What Is Sprint Planning And What Do The Sprint Planning Meetings Actually Consist Of Or Include?

The primary objective of a sprint planningmeeting is to discuss and plan about what the development team intends to build or develop in the upcoming sprint, and how the individual members of the team are prepared to go about with their development activity. Though most experts refer it to as a “single” meeting, it is in fact segregated into two unique parts. The first part concentrates upon what the team is actually asked to build or develop, and is attended by the team members as well as the product owner. The second part of the meeting focuses upon how the team members will proceed with the actual development work. The team members are to mandatorily attend both the parts of the meeting, while the product owner is committed to attending the first part only. He or she can however attend the second part if he or she wishes to do so.   

The first part of the sprint planning meeting

During the initial part of the meeting, the product owner has an opportunity to explain in depth about the set of user stories to be developed during the sprint. It is a rapid-fire type of discussion in which the product owner initially explains the user stories, and subsequently the team members start asking questions regarding the points they are not clear about. The product owner has many responsibilities and roles to play. The person represents the client’s interests, explains how the stories are to be linked up in the future, and keep tabs during the entire development activity carried out by the team members. The objective of the meeting is to provide enough information, or brief the team members regarding the development activity required so that each member can carry out his or her part without any confusions or problems.

The questions typically asked during this stage of the meeting are: 

·       What is the acceptance or “passing” criteria of all the stories?

·       What kind of data sources need to be used? Where will the data originate from, and where will it go?

·       How should the developed component look like once it is fully developed?

The second part of the sprint planning meeting

During the second part of the meeting, the team further analyses the user stories and focuses upon creating the sprint backlog which includes the user stories, or the set of requirements and functionality to be developed by the team members during the sprint. The team typically segregates the user stories into individual tasks, and links up, or associates each task with a certain time scale i.e. the duration in which the particular task is to be developed. Generally the tasks are planned to be completed on an hourly basis, however, the time period can be more depending upon the complexity and the levels of functionality to be incorporated into the given task. Another main objective of this part of the meeting is to accept the user stories as practical and “doable”, and to reject those stories which cannot be catered to, owning to various reasons.

The duration of the entire sprint planning meeting can range from two hours up to eight hours depending upon the number of user stories involved, and the levels of complexity. The rule of the thumb is to spend one hour of discussion for each week of sprint.   

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Norms for Holding Effective and Fruitful Scrum Meetings

Many types of meetings are held while scrum is implanted in a project. Right from sprint planning meeting to the sprint review and the sprint retrospective, other non-conventional meetings can also be arranged in scrum as and when needed to fulfill specific objectives.  Following certain norms can help to effective and fruitful meetings.

·       Scheduling the meeting

The best way to schedule a meeting is to consider all the information that needs to be conveyed during the meeting, and assign a proper time and duration for it. Do not try to cram in too many topics so that enough time is not allotted for discussing each topic during the meeting. Ideally, the meeting should last for approximately 30 minutes, so work out an agenda that fits into the time schedule. If the topics to be discussed are more, hold a separate meeting to discuss them. This is very important, since the team members need time to absorb the discussion, and remain perceptive to the plan of action decided for each topic in the agenda at the end of the meeting.

The time to hold the meeting should be properly selected too. Choose the time, which is most convenient to all. Ideally, the meeting should be held around 9 AM when everyone is fresh and about to start their day, or if that is not possible, than around 3 PM when everyone has taken the lunch and people are not feeling groggy immediately after having it.

·       Members attending the meeting

Work out the list of attendees who are going to remain present for the meeting. It is mandatory for the product owner and the scrum master to attend the meeting since they play a center role in scrum implementation. Invite only those members who are associated with the topics included in the agenda, and who need to carry out some plan of action based upon the discussions carried out during the meeting. Other members, who are not concerned, or who have no connection with the agenda topics should not be invited so the meeting place is not cluttered up with too many individuals. When the members are less, it becomes possible to have one-to-one discussion, which is more meaningful and effective.

