Team Restart

Back to Basics2019 AGILE INDY CONFERENCE

RITA BREEN

Certified Scrum Master,

Certified Scrum Practioner

and SAFe Program Consultant

with 7 years of Agile

Experience.

Currently, Agile Coach with

Anthem.

Dreams of teaching

Mindfulness-Based Stress

Reduction to adults and

children. As well as, opening

up a yoga studio and selling my homemade kombucha.

Let’s take a JourneyHELPING THE TEAM GET BACK ON TRACK

Newly Launched Teams - XOXO

Training

Slow Start

Dedicated Coach Attending Meetings

Paired with Senior PO, SM and/or Developer

Management Understanding

Extra Training Around Tools

Lower Expectations – Slower Pace

Time to get your Rhythm

But Change in Inevitable…

Organizational Structure Changes

Management Changes

Team Member Changes

Vendor Contracts End

Team Member Allocation

New Technology

DevOps Stuff

Another Corporate Center of Excellence

Signs of Trouble

‘Doing Agile’ vs ‘Being Agile’

Productivity Decline

Rising Team Conflict

Over Commitment

Communication Gaps

Declining Trust

Lack of Openness

Can lead to people reverting back to

old patterns and blaming Agile.

Coach, Teach, Mentor or Restart…

How did the change impact the team? Predictability?

Is the team holding the events and following a cadence?

Are they open to teaching moments?

Is the team passionate about continual improvement (or anything)?

Is the team open to coaching or coaching agreement?

Is the team or individuals open to feedback?

Is there respect and openness?

Are there conversations that need to be had between team

members?

Feedback opportunities being leveraged – Standup, Retrospective…

Feedback from Agility Health Tools

Team Stage

• Crawl

• Walk

• Run

• Fly

Feedback

• Clarity

• Performance

• Leadership

• Culture

• Foundation

“”

In any given moment we have two

options: to step forward into growth

or to step back into safety.

ABRAHAM MASLOW

Abraham Maslow – American psychologist who was best know for creating

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, a theory of psychological health predicated on

fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-actualization.

A Restart is an Grand Opportunity

Create a New Shared Understanding

Build Team Maturity

Acknowledge the Storming/Forming/Norming

Opportunity for Relentless Improvement

Provides the coach and/or scrum master to earn credibility

Rally Cry for autonomy, ownership and self- organization

Give them Permission to own their contribution to the team

Review DoD, DoR and Complexity

“”

Software development is not a rational process. It’s

a process made by people with feelings, with

bodies and with thinking. And by putting all those

together I can be a more effective software

developer.

KENT BECK

Kent Beck – American software engineer and create of extreme

programming and one of the 17 original signatories'.

Ready, Set, Restart…

Get Management Support for ‘Restart’

Discuss with Team Before Scheduling Meeting

Be Open and Transparent about Reason(s)

Set a Goal

Allow Time for Questions

Demonstrate The Qualities You Expect to See in the Team

Ready, Set, Restart…

Schedule 4 Hour Meeting (varies)

Create a Deck that Covers

Business Agility and Product Vision

Agile Manifesto, Values and Principles

Roles

Events/Ceremonies/Outputs/Artifacts

Working Agreement, DoD, DoR and Team Vision

Focus on People, People, People…

Agile 101TEAM RESTART

Business Agility

‘Ability of a organization to respond to change.’

➢ Adapt quickly to market changes – internally and externally

➢ Respond rapidly and flexibility to customer demands

➢ Adapt and lead change in a productive and cost effective

way without compromising quality

➢ Continuously be at a competitive advantage

Business Vision

<INSERT BUSINESS VISION>

<Existing Team Vision>

Agile Manifesto

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and

helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools

Working Software over Comprehensive Documentation

Customer Collaboration over Contract Negotiation

Responding to Change over Following a Plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the rights, we value the items on

the left more.

Agile Values

Agile Principles1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.

2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.

3. Delivery working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.

4. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.

5. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need and trust them to get the job done.

6. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.

7. Working software is the primary measure of progress.

8. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.

