- If you are working on Agile Projects or working within an organization that is “Going Agile” and you have not already read The Scrum Guide I strongly recommend that you take a moment (or about 15 minutes) and ready through the scrum guide which you can find here: https://scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html In the new Scrum Guide you will find some helpful clarifications about the length of a sprint planning meeting, sprint review and sprint retrospective.The three Scrum pillars of transparency, inspection, and adaptation.Transparency
Making work visible to the people doing the work as well as those receiving the work is imperative to make decisions about the three key artifacts of a Scrum projectInspection
Transparency enables inspection. The progress made on the Scrum artifacts become difficult to track without the transparency to view planned and completed work.Adaptation
Inspection enables adaptation. If any artifact deviates outside of acceptable limits or if those receiving the work deem it unacceptable then the process being applied or the artifacts being delivered must be adjusted.In the new Scrum guide there was also additional emphasis on the 5 Scrum Values: Commitment, Focus, Openness, Respect, and Courage - Commit to Scrum/Sprint goals
- Focus on the work within the sprint necessary to meet the Sprint Goals
- Be Open and Transparent about the work and the challenges
- Respect team members as capable, independent professionals
- Have the Courage to do the right thing and worth through tough problems to achieve the Sprint Goals
The new Scrum guide also has new detail on the guidance for Scrum Event TimeboxesMaximum Sprint Length1 Month. Longer sprints will increase the time between inspection and adaptation slowing the speed of improvements.Sprint Planning2-4 hours for each week of a sprint or a maximum of 8 hours per sprintSprint planning should address the following three topics
- Why is this Sprint valuable
- What can be done in this Sprint
- How will the chosen work get done
Daily ScrumThe detail of what to discuss during the daily Scrum has been removed. I am thankful for this as the three discussion topics previously suggested were quite out of date as most of that information is now available in any project management / work item tracking tool available at the time of this writing. The Daily Scum should simply focus on progress toward the Sprint Goal and produce and actionable plan for the next day of Sprint work. Maximum length 15 minutesSprint Review Inspect the outcome of the Sprint and determine future adaptations. In the Sprint Review we inpsect the work that has been done to meet the sprint goal. 1 hour per week of the Sprint or a maximum of 4 hours.Sprint RetrospectivePlan ways to increase quality and effectiveness. In the Sprint Retrospective we inspect how we did the work within the sprint and evaluate the processes, tools and definition of done used to reach the Sprint goal. 45 minutes per week of the sprint or a maximum of 3 hours While I have shared a few key points and highlights from the most recent update of the Scrum Guide I still recommend that you spend a Daily Standup worth of time and read through the Scrum Guide. If you have never read a Scrum Guide before that’s 15 minutes 🤪
