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Spare Capacity in your in-flight Sprint..

Step into the Scenario

Scrum Team

Scrum Team

You have a ‘young’ team that is just into it’s second sprint. You are doing two-week sprints, and team just finished first week of current sprint. Three of the team members come up to you, the Scrum Master, and tell you that they have spare capacity. They completed their part of the work on some of the stories and now wondering what to do. 

You obviously don’t want them to be seating idle. What should be your approach? 

Explore 5

In this scenario, it is tempting to just tell them to ‘Pull’ a new story from Product Backlog. But, hold your horses here! 

I would recommend that you (as a team) explore these 5 different avenues.

What to do when you have spare capacity in your in-flight Sprint?

What to do when you have spare capacity in your in-flight Sprint?

Let’s walk through each avenue one by one. 

Swarm

First preference should be on ‘Swarming’. Ask them to help other team member(s) in closing story. Remember, we get points for closing stories, and not for opening more. As I like to say..
Stop Starting, and Start Finishing Click To Tweet

Pairing

You could go and pair with another team member. May be pick up new skills, may be learn new approach, may be provide another set of eyes to your colleague as s/he works on driving a story to completion.

If you are short sighted, you will look at pairing as a waste of time (as two people are working on one thing). However, if you are long, you will realize that it is an investment into the team.

Pairing helps in knowledgesharing, spreading the ‘wealth’, and gelling the team as one unit. In some shape, it also improves the quality of the outcome. 

Pay off your Debt!

Got any technical debt, that has been identified earlier and put aside with a reason that ‘we don’t have time’? This would be good avenue to spend that spare capacity on. Work on paying off that debt! 

AIR it out! 

How about looking into some..

  • Automation
  • Improvement
  • Refactoring

Even a small amount of automation would help the team in the long run. 

Pull

I would suggest pulling a new story from your Product Backlog should be the last avenue that you explore. And, if you go this route, make sure to ask and confirm with your product owner. You want to pull the next highest priority story. 

Above all, pulling new story should be an exception, not a norm.

Indicators.. 

We talked about these five avenues to explore. Now, let’s look at the root cause as to why we have this spare capacity in the first place. 

In essence, getting this spare capacity in the middle of in-flight sprint is an indicator on one of these factors at play. 

  • Team is being conservative when committing the stories to sprint [at sprint planning event.] So, you need to facilitate that conversation at the new sprint planning. 
  • Team over estimating the points assigned to the story. Being overcauseous and erring on higher side, the team is assigning more points to the story than it actually needs. 

Remember, this is a new, young team. I would not blame the team for any of these, as this is just part of the learning process. They will eventually figure this out, you are there just help and speed up that process.

What to do when your team has spare capacity in your #Sprint ?  pic.twitter.com/ZOREu5V7Zf Click To Tweet

 

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Advance your skills.. Advance your Career

20 Tips to make you an Awesome Scrum Master

Jack Nicholson once said

The minute that you are not learning, I believe you are dead
The question for you is, Are you still ‘alive’? Are you ok being one among the thousands, or are you the one who wants to stand out from the crowd?

STOP here if …

STOP here if you are okay with being a mediocre Scrum Master.

READ ON if ..

If you are someone who is looking to sharpen his/her saw, if you are someone who has embraced the culture and mentality of continuous improvement and continuous learning, if you are some one who is looking to advance his/her skills than READ ON.

Join me here every week as I share some advanced skills, tools, and techniques that are guaranteed to make you a better Scrum Master. Join me here every week to advance your skills that will help you advance your career.

With that said, let’s start reviewing the Tips.

Want to be more effective as Scrum Master? Get everyone on the same page with this simple tool I call Event Canvas. Discuss and Debate each event with the Team, to ensure that everyone has the same understanding of the Events - what happens, what is expected.
Improve your scrum Ceromonies

Events canvas

Read more detailed explanation of Event Canvas here.
Lady in Pink - the Product Owner

Is your team confused about who is doing what? Are you facing constant infighting? Use my 'Roles and Responsibilities' game to set the stage for success as a team.

Get all the details on this 'Roles and Responsibilities' game here

Fun should be an integral part of your Agile Journey. I encourage my teams to have fun while attempting to be agile. I encourage them to create a Fun Backlog - activities and things that they can do together as a team to infus fun.

And, you don't have to wait for your company to pay for these activities. These activites does not have to elaborate and expensive. They could be simple, in-expensive, and fun! 

Here are some of the items that have showed up on Fun Backlog of teams that I have coached in the past. 

  • [Weekly] Bagel Friday - one team member brings bagel for the team
  • Pizza Friday - one of the team had this as a weekly ritual, followed by appearance from a mystery Guest speaker
  • [Monthly] Team Lunch with Card Game
  • [Quarterly] Potluck Lunch - each team member bring an authentic dish for the team lunch
  • Retrospective at a local Cafe
  • Bowling Afternoon
  • [Trip to] Escape Room
  • etc.

