The terms sprint and iteration are interchangeable. Each session lasts two weeks on average. On rare cases, however, the work circumstances may dictate that a one-, two-, three-, or four-week iteration is the preferred option.
The iterations and their lengths should ideally remain consistent so that teams are aware of when specific ceremonies and milestones will take place. A sprint (or iteration) is just long enough to finish (develop and test) stories while still being short enough to pivot fast. Agility requires the capacity to pivot swiftly. The sprint or iteration time frame concludes with a system demo of new features in the staging environment, which is then ready for release.
Increase the size of the programme
A Program Increment (PI) is a timebox in a scaled agile environment that is aimed to promote synchronisation across all teams (and stakeholders) in the programme or portfolio. Five iterations is the recommended PI length. Four iterations focusing on committed features and one Innovation & Planning (IP) iteration is a common pattern. A PI is only long enough to deliver a ready-to-release working (made and tested) increment of value in the staging environment. The Program Increment Planning event assists teams in discussing dependencies and organising their dedicated work for the Program Increment. In a staging environment, the PI culminates in a stakeholder demo of new integrated functionalities.