·       Creating and distributing the agenda

Make sure that a proper agenda is created that includes all-important topics. Once the agenda is prepared, send it, or distribute to the concerned individuals well in time so they have enough time to prepare for the meeting. Each attendee should prepare a list of queries or issues concerning his or her work, and present it to the audience during the meeting. If the participants are well prepared, it leads to more fruitful and productive meetings.  

·       Conducting the meeting in the proper manner

Start your meeting on time. It is advisable not to wait for participants if they do not make it on time. It is essential to convey a message that the purpose and intent of the meeting is important, and should not be trifled with. The meeting should also not be taken lightly by the attendees. Some organizations even levy a certain penalty if the participants do not show up on time. 

Another aspect is regarding the discussions to be carried out during the meeting – they should be focused and topic centric. Make sure, only those topics relevant to the agenda are discussed, and the meeting is not emphasized with other trivial or non-related discussions. Utilize the meeting time in a productive way.Read more on https://www.apsense.com/article/norms-for-holding-effective-and-fruitful-scrum-meetings.html

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Types Of Burn Down Charts In Scrum – What And Why They Are Used For

In scrum, a burn down chart is used to provide a graphical representation of the total work remaining, or left to do, versus time. The pending or outstanding work is generally represented along the vertical X-axis, while the time is plotted against the horizontal Y-axis. A “burn down” chart should ideally be understood as a “run down” chart i.e. how much of total work is still pending and needs to be completed. Even though burn down charts are synonymous with Agile framework and scrum methodologies, they can also be used in other non-Agile frameworks. Basically, burn down charts can be used in any project in which the progress can be measured with respect to time.

Scrum supports several types of burn down charts, and they can be effectively used to measure the progress right from the macro level. At the project level, burn down charts can be effectively used to estimate and depict the progress made. When the project is segregated into its fundamental components at the product level, and when small sets of requirements in the form of user stories taken up for development at the sprint level, the progress can still be measured using burn down charts – even at the micro level.

Product Burn down Chart

The product backlog, created by the product owner at the onset of the scrum project, forms the backbone of all product related requirements in the project. It is the main list which constitutes the product. As the product items, or the user stories, are taken up for development during the sprint, certain stories in the product backlog get marked as “Done” as the sprints keep on progressing. At the end of each sprint, the items successfully developed by the team are accepted as complete by the product owner and flagged accordingly in the product backlog. Therefore, at any given instance of time, the product backlog can consist of complete or pending items. The chart explaining the pending product items and those that have been completed over time is known as the product burn down chart.

Sprint Burn down Chart

During the first half of the sprint planning meeting, the product owner transfers some of the unfinished user stories from the product backlog into the sprint backlog. The stories contained within the sprint backlog are taken up for development by the team members during the daily sprint activity. Each day, as per plan, certain user stories are taken up for development by the programmers, and efforts are made to complete them by the end of the working day, or the “sprint” day. As the sprint proceeds each day, certain stories are completed, while the pending ones start reducing in numbers. The chart, which represents how many user stories have been completed, and ideally how many stories should or ought to be finished each day, while the sprint is underway is known as the sprint burn down chart.Read more on http://blog.quickscrum.com/post/2014/03/06/Types-Of-Burn-Down-Charts-In-Scrum-%E2%80%93-What-And-Why-They-Are-Used-For.aspx

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Explanation Of Scrum Burndown Charts – The Plotting, Requirement, And Purpose Of Burndown Charts

What is a burn down chart?

A burn down chart is an important tool in scrum. It provides a visual representation about the progress achieved in a sprint while it is underway. They are very common and extensively used by scrum masters while scrum is being implemented in a project. The quantity, or the amount of work remaining, in the form of pending tasks, is typically exhibited in a burn down chart. The chart is simple and easy to understand, even by people who are not familiar with scrum methodology. Burn down charts are very useful for estimation purposes, and are essential for determining the sprint velocity – the rate at which work in the form of user stories is being completed by the development team – and planning the sprint release.  

