Finish Action for Iterations and Team Iterations

Finish action link is available when the current Iteration or Team Iteration is about to end, some incomplete work is left and the next Iteration has been already created. There are two places in the tool where the link appears:

• Iteration details view, under Actions > Finish

• Iteration Plan or Team Iteration Plan board view, in the column header

This action brings up a screen offering two choices on what to do with any User Stories, Bugs, and Test Plan Runs that have not yet been completed: Split and Move. Both the options have their own benefits and disadvantages.

Split User Stories moves all the User Stories that have not yet been started to the next iteration and splits all the started but incomplete Stories. This Split action creates a duplicate of the original User Story in the next iteration and moves only incomplete tasks to the next Iteration’s story.
The User Story is considered as started when it has time records for the Time Spent or it has Tasks in the final state.
All the completed tasks will remain in the original User Story. All the Bugs and Test Plan Runs that have not been completed will also be moved to the next Iteration. The Effort of original story is also split. The Percentage of complete tasks is taken into account. It works both with points and ideal hours measurement units. If all done tasks have zero estimation then the total effort of the story is fully carried into the next sprint.

Move User Stories moves all the incomplete User Stories, Bugs, and Test Plan Runs to the next iteration along with their both complete and incomplete effort.

Finishing an Iteration using Split is beneficial because you will not start your next iteration with instantly completed effort. This may protect you from throwing off certain reports regarding velocity in the future. However, the duplicated User Stories as a result of Split action may cause some confusion. It is imperative that you fully understand and recognize both methods before deciding which one to use for an iteration with incomplete effort.

In both cases, the actual velocity for the completed Iteration is calculated. It is a sum of completed effort shown above the progress indicator in the Iteration details view. The system sets this number to Velocity details field of the Iteration chosen as the Next.

If the Velocity of the Next Iteration is not 0 (already has some value), it is not updated by Finish action.

Reports

You can create several visual reports for Velocity as described here.

You can create and run a Custom Report to compare estimated and actual velocity for Iteration and Team Iteration as well.

Troubleshooting

Finish action link is not always displayed. Learn here why.