Over the last month or so, I’ve been considering whether the workflow dictated by my team’s Scrum board is indeed a mini-waterfall within the Scrum framework.
In this article we look at how you can simplify your workflow and unleash the power of sub-tasks to supercharge your team performance.
Current Situation
Here’s what my teams Scrum board currently looks like:
The purpose of Sprint Review is to get feedback on the Increment of functionality you’ve built each sprint. This feedback goes directly into the product backlog, ready for the start of your next sprint.
Sprint Review brings to life the 3 pillars of Scrum; Inspect (the Increment), Adapt (your plans) and Transparency (showing what worked and what didn’t).
In this article, I’ll show you how you can structure your Sprint Review to help achieve the feedback you need to succeed.
Key Facts
- The second to last Scrum ritual, held at the end of a each Sprint
- Time-boxed for a maximum of 4…
I’d like to introduce you to the purpose of Agile Batman. The reason I write, what you can expect to see in my future stories and how I can help you improve and be a better Scrum Master.
This is not about training, it’s about everyday, real-life examples of what I experience as a Scrum Master. I don’t know what’s going to happen next — but I will take you on that journey with me.
I believe that there are people out there who could benefit from a helping hand, to improve their day to day working lives. …
If you’re completely new to using story points in Scrum, then this worked example of using story points, and team velocity in sprints should help you understand how they can be useful.
Recap: What are story points?
Before we get started, a quick refresher on what story points are:
story points are a measure of complexity, effort, and doubt (uncertainty/risk).
If you’re completely new to this, have a read of this first.
The task
Imagine you are part of a team of painters working for a fictional company called “Paint by Points Ltd”.
- Some of you are good at choosing the correct paint to use
- Some of…
Learn how to get started estimating with story points and why you shouldn’t use time-based estimates.
Getting Started
If you are just starting out with Scrum, you are probably used to estimating in units of time (hours, days, weeks, months, years etc…). This is fine to start with, but estimating using units of time comes with a few problems:
- Who is doing the estimation? Some people work faster than others, e.g. if they have more experience. If an inexperienced person and an experienced person both provide different estimates; who is right?
- Does your estimate account for ‘other’ pieces of work being done…
Are you bored of the same old work every day? Do the people you work with not seem to care anymore? Do you want to do something about it?
Well you can — you can start up a guild, and today I’ll show you the first steps.
It might completely fail, you need to be prepared for that. You also need to be prepared for the huge upside; the potential success it could have.
I’m going to share with you the sort of challenges I’ve come across, what’s working well and what’s not.
Together we’ll use guilds to build a…
I have to admit, as a Scrum Master, I struggled with this for a while, so I’m hoping it helps other Scrum Masters and teams out there get started.
If you are just starting out in Scrum and are not sure how to start running this meeting at all, or would like to update the way you are running it based on the November 2020 Scrum guide updates, then take a look on how you can have an effective Sprint Planning session.
Key Facts
- Time-boxed to 8 hours (for a month long sprint) — adapt to suit your Sprint length
- It must…
It was Scrum’s 25th birthday on the 18th November 2020 and I managed to grab a spot on the Scrum Guide 2020 update webinar! We heard from speakers Jeff Sutherland, Ken Schwaber, J.J Sutherland, Dave West, Avi Schneier and Don McGreal. Here’s a brief overview of what’s changed.
1. Addition of the Product Goal
For me, the biggest change was the addition of the Product Goal. The Product Owner is accountable for making sure a Product Goal exists.
The Scrum guide has been updated to focus more on the why behind what we are doing; streamlining the communication channels between who is asking for something and…
If you’re just starting out with Scrum, or you’ve been having Daily Scrum meetings for a while now and you just want to improve and see how other people do it, then read on… This article is for you!
We’ll look at “in-person” Daily Scrums and my experience with the more recent “remote” Daily Scrums.
Note — Some people also call this the Daily Standup (I used to be one of them), but in the Scrum guide it’s called the Daily Scrum, so I’m going with that from now on. That and the fact that a lot of us are…
When you’re getting started with Scrum, one of the first things you are going to want to do (other than understand the 4 values of the Agile Manifesto, the 12 principles behind it and the 5 Scrum core values 😉) is to set up your Scrum rituals in your team calendar.
So today, let’s explore when you should run them in a typical 2 week Sprint, and the reasons behind that.
Recap of Scrum rituals
Before we get into when to put the meetings into a Sprint, here’s a recap of the 4 Scrum rituals that the Sprint encompasses:
- Daily Scrum every day (15…
Stephen Waring
I’m an energetic and enthusiastic Scrum master who loves music, cars, computers and helping other people succeed!
