint Commander"
  4. Click Add gadget
  5. The gadget will appear on your dashboard

2. Getting Started

When you first add the gadget, you'll need to configure it with your board ID.

Finding Your Board ID

  1. Open your Jira board
  2. Look at the URL in your browser
  3. Find the number after /boards/
  4. Example: https://yoursite.atlassian.net/jira/software/projects/PROJ/boards/123
  5. In this example, the Board ID is 123

Initial Setup

  1. Enter your Board ID in the configuration panel
  2. Set your default capacity limit
  3. Choose your capacity metric (Story Points or Remaining Estimate)
  4. Click Save Configuration

3. Configuration

Access settings by clicking the gadget's edit button (pencil icon) on your dashboard.

Board Selection

You can configure your board in two ways:

Settings Reference

Setting Description
Board ID The ID of your Jira board (required). Can be entered manually or selected from a dropdown.
Capacity Metric Choose between Story Points or Remaining Estimate (time)
Time Unit When using Remaining Estimate, display as Hours or Days
Capacity Mode Track capacity Per Sprint (total) or Per User (individual)
Capacity Limit Default capacity limit for sprints or users
Progress Indicator Show work remaining as a percentage in sprint headers (None, Remaining/Original, or Work Ratio)
Sprint Length Duration for auto-created sprints (2, 3, or 4 weeks)
Display Columns Select which columns appear in issue tables (Key, Summary, Assignee, Points, Status, Type, Priority, Start, Due)

Start and Due Date Columns

You can enable optional columns to display issue start dates and due dates:

  1. Open gadget settings (Configure)
  2. In the Display Columns section, enable Start and/or Due
  3. Save the configuration

Date column features:

Tip
Enable the Due column to quickly spot overdue items. The red highlighting makes past-due issues immediately visible.

4. Sprint View

The main view shows all active and future sprints from your board, plus the backlog.

Sprint Card Elements

Sprint Goals

Each sprint can have a goal that describes the sprint's objective. Goals are editable inline:

Sprint Actions

5. Capacity Planning

Sprint Commander provides visual warnings when capacity limits are exceeded.

Per Sprint Mode

In this mode, the total points/hours for all issues in a sprint are compared against the sprint limit.

Per User Mode

In this mode, each team member's workload is tracked against individual limits.

Tip
Per-user limits are stored per sprint. You can set different limits for the same user across different sprints (e.g., if someone is on vacation).

Oversized Issue Warnings

When an individual issue exceeds the sprint capacity limit, it displays a warning:

Oversized issues cannot fit within a single sprint's capacity. Consider:

Note
When using Auto-Level, oversized issues are distributed across sprints (one per sprint) rather than all staying in the same sprint.

Progress Indicator

The progress indicator shows the percentage of work remaining in each sprint, displayed next to the capacity in the sprint header.

Configuration Options

Option Formula Best For
None Hide the progress indicator
Remaining / Original Remaining Estimate ÷ Original Estimate × 100 Tracking progress against original scope
Work Ratio Remaining ÷ (Time Spent + Remaining) × 100 Tracking actual completion including logged work
Tip
The progress indicator requires issues to have time estimates in Jira (Original Estimate field). Sprints without estimated issues won't display the indicator.

6. Auto-Level

Auto-Level uses an intelligent algorithm to redistribute issues while respecting dependencies, due dates, and capacity limits. It works in both sprint mode and per-user mode.

How It Works

  1. Click the Auto-Level button (only enabled when sprints/users are over capacity)
  2. Choose your strategy for selecting which issues to move
  3. Click Auto-Level to proceed
  4. The algorithm analyzes dependencies, dates, and capacity
  5. Issues are redistributed to stay under capacity limits
  6. In sprint mode, new sprints are created if needed (up to 10)
  7. A summary shows how many issues were moved, with any date warnings

Strategy Selector

Choose how the algorithm selects which issues to move first:

Date-Aware Placement

When finding a target sprint for an issue, the algorithm:

Smart Algorithm

The Auto-Level feature uses a sophisticated algorithm that:

Per-User Mode

When capacity mode is set to "Per User", Auto-Level balances each user's workload:

Auto-Level Rules

Tip
If Auto-Level reports a dependency cycle, use the dependency warnings in the sprint view to identify which issues are involved. Break the cycle by removing one of the blocking relationships in Jira.

7. Dependency Warnings

Sprint Commander warns you when issue dependencies create scheduling conflicts.

What It Detects

A dependency violation occurs when:

This means you're planning to work on a blocked issue before its blocker is complete.

Visual Indicators

Resolving Violations

To fix a dependency violation, either:

8. Drag and Drop

Move issues between sprints by dragging and dropping. You can move single issues or select multiple issues for batch moves.

