·
Standups: The
daily standup is an extremely simple yet powerful tool for your agile squads.
The ideal outcome of the standup is to ensure what’s being worked on today,
tomorrow and any blockers are discussed. It’s a great way to collaborate across
the teams, share ideas and vent frustrations to ensure the momentum of the team
is kept.
While
standups are a great tool, there’s a few callouts to ensure you’re getting the
maximum benefits from them:
Am
I getting value from this?
Are
my colleagues getting value from the standup?
If
either of these questions are no, it might be time to revisit the standup
approach. The standup should consist of the following messages:
o What did I do yesterday?
o What am I aiming to
achieve today?
o What is currently blocking
me?
The team meets daily for short meetings which are
typically held standing up, face-to-face to encourage brief sessions. This is
not a status meeting. This meeting is for people to ask quick questions that
will allow them to get information or remove blockers. Long answers and
discussions should have follow-up in smaller groups after the standup meeting.
· Retrospectives: An
agile retrospective is an opportunity for agile development teams to reflect on past work
together and identify ways to improve. Agile teams hold retrospective meetings
after a time-boxed period of work is complete (typically a sprint lasting two
to four weeks). During the retrospective, the team discusses what went well,
what did not go as planned, and how to make the next work period better. Any
team member can voice a problem or propose a solution
·
Sprints are the
heartbeat of the agile process. Small units of work are delivered in short
bursts, typically with 1 or 2 week cycles. The main aim for visible progress
for people from the target audience that is delivered and validated at the end
of each cycle, allowing the team to move iteratively toward the goal, with
regular opportunity for course correction.
· Sprint planning: Sprint Planning
initiates the Sprint by laying out the work to be performed for the
Sprint. This resulting plan is created by the collaborative work of the entire
Scrum Team.
The Product
Owner ensures that attendees are prepared to discuss the most
important Product Backlog items and how they map to the Product Goal.
The Scrum Team may also invite other people to attend Sprint Planning to
provide advice.
Sprint
Planning addresses the following topics:
Topic One: Why is this Sprint valuable?
The
Product Owner proposes how the product could increase its value and utility in
the current Sprint. The whole Scrum Team then collaborates to define a Sprint
Goal that communicates why the Sprint is valuable to stakeholders. The Sprint
Goal must be finalized prior to the end of Sprint Planning.
Topic Two: What can be Done this Sprint?
Through
discussion with the Product Owner, the Developers select items from
the Product Backlog to include in the current Sprint. The Scrum Team may refine
these items during this process, which increases understanding and confidence.
Selecting
how much can be completed within a Sprint may be challenging. However, the more
the Developers know about their past performance, their upcoming capacity, and
their Definition of Done, the more confident they will be in their Sprint
forecasts.
Topic Three: How will the chosen work get done?
For
each selected Product Backlog item, the Developers plan the work necessary to
create an Increment that meets the Definition of Done. This is often done by
decomposing Product Backlog items into smaller work items of one day or less.
How this is done is at the sole discretion of the Developers. No one else tells
them how to turn Product Backlog items into Increments of value.
The
Sprint Goal, the Product Backlog items selected for the Sprint, plus the plan
for delivering them are together referred to as the Sprint Backlog.
Sprint
Planning is timeboxed to a maximum of eight hours for a one-month Sprint.
