Understanding and Apply Scrum [P8]: Scaling Scrum - Cross-team refinement in Nexus

Question 1

What questions need to be addressed for Nexus Cross-Team Refinement?

Answer 1

• Which teams pull what work?
• How can we best sequence the work, across Sprints and teams to balance early delivery of value against risk and complexity?

Question 2

Who should answer the core questions of a Nexus Cross-Team Refinement event?

Answer 2

Development Teams

Question 3

Who should attend Cross-Team Refinement?

Answer 3

• reps from each team
• based on the work being refined instead of the role that they play inside their team
• may be common to have different people attend these workshops based on the skills required

Question 4

Who explains the PBIs to be refined?

Answer 4

PO

Question 5

What size are the PBIs going into Cross-Team refinement? Why?

Answer 5

• large
• allows teams to id dependencies and decomposed based on skills and dependencies that emerge during Refinement

Question 6

What will the early convo most likely be like at the start of the Refinement?

Answer 6

focusing on which teams have the necessary skills to do the work

Question 7

When can work be taken back to the individual Scrum teams from the Cross-Team Refinement for normal PB refinement?

Answer 7

once PBIs are broken down more and better understanding achieved

Question 8

How should dependencies be categorised?

Answer 8

• Build Sequence – An item cannot be completed until its parent is complete (can include technology, domain, software…).
• People / Skills – Only certain people / teams can complete an item.
• External – The parent item is being delivered outside the Nexus.

Question 9

How can dependencies be visualized on the Cross-Team Refinement board?

Answer 9

• teams in rows - horizontal
• sprints in cols - vertical
• PBI in cells
• arrows showing dependencies - colour coded categories for dependencies

[SEE DIAGRAM]

Question 10

Tips for creating a visualisation of dependencies of stories across several sprints for all teams

Answer 10

• minimum, consider identifying external dependencies with a color
• add additional color codes to denote common causes of dependencies in your organization e.g. Operations, Legal, DBA Team etc

Question 11

What does an arrow represent in a dependency visualisation?

Answer 11

• direction of the arrows indicates parent to child relationships. (e.g. Item number 8 depends on Item number 4
• Commonly, teams will write a child ID on the parent card also

[SEE DIAGRAM]

Question 12

Regarding dependency visualisation, what does a dependency arrow on an item highlight?

Answer 12

relationship of work

Question 13

Regarding dependency visualisation, what do more arrows indicate?

Answer 13

high risk due to the number of dependent items impacted

Question 14

Regarding dependency visualisation, what does visualisation help teams with?

Answer 14

identifying the ‘critical path’ of work throughout the upcoming Sprints and provides the basis for conversations about ways to remove or minimize the impact of these dependencies.

Question 15

Regarding dependency visualisation, what does a left pointing horizontal arrow represent?

Answer 15

• dependency within a single team across time
• means that a single team is building an item in one Sprint that is needed by an item that will be delivered in a subsequent Sprint
• considered a low risk relationship

Question 16

Regarding dependency visualisation, what does a upward diagonal arrow represent?

Answer 16

• dependency that is across teams and across time
• A team is building an item in one Sprint that is needed by an item that will be delivered in a subsequent Sprint by a different team
• Cross-team collaboration and communication will be vital to success.
• medium risk relationship

Question 17

Regarding dependency visualisation, what does an upward vertical arrow represent?

Answer 17

• One team will build an item in a Sprint that is needed by an item that will be delivered in the same Sprint by a different team.
• This dependency gives little room for delay or unexpected
  complexity.
• This is a high risk relationship

Question 18

Regarding dependency visualisation, do External Dependenceis have an ID?

Answer 18

• no
• they are delivered from a team outside the Nexus

Question 19

Regarding dependency visualisation, what does a downward facing diagonal arrow mean?

Answer 19

• external across time
• team is relying on an item delivered by an external group in order to build a subsequent item

Question 20

Regarding dependency visualisation, what does a downward facing vertical arrow mean?

Answer 20

• external and represents another in Sprint dependency
• team is relying on an item delivered by an external group in the same Sprint in order to build a subsequent item.
• an extremely high risk item.

Question 21

What are some solutions to minimize and remove dependencies after they have been visualized?

Answer 21

1. Moving work between teams so that there are less cross-team dependencies.
2. Moving people between teams so that there are less cross-team dependencies. You may significantly reduce delivery risk if certain skills are rebalanced across teams for a Sprint two in order to minimize dependencies.
3. Reshaping the work. By splitting items in different ways it may be possible to eliminate dependencies.
4. Using different risk-based strategies. Some groups might try to entirely an ‘in-sprint’ cross-team dependency. Other groups may opt to front load all the risk as early as possible and take many cross-team in-Sprint dependencies in earlier Sprints in order to learn and respond.

Question 22

Once the Cross-Team Refinement workshop is complete, what should we do to the Cross-Team Refinement board afterwards?

Answer 22

• Keep it up to date
• Ensure it visualizes the next ~3 sprints’ plans

Question 23

After the Cross-Team Refinement workshop, what should the board be used as a focal point for?

Answer 23

risk-based conversations with appropriate stakeholders

Question 24

Does Cross-Team Refinement replace individual Scrum Team Product Backlog refinement?

Answer 24

no

Question 25

When should Scrum teams perform detailed Refinement inside their team?

Answer 25

Once the teams have agreed on the likely sequence of their work over the next few Sprints

Question 26

What are some techniques to track dependencies over time?

Answer 26

• use the number and type of dependencies as an improvement measure → help track the impact of improvements to underlying architecture and working practices
• teams may also try to limit the number of dependencies they will accept, by limiting the number of arrows allowed

Question 27

What events should information from the Cross-Team Refinement to taken into?

Answer 27

• Nexus Sprint Planning
• Nexus Daily Scrum

Question 28

Why should info from the Cross-Team Refinement be taken into the Nexus Sprint Planning?

Answer 28

for the teams to plan for the current Sprint and its dependencies

Question 29

Why should info from the Cross-Team Refinement be taken into the Nexus Daily Scrum?

Answer 29

used as a focal point for daily cross-team synchronization about risk and progress