Understanding and Apply Scrum [P8]: Scaling Scrum - Visualising the Nexus Sprint Backlog

Question 1

When each team in the Nexus selects their work for the sprint during Nexus Sprint Planning, what is the Cross-Team Refinement board used to validate?

Answer 1

that info is still up to date and relevant

Question 2

What do more arrows on a Cross-Team Refinement board mean?

Answer 2

more dependencies

more risk

Question 3

What does the Cross-Team Refinement board help teams identify?

Answer 3

the ‘critical path’ of work throughout the upcoming Sprints

Question 4

What does the Cross-Team Refinement board provide the basis for?

Answer 4

conversations about ways to remove or minimize the impact of the dependencies

Question 5

Who work together to validate that the Sprint +1 info is still valid?

Answer 5

reps from each team

PO

Question 6

Once the Sprint +1 info from the Cross-Team Refinement board has been confirmed that it is valid, what gets created?

Answer 6

Nexus Sprint Backlog

Question 7

Explain how a Cross-Team Refinement Board should look

Answer 7

[SEE DIAGRAM]

Question 8

Explain how a Nexus Sprint Backlog board should look

Answer 8

[SEE DIAGRAM]

Question 9

Compare how dependencies are shown on a Cross-Team Refinement Board vs a Nexus Sprint Backlog board

Answer 9

• arrows = Cross-Team Refinement Board
  
  • arrow shows the direction of the dependency “B depends on A”
  • Tip of arrow shows the ID of the thing that depends on it i.e. ID of B will be on the arrow tip which points to A
• sticky on BOTH the cards of interest
  
  • For A depends on B
    
    • The A card will have a sticky with “B” on its bottom right
    • The B card will have a sticky with “A” on its bottom left

Question 10

On a Nexus Sprint Backlog board, what does a sticky note for A on the bottom right of a card B mean?

Answer 10

‘Item B will unblock Item A’

Question 11

On a Nexus Sprint Backlog board, what does a sticky note for B on the bottom left of a card A mean?

Answer 11

‘Item A is blocked by B’

Question 12

What type of dependency is an annotation/sticky on the bottom left of a card on a Nexus Sprint Backlog board?

Answer 12

incoming dependency

Question 13

What type of dependency is an annotation/sticky on the bottom right of a card on a Nexus Sprint Backlog board?

Answer 13

outgoing dependency

Question 14

What is the process from start to finish for updating the Nexus Sprint Backlog board for a card that has a dependency?

Answer 14

• annotate the PBI that is being blocked and the blocker PBI
• once the blocker is sorted, move the blocker item card into Done when it’s done, move the unblocked item out of the Blocked column and into the Ready and remove the annotations

Question 15

If a Nexus does not have in-Sprint dependencies, what can teams uses an alternative visualisation?

Answer 15

• represent the Nexus Sprint Backlog through the current Sprint column within the Cross-Team Refinement Board.
• In this case, the Refinement Board becomes the focal point for the Nexus Daily Scrum.