What Is Agile cadence

What Is Agile cadence?

Within Agile project management, cadence refers to the number of days or weeks a sprint, iteration, or release lasts. An Agile cadence is a reliable series of events and activities that occur on a regular, predictable schedule. Cadence in Agile builds a plan for an Agile team to follow and ensures that they always understand what they are doing and when they will be done with it.

The cadence that a team chooses may be based on a number of factors, including risk, type of project, and how critical the objectives are. For example, projects that tend to be high-risk or critical tend to have a shorter cadence so that the team can benefit from faster feedback and ultimately deliver the project quicker. Conversely, projects that require a lot of approvals from other teams may have a longer cadence

How long is an Agile cadence?

The length of an Agile cadence may depend on which Agile project management method teams are following. For example, Scrum is usually made up of a series of iterations of a set length called sprint. These usually last a week or two. In Kanban however, the Agile cadence refers to a continuous flow of work. Ultimately, Agile cadence should increase efficiency by cutting out duplicated or avoidable work. It is important that your teams can find predictability in their Agile cadence, i.e., that their cadences occur in a regular pattern.

Agile teams may choose to work in single cadence (usually in 2-4 week sprints), multiple cadence (such as based on a weekly release), or event-based cadence.

What’s an example of Agile cadence?

For illustrative purposes, let’s look at a cadence in Scrum. A Scrum team will work in sprints, which usually last 1-2 weeks, depending on what they are trying to achieve. One sprint may contain:

Your teams can use Agile cadence to increase focus, structure their work, and learn from previous sprints. It’s essential that your Agile teams can find the right cadence for their needs, based on how they work best and the needs of the project.

Alex Zhezherau

Alex is Wrike’s Product Director, with over 10 years of expertise in product management and business development. Known for his hands-on approach and strategic vision, he is well versed in various project management methodologies — including Agile, Scrum, and Kanban — and how Wrike’s features complement them. Alex is passionate about entrepreneurship and turning complex challenges into opportunities.

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