The Real Impact of Sprint Goals on Agile Team Success Every successful Scrum Sprint centers around a clear Sprint Goal that delivers a meaningful Product Increment. This isn't just a nice-to-have. It's what transforms random work items into a cohesive effort that builds toward your long-term vision. What Exactly Is a Sprint Goal? The Sprint Goal…
Scrum is a Nutshell is an introduction to Scrum fundamentals covering Scrum theory, accountabilities, events, and artifacts. The series meets the Scrum Alliance® Scrum Foundations learning objectives below: Scrum Theory 1.1. describe how Scrum is aligned with the values and principles of the Manifesto for Agile SoftwareDevelopment.1.2. define Scrum and describe its purpose.1.3. list the five…
What is Waterfall Development? When most of us think about traditional project management, we're picturing waterfall development. It's that step-by-step approach where you finish one phase completely before moving to the next one. Winston Royce wrote about it back in 1970, and teams have been using it ever since. But here's the thing: as markets move…
Back in February 2001, at the lodge in Snowbird Utah, 17 thought leaders from the software industry got together to discuss the state of software development and compare various lightweight frameworks that popped up in the late 90s because of dissatisfaction with the traditional waterfall approach to building products. The participants shared and learned about each…
Scrum is a framework for solving complex adaptive problems with high levels of unknowns, uncertainties, or risks around what to build or how to build it. Scrum involves a cross-functional and self-managing Scrum team that uses empiricism to build products iteratively and incrementally to reduce risk and deliver early and often. The Scrum team uses the…
The NBA's Milwaukee Bucks did not make it to the finals this year. Listen to what NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo had to say about losing to the Miami Heat and about the failure of the 2022-2023 season. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gutzcemaokQ So how does this relate to Sprints in Scrum? Have you ever heard someone say "This past Sprint…
For teams to succeed with Scrum, team members must become proficient in living the 5 Scrum values of commitment, focus, openness, respect, and courage. Commitment: In Scrum, the team commits to each other, not to other people, but to each other, on supporting each other to deliver on the Sprint Goal and Product Goal. Focus: In…
Use the Self-Organizing Team Canvas as a template to help you foster a self-organizing team. Attributes of a self-organizing team include: Goal: A team is a group working together collaboratively towards a common goal or vision. Without this common goal or vision, there is little collaboration. It's just members working in silos and coordinating their activities…
At the 2023 Global Scrum Gathering in Portland, Fadi Stephan presented on the Definition of Done Canvas. Below is the abstract of the talk, along with the presentation slides and a blog post related to the presentation. Abstract: Many Scrum teams still struggle with delivering a high-quality, fully tested, production-ready product increment at the end of…
On May 7-10, 2023, Fadi Stephan presented at the Global Scrum Gathering in Portland on The Definition of Done Canvas. Below are some of the resources mentioned in the talk: The Definition of Done Canvas Presentation Slides How to use the Definition of Done Canvas Download The Definition of Done Canvas Definition of Done vs. Acceptance…
The Product Increment is the output of every Sprint and is an increment that brings the team one step closer to the overall Product Goal. This means that each Sprint is focused on a cohesive set of Product Backlog Items that meet a Sprint Goal and not random unrelated items. Once a Sprint starts and the…
The Sprint Retrospective is a reflection event that occurs at the end of each Sprint. It is for the entire Scrum team which includes the Product Owner, Developers, and ScrumMaster to inspect how they are operating and then come up with a continuous improvement plan to adapt and become more effective as a team and as…
The Sprint Review is a working session for the stakeholders, users, and customers to collaborate with the Scrum team which includes the Developers, Product Owner, and Scrum Master, and inspect the progress made toward the Product Goal based on the latest Product Increment. The Sprint Review is about getting feedback from the stakeholders and users on…
The Daily Scrum is a brief daily planning event by the Developers to inspect their work and progress toward the Sprint Goal that will result in a Product Increment. The Developers created their Sprint plan or Sprint Backlog in Sprint Planning at the beginning of the Sprint. However, this plan is not static. It’s updated as…
In Scrum, the Sprint starts with Sprint Planning where the Scrum team plans out their work for the Sprint and creates a Sprint Backlog. The Sprint Backlog is the team’s plan to accomplish the work. Sprint planning is timeboxed to 2 hours per week of Sprint, so for a 2-week Sprint it is one event for…