10. Simplicity - the art of maximizing the amount of work not done - is essential.

11. The best architectures, requirements and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.

12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

Scrum Roles

Product Owner

➢ Voice of the Customer

➢ Responsible for the Product Backlog

➢ Product Owner Optimizes the Team Work

➢ Works to Increase Transparency of Product Features

➢ Readily Available to the team

➢ Empowered to make Decisions for the Product

➢ Entrepreneurial Spirit

Development Team

➢ Focused - Working Together to Deliver a

Potentially Releasable Increment

➢ Dedicated – Long Lived Team

➢ Accountable as a Whole to the Sprint

Commitment

➢ Team Members are Equal – Everyone

Adds Value

➢ Self-Organized – No one tells the

Development Team how to do the Work

➢ Cross-Functional - Open to Learn new

Skills to get the Work Done

Scrum Master

➢ Servant Leader

➢ Information Radiator

➢ Agile and Scrum Guardian

➢ Coach

➢ Facilitator

➢ Mentor

➢ Trainer

➢ Champion of Transparency

➢ Cheerleader

➢ Impediment Remover

Circle of Life or Scrum Process

Story Points and Complexity

A Story Point is an abstract relative measure of the effort required to implement a

user story. Is a relative number that tells the team about the complexity level of the story. Complexity is related to risks, dependencies, effort, knowledge,

duration and area/business related situations.

Development Team Votes on User Story Complexity – Conversation Encouraged.

Example Modified Fibonacci Sequence: 1, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21…

➢ How does the development team define complexity?

➢ What a story point 1 represent? Or a 3 represent?

➢ What story point number represents the story needs to be broken down?

➢ How can we use relative sizing to remove assumptions?

Events/Ceremonies

➢ Backlog Refinement/Grooming

➢ Sprint Planning

➢ Daily Standup

➢ Sprint Review

➢ Sprint Retrospective

Rita’s Recommended Unofficial Events

➢ Architecture Discussion

➢ Pre-Refinement/Groom

➢ 16th Minute

The Backlog Refinement Meeting is to ensure that the backlog remains populated with relevant items, details and estimated to a degree appropriate with their priority.

➢ Participants: Entire Scrum Team

➢ Facilitator: Product Owner Leading

➢ Frequency: 1x Per Sprint for 2 - 4 Hours

➢ Scheduled: Scrum Master (Make sure it happens)

➢ Inputs: Reasonably Prioritized and Refined User Stories, Definition of Ready and Discussion

➢ Outputs: Refined User Stories Ready for Sprint Planning

Purpose of the Backlog Refinement

➢ Breakdown, Merge, Add and Remove User Stories from Product Backlog

➢ Improve Existing User Stories - Value Statement and Acceptance Criteria

➢ Review Priority - Rank Top Down

➢ Vote user story complexity – Planning Poker/Modified Fibonacci Sequence

➢ Assess Business Value

Sprint Planning allows the development team to collaborate and plan work for the next sprint. It is a highly visible, real-time picture of the work that is planned

to be accomplished.

➢ Frequency: 1x Per Sprint for 2 - 4 Hours

➢ Participant: Scrum Team

➢ Facilitator: Scrum Master

➢ Scheduled by: Scrum Master

➢ Inputs: Prioritized and Refined Product Backlog, Definition of Done, Velocity

➢ Outputs: Sprint Commitment (with Sub-Tasks), Sprint Goal and Burndown Chart

Sprint Planning answers the following

➢ What can be delivered in the sprint? (Forecast)

➢ How will the work get done? (Architecture)

➢ What is the Sprint Goal?

➢ Team velocity? Vacation, PTO and stuff…

Daily Stand-up is a 15-minute time-boxed event for the Development Team. It is

meant to optimize team collaboration and performance by inspection the work

daily to meet the Sprint Goal.

➢ Frequency: 1x per day for 15 Minutes (Save an additional 15 minutes for other topics)

➢ Participant: Development Team (PO to be available for Q&A)

➢ Facilitator: Scrum Master

➢ Scheduled by: Scrum Master

➢ Inputs: Sprint Backlog

➢ Outputs: Collaboration and Delivered Sprint Commitment (Potentially Shippable Product)

Daily Stand-up answers the following:

➢ What did I do yesterday that helped the team meet the Sprint Goal?

➢ What will I do today to help the team meet the Sprint Goal?

➢ Are there any impediments preventing me or the team from meeting the Sprint

Goal?

Sprint Review Meeting is the forum for scrum team to show what they

accomplished during the sprint. Typically this takes the form of a demo of the

new features.

➢ Frequency: 1x Per Sprint for 1 – 2 Hours

➢ Participant: Scrum Team (Supporting Role) and Stakeholders

➢ Facilitator: Product Owner

➢ Scheduled by: Scrum Master

➢ Inputs: Sprint Commitment and Incremental Deliverable Product

➢ Outputs: Feedback and Additional User Stories

Informal meeting to elicit feedback and foster collaboration

➢ Review what is ‘Done’

➢ Discuss the Next Sprint

➢ Discover New User Stories and Report Defects

➢ Review Prioritization and New/Changing Initiatives

The Sprint Retrospective is an opportunity for the Entire Scrum Team to inspect

itself and create a plan for improvements to be enacted during the next Sprint.

