Scrum Timeline in Days

The Team is the foundation of Agility. Since the early days of Agile, the focus has been on breaking down impediments to self-organization, collaborative genius, and single-piece flow of work at the team level. The breakthrough improvements seen by early adopters powered the Agile movement and led to the development of approaches for scaling these results beyond the team, across the technology enterprise and even into business value streams. Regardless of the approach or scope of an Agile transformation, success begins at the Team Holon, and depends in turn on the growth and alignment of the individual Team Members that comprise it.

Values & Goals
Understand my role
Accountability to myself
Autonomy
Mastery
Purpose
Agile mindset
Willing to learn & grow
Product & Impact
Prioritized healthy backlog
High quality deliverables
Necessary tools
Metric tracking (KPIs)
Team working agreement
Predictable delivery
Product feedback loops
Marketing plans
Training courses
Leadership & Culture
Team morale
Team camaraderie
Shared vision/goals
Team values
Understand roles of others
External perception
Trust, transparency
Team feedback
Servant leadership culture
Conscious Leadership culture
Continuous improvement culture
Development of future leaders
Markets & Environment
Effective scrum process
Effective architecture
Collaboration space
Collaboration tools
Predictable cadence
Automated testing environment
Manufacturing systems
Sales pipeline
Sufficient funding & sponsorship
Dependency Management
Specialized services support

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Sprint planning

Sprint planningThis session is the heartbeat of the iterative process at the team level.

The objective is to decide upon what will be delivered in the next iteration (if you’re using Scrum). Kanban teams who do not run in Sprints tend to pull from the top of the backlog as new items and priorities arise, but in many cases can also benefit from planning on a cadence of their choosing for work suitable for forward planning and to discuss capacity allocation.

Values & Goals
Do I have too much work?
Do I know what I have to do?
Product & Impact
Prioritized sprint backlog
Select stories to work on
Team pulls the work
Story task plan
Achievable sprint plan
Leadership & Culture
Sprint Goal
External team collaboration
Effective communication
Team commitment to sprint plan
Markets & Environment
Capacity planning
Resources are available

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Daily Stand Up

Daily Stand UpThe main purpose of this meeting is to coordinate team efforts towards the iteration goal. Best practices suggest a brief (15 minute) meeting with anything outside the scope of daily coordination to be taken offline by the Scrum Master.

Examples of topics to be taken offline include:

  • Design considerations (technical or product related)
  • Strategy regarding removal of impediments
  • Coordination with other teams
Values & Goals
What am I planning to do today?
Do I feel confident about my work?
Active listening
Product & Impact
What did I do yesterday?
Discuss impediments
Check burn down chart
Completion of work
Update task plan
Leadership & Culture
Am I fully present?
Ask for help
Provide updates
Taking things offline (planning to meet later)
Coordination to achieve sprint goal
Markets & Environment
Blocks/issues to resolve
Update the Sprint plan

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Backlog Refinement

Backlog RefinementThis session ensures the team will be able to deliver the right things, at the right time, without getting blocked. The team and Product owner meet regularly to maintain a Detailed, Estimated, Emergent, and Prioritized backlog that meets a team’s Definition of READY, which is key to enabling the efficient creation of valuable products that delight customers.

Benefits of a healthy backlog include:

  • Reduction of defects/improved quality
  • Reduction of re-work
  • The highest priority items get to the customer sooner
Values & Goals
Empowered Product Owner
Engineer understands User Story
Product & Impact
Engaged Product Owner
Prioritize Backlog
Establish Planning Horizon
Choose stories to refine
Leadership & Culture
Aligned to Product Vision
Connected with the customer
Team helps refine stories
Partnership between Product & Tech
Markets & Environment
Definition of READY
Dependency resolution

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Retrospective

RetrospectiveContinuous Improvement and the ability to adapt as things change is arguably the most important aspect of the Agile mindset. Retrospectives are open, honest sessions where team members, the Product Owner, and the Scrum Master share their experience of how the team is working together with ideas on how to better achieve their common goals.

The Retrospective should NEVER be skipped due to time constraints, and should always result in a tangible improvement plan that will be assessed for follow-through and impact at the beginning of the next Retrospective.

Values & Goals
How do I feel about the last Sprint?
Individual accountability
What can I do differently?
Product & Impact
What went well?
What didn’t go well?
Improvement actions/items
Measurement of improvement impact
Leadership & Culture
What can we do differently?
Open and honest intent
Markets & Environment
Team celebration choice/venue

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Sprint Review

Sprint ReviewThe Sprint Review occurs at the end of each small iterative cycle. Its main purpose is to solicit feedback so the team can remain focused on the goals as the landscape changes. Everyone benefits from taking a step back to celebrate the good work the whole team has done, and seeing the product emerge step by step builds engagement and a feeling of success for all participants.

Values & Goals
Speak to MY work
Pride in my accomplishments
Product & Impact
Delivery of value/impact
View of the emerging product
Tracking towards business goals
Leadership & Culture
Customer/user feedback
Team feedback
Course correction (Priority & Learning)
Markets & Environment
Organizational/systemic learning
Systemic value delivery