Understanding and Apply Scrum [P4]: Scrum Events - A typical sprint, play-by-play

Question 1

Is backlog refinement a formal Scrum ceremony?

Answer 1

• no
• not timeboxed
• good practice but not always needed in every sprint
• ongoing event

Question 2

What are the key scrum events?

Answer 2

• sprint planning
• daily scrum
• review
• retro

Question 3

What is the first thing that happens as soon as the sprint commences?

Answer 3

sprint planning

Question 4

How do we prepare for sprint planning?

Answer 4

• product backlog has been refined to appropriate level of detail, with estimates and acceptance criteria (i.e. product backlog refinement)
• PO ordered product backlog items
• PO has general idea of how to negotiate value of sprint goal with team
• team has idea of their capacity for coming sprint

Question 5

When should the options for negotiating a sprint goal be considered?

Answer 5

• product backlog refinement
• sprint planning

Question 6

What is meant by a team’s capacity for a sprint?

Answer 6

how much they believe they an take on

Question 7

What is the first thing that should be planned in sprint planning?

Answer 7

the value that will be delivered - valuable increment of completed work, fit and ready for immediate release

Question 8

Who is wholly accountable for what “value” means?

Answer 8

PO

Question 9

What must be done and by who to ensure value is delivered from the POV of sprint planning?

Answer 9

• PO needs to have ordered the product backlog such that value can be maximized by the team, sprint-by-sprint
• Team needs to select items so that the best value can be delivered by the end of it
• Team work with the Product Owner to select the most valuable items from the Product Backlog which fits their projected capacity for the Sprint

Question 10

How does a team know how much work is involved for a particular product backlog item?

Answer 10

each item on the product backlog should have been given an estimate by the team

Question 11

What does the sprint goal express?

Answer 11

overarching significance of the work selection and coherence behind its selection

Question 12

In simple terms what is a sprint?

Answer 12

A time-boxed opportunity to achieve something significant

Question 13

What goes a good spring goal encourage?

Answer 13

• focus
• commitment
• collaboration
• re-planning of work so it is met

Question 14

What is a sprint backlog?

Answer 14

• selection of work with an end goal in mind
• plan for how that goal will be achieved
• how the associated work will be performed
• done by identifying and ordering the technical tasks that are likely involved

⇒ plan for meeting the sprint goal and forecast of the work that is needed

Question 15

Does the PO need to be present when the team is planning how the work will be done?

Answer 15

• no - up to the team to plan the forecast at a technical level
• BUT, PO needs to be available to answer questions and provided clarification needed for understanding scope

Question 16

What must happen if more than one release is expected during the sprint?

Answer 16

Agreed with the PO and account for in the sprint backlog

Question 17

What state should the team be in after sprint planning?

Answer 17

• confident that is has made a good forecast of the work that will be needed to meet the sprint goal
• goal will have captured that plan in the sprint backlog which the team wholly owns
• team can begin implementing plan immediately and with clear understanding of how much work remains (i.e. Sprint Burndown)

Question 18

After sprint planning, what should a team be doing each day?

Answer 18

• collaborate with each other to make sure tasks are completed
• track progress using task board
• check in with sprint burndown
• task board and burndown updated

Question 19

What happens at the Daily Scrum?

Answer 19

• same time, every day
• Dev team meet and plan what they will do to bring them closer to the sprint goal
• < 15 mins
• only Dev team present - plan of work belongs to them
• re-plan sprint backlog as result of new discoveries and lessons learned during the sprint
• each member accounts for:
  
  • 1 what they did yesterday to help the team meet the sprint goal
  • 2 what they intend to do today to help the team meet the sprint goal
  • 3 any impediments which are getting in their way
• at the end, the team has clear plan for the next 24 hrs and understanding of needed collaboration to meet it + list of impediments which require SMs attention

Question 20

What is product backlog refinement in general?

Answer 20

process of adding detail, order and estimates to product backlog items such as user stories

Question 21

How often should product backlog refinement?

Answer 21

• team decides frequency
• good idea to build refinement into their daily routine
• < 10% of team’s total time during sprint
• depends - 30 mins daily or a few hours a week

Question 22

What is the key thing about backlog refinement?

Answer 22

refined in time so sprint planning can occur without impediment

Question 23

Who participates in backlog refinement?

Answer 23

team and PO

Question 24

How is a refinement session run?

Answer 24

• PO presents current product backlog to team - ideally projector or shared screen
• work from top of backlog downwards
• refine each item in turn
• examine, discuss scope and acceptance criteria
• estimate each item
• breakdown larger items

Question 25

when does team stop refinement session?

Answer 25

once time box runs out

Question 26

Where does the team start from when they have their next refinement session?

Answer 26

where they left off, eventually starting at the top again so the back log is kept up to date

Question 27

what is a technique used for estimating backlog items?

Answer 27

planning poker

Question 28

What are some examples of the forms that a product backlog can take?

Answer 28

• electronic scrum board or other collaboration tool
• spreadsheet

Question 29

Who owns problems or failures or successes within a sprint?

Answer 29

the whole team

Question 30

What does collaboration in scrum apply to?

Answer 30

not just Daily Scrum, but everything the team does throughout each entire sprint

Question 31

What are some examples of collaboration in scrum?

Answer 31

• Helping peers to complete work in progress before bringing in new work from a backlog
• Pair programming, such as taking it in turns to use the keyboard and helping and checking each other’s work
• Peer review
• Asking for help, and being keen to give it
• Going to where the work is and helping, instead of waiting for work to be passed over to them
• Making sure that all work does in fact meet the Definition of Done
• Calling a Scrum in order to resolve problems which need the team’s immediate attention
• Raising impediments to the Scrum Master so they can be handled in a timely manner
• Updating a Scrum Task board and burndown chart so that the information is up-to-date and can be relied on
• Skill and knowledge sharing

Question 32

What is a sprint review?

Answer 32

• opp for inspecting and adapting
• honestly look at both done and undone work
• does justice to the work done - demonstrate valuable increment
• PO can explain how well the product is performing, to get feedback from any invited parties e.g. stakeholders, and to draw any lessons which might be used to improve the product backlog further
• any incomplete work gets reviewing and re-estimated on the product backlog for future planning
• celebrate work done - instill confidence in team

Question 33

What is a sprint retrospective?

Answer 33

• considers the team’s process
• immediately after review - review creates ideas for retro
• Dev team, PO and SM all attend - jointly responsible
• open and transparency needed - get to the heart of the problem
• identify actions to resolve issues
• equal voice
• SM MAY facilitate
• identify
  
  • things that went well
  • things that didn’t go do well
  • ideas for improvement
  • shout outs for team members who did something exception
• possible establish a timeline to help job memories about significant events during the sprint