Plotting the burn down chart

A burn down chart can be plotted by including the work remaining in the form of story points along the vertical Y-axis and the working days along the horizontal X-axis. The pending work is typically represented in story points – a unit of measurement to calculate the importance and priority of user stories in the sprint backlog – instead of user stories. The reason is user stories are broken down into tasks during the second half of the sprint planning meeting by the development team. It becomes difficult to read and understand the chart if tasks are represented along the Y-axis. User stories are descriptive in nature, and do not have a number or a value associated with them, so it becomes difficult to estimate them. Therefore, the story points, which are numeric values associated with each user story, are used for plotting purposes. Know more on http://ezinearticles.com/?Explanation-Of-Scrum-Burndown-Charts---The-Plotting,-Requirement,-And-Purpose-Of-Burndown-Charts&id=8371905 

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All about Sprints and Sprint Meetings – In a Nutshell

Overview

The sprint is the main point of activity for any scrum project. During a sprint, the development team delivers a certain portion, or a “slice” of the actual development activity to be carried out as defined in the product backlog. During a sprint, the development activity can include a host of other things in addition to the actual development work. This can include the documentation, user manual creation, testing and debugging functionality, or even checking cross platform compatibility. Each activity during the sprint can be understood as a task. When user stories are transferred to a sprint backlog by the product owner, the development team further segregates each user story into its individual tasks i.e. each story is broken down into smaller tasks to make it more manageable and develop able. Each user story is assigned a story point which determines its potential value. The story points help to generate an estimate as to how many user stories can be included in the sprint backlog based upon the team’s ability to carry out the development.

The entire development is carried out in the form of sprints. Usually, a sprint lasts for two weeks, however, technically they can extend up to three to four weeks depending upon how scum is being implemented by the product owner and the scrum master. Sprints are also known as “iterations” in more simple terms. Sprints are supervised by scrum masters. As per the scrum guide, a scrum master should be a passive participant during the sprint. His or her job is to ensure that the team members properly follow scrum rules when the sprint is underway. At the end of the sprint, user stories are developed into shippable products, each with its own functionality and importance. 

 

Sprint planning meeting

A sprint planning meeting is held before the sprint commences. It is attended by the product owner, the team members, and the scrum master. During the sprint planning meeting, the product owner transfers some of the user stories from the product backlog into the sprint backlog for development purposes. The meeting is actually held in two parts:

·       First half of the meeting

During the first half of the meeting, the product owner explains about the user stories which have been included in the sprint backlog. He or she explains about the acceptance levels and the importance of the user stories to the stakeholders. Team members are free to ask questions to the product owner if they require explanations regarding some of the user stories.

·       The second half of the meeting

During second half of the sprint planning meeting, the team members breakdown the user stories in the sprint backlog into smaller, and more manageable tasks, which are taken up for development purposes. Generally, the team members decide unanimously how to distribute the tasks and user stories among themselves. Team members take up work as per their skill sets and development expertise.

Sprint retrospectives

A sprint retrospective meeting is held after the sprint is over. The main purpose of the meeting is to evaluate the sprint which has just completed, and what lessons should be learnt from it. A lot of discussion occurs during the meeting, and both the product owner and the scrum master try to envision what could possible go wrong in the future sprints. They contribute their expertise as well as their experience, and try to identify impediments, and seek solutions for potential problems which may occur in the near future.  

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Source:- http://storify.com/quickscrum/all-about-sprints-and-sprint-meetings-in-a-nutshel

3 Serious Pitfalls Which Every Scrum Master Should Avoid – Implement Scrum Successfully

The scrum master holds a very high position and an important one too, while executing projects using scrum methodology. The main role of the scrum master is to ensure that the development team effectively employs scrum during the sprint activity. If scrum is properly implemented, each member of the team remains busy with the tasks allotted, or taken up, by him or her. It is not required for the member to seek guidance from the scrum master as to what should be done next, or what task need to be carried out. The main objective of the sprint planning meetingheld before the commencement of the sprint is to ensure that proper and enough tasks are taken up by each team member. However, at times due to various reasons, which ought to be avoided at all costs, the scrum master knowingly or unknowingly transgresses his or her responsibilities, and extends the primary role of the scrum master. This can lead to undesirable results and ineffectual implementation of scrum methodology. It can also lead to increased development costs and bloated overheads – something every business owner tries to avoid at all costs. So how does a scrum master know that he or she is making a mistake? How does the person find out whether he or she is transgressing the responsibilities associated with being a scrum master?     

