Create an iteration

Last update: February 10, 2025

CREATED FOR:

  • User

Iterations are a key component for Scrum agile teams in planning out work capacity. Adobe Workfront allows Scrum agile teams to manage their work by creating multiple iterations to accommodate team needs.

Access requirements

Expand to view access requirements for the functionality in this article.

You must have the following access to perform the steps in this article:

Adobe Workfront planAny
Adobe Workfront license

New: Light or higher

or

Current: Review or higher

For more detail about the information in this table, see Access requirements in Workfront documentation.

Add an iteration

You can add an iteration in the list to quickly create an iteration, and add tasks and issues to it later.

  1. Click the Main Menu icon Main Menu in the upper-right corner of Adobe Workfront, or (if available), click the Main Menu icon Main Menu in the upper-left corner, then click Teams.

  2. (Optional) Click the Switch team icon Switch team icon , then either select a new Scrum team from the drop-down menu or search for a team in the search bar.

  3. On the Iterations tab, click Add iteration.

    Click Add iteration

  4. Specify the following:

    Iteration NameEnter the name of the iteration.
    GoalAdd any goals you have for the iteration.
    Start DateEnter the date the iteration should start.
    End Date

    Enter the date the iteration should end. Workfront recommends setting an end date no longer than 4 weeks from the start date.

    Tip: Make sure to choose a working day as the end date. The burndown chart uses only working days in its calculations.
    By default, the burndown chart uses the default schedule to define working days (as described in Create a schedule). Or, to incorporate team-specific non-working days, agile teams can choose to use an alternate schedule (as described in"Defining an Alternate Team Schedule for Burndown Charts" in Create an agile team).

    CapacitySpecify the capacity for the iteration. This is the number of points or hours your team is able to accomplish in the iteration. The number you enter must be equal to or greater than the number of points or hours from the sum of all the stories in the iteration.
    Workfront pre-populates this field with 50 capacity by default.
    FocusSpecify the focus percentage of the team. If all members of the team will be focused completely on this iteration, the focus would be 100%.
    Workfront pre-populates this field with 100% by default.

  5. Click Add iteration. Now that you’ve created an iteration, you need to add stories. For more information, see Add stories to an existing iteration.

Plan an iteration on the Backlog tab

Use the Plan Iteration feature to create an iteration using tasks on your backlog.

  1. Click the Main Menu icon Main Menu in the upper-right corner of Adobe Workfront, or (if available), click the Main Menu icon Main Menu in the upper-left corner, then click Teams.

  2. (Optional) Click the Switch team icon Switch team icon , then either select a new Scrum team from the drop-down menu or search for a team in the search bar.

  3. Select Backlog on the left panel. Then, click Plan Iteration.

  4. Specify the following information:

    Iteration NameSpecify a name for the iteration.
    Start DateSpecify the date the iteration should start.
    End Date

    Specify the date the iteration should end. Workfront recommends setting an end date no longer than 4 weeks from the start date.

    Tip: Make sure to choose a working day as the end date. The burndown chart uses only working days in its calculations.
    By default, the burndown chart uses the default schedule to define working days (as described in Create a schedule). Or, to incorporate team-specific non-working days, agile teams can choose to use an alternate schedule (as described in Use an alternate team schedule for burndown charts).

    FocusSpecify the focus percentage of the team. If all members of the team will be focused completely on this iteration, the focus would be 100%.
    Workfront pre-populates this field with the average value from your team's past iterations. If this is your team's first iteration, this field value is 0 by default.
    CapacitySpecify the capacity for the iteration. This is the number of points or hours your team is able to accomplish in the iteration. The number you enter must be equal to or greater than the number of points or hours from the sum of all the stories in the iteration.
    Workfront pre-populates this field with the average value from your team's past iterations. If this is your team's first iteration, this field value is 0 by default.
    GoalSpecify a goal for the iteration. This field is not required.

  5. (Optional) Select stories to add them to the iteration now, or you can skip this step and add stories to an iteration at a later time. The stories at the top of the backlog are higher priority. Stories are highlighted in green when they fit in the capacity; they are highlighted in red if they do not.
    You can add both tasks and issues to a single iteration:

    • To add tasks to the iteration: On the Backlog tab, ensure that the Stories tab is selected (this tab is selected by default when viewing the backlog). Select the stories you want to add to the iteration.

      When you add tasks to an iteration, the start date of the task is calculated as described in Understand how task start dates are calculated when added to an iteration.

    • To add issues to the iteration: On the Backlog tab, click the Issues tab. Select the issues you want to add to the iteration.

  6. Click Save.
    The iteration is created.

  7. (Optional) To add stories to an existing iteration, see Add stories to an existing iteration.

Understand how task start dates are calculated when added to an iteration

When you add a task as a story to an iteration, the Must Finish On task constraint is used for each story. In most cases, the planned start date of the task is calculated based on the following formula:

Iteration End Date minus (-) Task Duration equals (=) Task Planned Start Date

The Project End Date is used instead of the Iteration End Date if the project start date is after the iteration start date, and the project end date is after the iteration end date.

You can configure individual Scrum teams to use the project dates by default, rather than the iteration dates. For information, see the section Configure how dates are applied when adding work items to an iteration in the article Configure Scrum.

Previous pageIterations overview
Next pageCreate an agile story in an iteration

Workfront