Moving a Single Issue

  1. Click and hold on any issue row
  2. Drag towards another sprint
  3. The page auto-scrolls when you drag near the top or bottom edge (within 100 pixels)
  4. Drop the issue on the target sprint (highlighted with a blue border)
  5. The issue moves immediately (optimistic UI update)

Multi-Select Drag and Drop

Move multiple issues at once using the checkbox selection:

  1. Use the checkboxes in the first column to select issues
  2. Select issues from one or more sprints
  3. A selection indicator shows how many issues are selected
  4. Drag any selected issue to move all selected issues together
  5. Drop on the target sprint - all selected issues move as a batch
  6. Selection is cleared after a successful drop

Selection Tips

Auto-Scroll Feature

When dragging issues, the page automatically scrolls to help you reach distant sprints:

Moving to Backlog

Tip
Use multi-select to quickly rebalance work between sprints. Select all over-capacity issues and drag them to a future sprint in one action.

9. Date Synchronization

Keep issue dates aligned with sprint dates for accurate roadmaps and reports.

Sync Dates for a Sprint

  1. Ensure the sprint has start and end dates set
  2. Click Sync Dates on the sprint card
  3. All issues in the sprint will have their:
    • Start Date set to the sprint's start date
    • Due Date set to the sprint's end date

Sync All Dates

Remove All Dates

10. Sprint Management

Creating a Sprint

  1. Click + Create Sprint
  2. Enter the sprint name (required)
  3. Optionally set start and end dates
  4. Optionally add a sprint goal
  5. Click Create Sprint

Editing Sprint Goals

  1. Click on the goal text (or "Click to add goal" for sprints without a goal)
  2. Edit the text in the input field
  3. Click Save to apply changes, or Cancel to discard

Editing Sprint Dates

  1. Click on the date range text (e.g., "Jan 13 - Jan 27")
  2. Use the date pickers to adjust dates
  3. Click Save

Starting a Sprint

Completing a Sprint

Deleting a Sprint

If the sprint is empty, it can be deleted directly with a simple confirmation.

11. Filtering

Work by User Summary

The "Work by User (in sprints)" section displays a row of chips showing workload distribution across your team:

This gives you a quick overview of how work is distributed across the team without having to expand each sprint.

Global Filter by User

  1. Use the Filter by dropdown in the header
  2. Select a team member's name
  3. Only issues assigned to that person are shown across all sprints
  4. Point totals are recalculated for the filtered view

Per-Sprint User Filtering

Filter issues within individual sprints by clicking on user chips:

Tip
Per-sprint filtering is independent for each sprint. You can filter Sprint 1 to show Alice's issues while Sprint 2 shows Bob's issues.

User Capacity Mode

When in Per User capacity mode, the user chips serve dual purposes:

Quick Filter from Header Chips

Clearing Filters

12. Velocity Tracking

Track team velocity across completed sprints to improve capacity planning and forecasting.

Understanding the Velocity Panel

The Velocity Panel appears in the sprint view header and provides insights into your team's delivery capacity:

Velocity Statistics

When expanded, the panel shows four key metrics:

Metric Description
Avg Velocity Average points completed per sprint
Pts/Week Average points completed per week (normalized for sprint length)
Efficiency Percentage of planned capacity actually completed
Completion Average completion rate across sprints

Team vs Per-User View

The velocity panel has two tabs:

Team Tab

Shows sprint history with:

By User Tab

Shows individual team member performance:

Note
Per-user velocity data requires using the "Per User" capacity mode in configuration. This mode tracks assignments by team member.

How Velocity is Captured

Velocity is automatically captured when you complete a sprint:

  1. Click Complete on an active sprint
  2. If there are incomplete issues, choose a rollover option:
    • Move to Backlog - Incomplete issues go to backlog
    • Move to existing sprint - Select a future sprint
    • Create new sprint - Create a new sprint for rollover
  3. Velocity is recorded with completed points, capacity, and per-user breakdown

Configuring Velocity

In the Configuration panel:

Velocity Panel Actions

Tip
Use velocity data to set realistic capacity limits. If your average velocity is 35 points, don't plan sprints with 50 points of work.

13. Troubleshooting

Gadget Shows "Loading..." Forever

No Sprints Appear

Drag and Drop Not Working

Changes Not Saving

Dependency Warnings Not Showing

Velocity Panel Shows "No velocity data yet"

Per-User Velocity Not Showing

14. Technical Reference

For detailed technical documentation of all UI elements, user actions, and backend logic, see the UI Documentation.

Visual Indicators Reference

Indicator Meaning
Red sprint card border Sprint is over capacity
Green points display Sprint is under capacity
⚠ on issue key Dependency violation (blocked by issue in later sprint)
⚠ on points Issue exceeds capacity limit (oversized)
Asterisk (*) on limit Custom limit set (different from default)
Red user chip User over capacity (in user capacity mode)
Blue user chip User filter active (showing only this user's issues)
X% remaining Progress indicator showing work completion percentage
Red due date text Issue due date is in the past (overdue)
"Click to add goal" Sprint has no goal set; click to add one
↑ in velocity badge Velocity is trending upward (improving)
↓ in velocity badge Velocity is trending downward (declining)
★ in velocity table Best sprint by completed points
▼ in velocity table Lowest velocity sprint
Green efficiency % User efficiency ≥90% (high performer)
Red efficiency % User efficiency <70% (needs attention)

Keyboard Shortcuts

Context Key Action
User capacity edit Enter Save changes
User capacity edit Escape Cancel editing