The three main mistakes of a scrum master

It is not an easy task to become a scrum master. If the person is new at the job, or lacks enough knowledge or experience as a scrum master, it can be very easy to fall back upon doing what project managers know best – behave and function as traditional managers. It can be very easy to fall into this trap, and many scrum masters often fail to avoid this pitfall during the early stages of their career. A scrum master is not supposed to behave as a typical project manager. Scrum methodology does not support or subscribe to it. Certain indications can help you identify and avoid the pitfalls:    

 

1.    Start assigning tasks to team members

During the sprint process, if scrum is implemented properly, each team member has enough tasks on hand to last the entire sprint duration. The very purpose of holding a sprint planning meeting before starting with the sprint is to ensure that proper and enough tasks are taken up by each team member, and each task is allotted a predetermined time during which it is to be completed. So when scrum methodology is enforced in a proper manner, team members generally do not run out of tasks, and are not required to ask for new tasks when the sprint is currently underway.

Pitfall

As a scrum master, if any team member runs out of tasks and approaches you for new tasks before the current sprint is over, you might be inclined to allocate new tasks to the person. This is a pitfall, and should be avoided. It means that the sprint planning meeting was not done in the correct manner.Read more on http://blog.quickscrum.com/post/2014/01/29/3-Serious-Pitfalls-Which-Every-Scrum-Master-Should-Avoid-%E2%80%93-Implement-Scrum-Successfully.aspx

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What Is Sprint Planning And What Do The Sprint Planning Meetings Actually Consist Of Or Include?

The primary objective of a sprint planning meeting is to discuss and plan about what the development team intends to build or develop in the upcoming sprint, and how the individual members of the team are prepared to go about with their development activity. Though most experts refer it to as a “single” meeting, it is in fact segregated into two unique parts. The first part concentrates upon what the team is actually asked to build or develop, and is attended by the team members as well as the product owner. The second part of the meeting focuses upon how the team members will proceed with the actual development work. The team members are to mandatorily attend both the parts of the meeting, while the product owner is committed to attending the first part only. He or she can however attend the second part if he or she wishes to do so.   

The first part of the sprint planning meeting

During the initial part of the meeting, the product owner has an opportunity to explain in depth about the set of user stories to be developed during the sprint. It is a rapid-fire type of discussion in which the product owner initially explains the user stories, and subsequently the team members start asking questions regarding the points they are not clear about. The product owner has many responsibilities and roles to play. The person represents the client’s interests, explains how the stories are to be linked up in the future, and keep tabs during the entire development activity carried out by the team members. The objective of the meeting is to provide enough information, or brief the team members regarding the development activity required so that each member can carry out his or her part without any confusions or problems.

The questions typically asked during this stage of the meeting are: 

·       What is the acceptance or “passing” criteria of all the stories?

·       What kind of data sources need to be used? Where will the data originate from, and where will it go?

·       How should the developed component look like once it is fully developed?

The second part of the sprint planning meeting

During the second part of the meeting, the team further analyses the user stories and focuses upon creating the sprint backlog which includes the user stories, or the set of requirements and functionality to be developed by the team members during the sprint. The team typically segregates the user stories into individual tasks, and links up, or associates each task with a certain time scale i.e. the duration in which the particular task is to be developed. Generally the tasks are planned to be completed on an hourly basis, however, the time period can be more depending upon the complexity and the levels of functionality to be incorporated into the given task. Another main objective of this part of the meeting is to accept the user stories as practical and “doable”, and to reject those stories which cannot be catered to, owning to various reasons.

The duration of the entire sprint planning meeting can range from two hours up to eight hours depending upon the number of user stories involved, and the levels of complexity. The rule of the thumb is to spend one hour of discussion for each week of sprint.    

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