Onderhoudssprinten

Onderhoudssprinten, a Dutch term translating to "maintenance sprints," refers to a focused period of work dedicated to improving or maintaining the technical health of a software system. These sprints are typically short, lasting one to two weeks, and are distinct from feature development sprints. The primary goal of onderhoudssprinten is to address technical debt, fix bugs, improve performance, update dependencies, or implement other non-functional requirements that might otherwise be deferred.

The concept of onderhoudssprinten is rooted in agile methodologies, recognizing that continuous attention to system quality is crucial for long-term sustainability and efficient feature delivery. By allocating specific time for maintenance, teams can prevent the accumulation of technical debt, which can otherwise slow down development, increase the risk of bugs, and make the system harder to understand and modify.

During an onderhoudssprinten, development teams typically prioritize tasks such as refactoring code, writing or improving automated tests, updating libraries and frameworks to their latest stable versions, optimizing database queries, and addressing performance bottlenecks. The output of these sprints is not usually new user-facing features, but rather a more robust, stable, and maintainable system. This proactive approach helps ensure that the software remains in good condition, reducing the likelihood of costly and time-consuming emergency fixes later on.