➢ Frequency: 1x Per Sprint for 1 – 2 Hours

➢ Participant: Scrum team

➢ Facilitator: Scrum Master

➢ Scheduled by: Scrum Master

➢ Inputs: Sprint, Process and People

➢ Outputs: 1 – 3 Retrospective Takeaways with Assigned Owners to be added Product Backlog for action

Purpose of the Sprint Retrospective

➢ Inspect how the last Sprint went - people, relationships, process and tools

➢ Review Commitments from Last Retrospective

➢ Identify and order the major items that went well and need improvements

➢ Create an action plan to implement improvements

Unofficial Recommended Event #1The Architecture Planning/Discussion is an opportunity for the Entire Development Team to

discuss how they would implement the refined prioritized stories for the next sprint.

➢ Frequency: 1x Per Sprint for 1 – 2 Hours

➢ Participant: Development team

➢ Facilitator: Development Team

➢ Scheduled by: Development team

➢ Inputs: Refined and Prioritized Backlog

➢ Outputs: Architecture/Implementation Plan and Ready to Make Sprint Commitment

Purpose of the Architecture Planning/Discussion

➢ Determine and gain agreement on how the ‘Ready’ stories will be implemented

➢ Surface any questions or concerns due to the deeper dive

➢ Identify dependencies, risks and impediments

➢ Plan for peer programming and training opportunities

➢ Better Plan – Realistic Sprint Commitment

Unofficial Recommended Events #2

The Pre-Refinement/Grooming is an opportunity for the Product Owner to meet with

SME’s and others to get the stories ‘Ready’ for Backlog Refinement.

➢ Frequency: 1x Per Sprint for 1 – 2 Hours

➢ Participant: Anyone with Knowledge about the Priority User Stories

➢ Facilitator: Product Owner

➢ Scheduled by: Product Owner

➢ Inputs: Backlog - User Stories Ready to Be Refined

➢ Outputs: Refined and Prioritized Product Backlog

Purpose of the Architecture Planning/Discussion

➢ Breakdown, Merge, Add and Remove User Stories from Product Backlog

➢ Improve Existing User Stories - Value Statement and Acceptance Criteria

➢ Review Priority - Rank Top Down

➢ Improve Quality of User Stories – Better Discussion and Story Pointing

Unofficial Recommended Events #3

The 16th Minute is an opportunity for the team to table questions and/or

deeper discussion right after the Daily Stand-up.

➢ Frequency: As Needed

➢ Participant: Anyone that needs to be part of the Conversation

➢ Facilitator: Development Team

➢ Scheduled by: Happens Right After Stand-up

➢ Inputs: Questions or Deeper Conversations

➢ Outputs: Answered Questions and/or Feedback

Purpose of the 16th Minute

➢ Get Answers to Questions Quickly when Everyone is Present

➢ Keeps the Team Focused on the Sprint Goals

DoR – Establish or Revisit

Definition of Ready is a team agreed upon minimum set of criteria that signifies the user

story is ‘Ready’ for Sprint Planning.

➢ It is above the Individual Acceptance Criteria (Story Level)

➢ Team agrees to only accept ‘Ready’ user stories.

➢ Living Document

➢ Improve Quality of Backlog Refinement

➢ Improve Quality of Development Work

➢ Business value is Clearly Articulated

➢ Invest Model (Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small and Testable)

DoD – Open It!

Definition of Done is agreed upon list of activities that will be completed before

a user story, task or bug can be considered done/finished. It allows team

members and people outside the development team to have a common

understanding about what the team means by done.

The Entire Scrum Team Contributes

It not fit 100% of the scenarios but it should cover 80%

Creates a shared understanding and common set of expectations

Designed according to the process used by the team

Living Document

Quality Focus

Agile Working Agreement

Working Agreement is to ensure an Agile Team shares responsibility in

defining expectations for how they will function together and enhance

their self-organization process.

➢ Creates an Awareness of Positive and Negative Behavior

➢ Empowers the Scrum Master to keep the Team Accountable

➢ Scrum Master Facilitates

“”

Education is the most powerful

weapon which you can use to

change the world.

NELSON MANDELA

Who has the first question?