Go ahead, create Fun Backlog with your team. Work hard, and have fun! 

Point is, you got to have fun while learning the 'ropes' of doing and being agile. The team that enjoys the work, stays together longer, and delivers an awesome product 🙂

You must be wondering why I recommend starting your sprint on Wednesday - middle of the week?!? You might be thinking that this will confuse the hell out of your team members and other teams that you interact with.

On the contrary though, starting the sprint in the middle of the week, and not using the calendar-week (Mon-Fri) has several advantage. Here are some of the reasons why Wednesday-to-Tuesday week improves your team's productivity.

Long Weekends

They typically fall on Monday or Friday. If you used calendar week, you will have difficult time getting your team members on those critical days (remember, you might be doing sprint planning or sprint review/retrospective on Monday or Friday since you used calendar week). And, often, people take extra day off around them to make it longer weekend.

4-day work week

In certain conutries, and companies, it is normal and accepted norm that people work only 4-days a week. In this case, they would either take Monday or Friday off to make it a 4-day work week.

'Mental weekend' syndrom

On Monday morning, people are still in the weekend mode; they are just trying to get over it and get back to the work routine. Imagine trying to do Sprint Planning on one of those Mondays?

Similarly, on Fridays, people have mentally tuned out and already in weekend mode. Now, try doing your Sprint Review and Retrospective on this day?

People flying in and flying out..

If your company is one of those who use lot of outside talent and hire consultants, theny you might have seen this. These consultants are typically flying in on Monday morning and flying out on Friday. How productive would be your sprint planning or sprint review/retro if they are part of your team?

So, my advise and strong suggestion: stay away from calendar days and start your sprint on a Wednesday, Wed-Tue 'virtual' week.

Getting ready to standup a new Agile team? As we know, there are several 'set up' activities that need to be completed, to build a stable foundation for the team, on which to start their Agile Journey. Call it Sprint Zero, or call it the initial setup activities. The fact is, the team needs to complete them in order to enter their first sprint. These set up activities, this foundation should include ...
  • Team Name
  • Team Norms or Working Agreements
  • Definition of READY
  • Definition of DONE
  • Team Room setup / Co-location
  • Product Backlog (PB) creation
  • Establishing Scrum Calendar, agreeing to the day/time/location for various scrum ceremonies
  • Creating 'Fun' backlog
  • etc.
  • etc.
Gamify all these activities with my Agile Bingo! 
Scrum Teams and Agile Bingo

Scrum Teams and Agile Bingo

As an Agilist, as a change agent, you are almost always playing the role of a “Facilitator”as you interact with your business stakeholders as well as members of your teams. I like these sessions to be interactive and collaborative. I encourage you all to use Post Its and White boarding as you go through these sessions. As we do the white boarding sessions, taking a picture of it and attaching it to your Feature/Story might be good enough documentation, at that point in time. White boarding also become highly collaborative session, with just in time discusion and documentation. And, I highly recommend an app Office Lens to take picture of white board. [Click here to get my list of suggested apps ]

How do you do Sprint Planning?

Are you struggling to keep the team interested in coming to Sprint Planning, every sprint?

Show them the VALUE! Use my 7Cs of sprint planning to keep your sprint planning on track and make it the most productive meeting for the team. 

7Cs of Sprint Planning

Read more detailed explanation on each of these 7Cs here

What would your team do if you were absent (for whatever reason)? What would they do if you were delayed (to your Daily Standup or other ceremonies)?

Would they start without you or wait (or even worse, cancel) because you, the Mr. Scrum Master, did not show up for the ceremony?

And.. to get answers to these critical questions, you got to be absent from the team.. intentionally! You want to ‘practice’ that before you really need it.

As we say, Daily Standup (and other ceremonies) are there for the TEAM, and they should take the ownership of them. You, Mr. Scrum Master, are there just to facilitate them.

Being 'absent' will also help you in identifying natural leaders within your team. Once you know them, you can help them grow (or watch them go away if they don’t get the opportunities).

So, your challenge for this week - Be absent and watch from the distance as to how the team handles it.

Does your Team rise up to the challenge or crumble down under the pressure? There is only one way to find out..!

More Tips are coming your way, in the following weeks. Tips such as...
  • Scenario Lab
  • Backlog Refinement... for Velocity!?
  • 'Virtual Doors'
  • Visual Facilitation
  • Start with 'Y'
  • Say 'No'
  • Your Elevator Speech.. on value of Agile
  • Get the Roadshow going..
  • Improvement Stories
  • Ground yourself in current Moment

Like these tips? We request you to share them with your friends and colleagues. 

20 Tips to make you an Awesome #scrumMaster https://www.nimeshsoni.com/20-tips-advanced-scrum-master-skills Click To Tweet

Got your own tips that you want to share with the community? Send us an email.

 

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7Cs of Sprint Planning

How do you do Sprint Planning? Are you struggling to keep the team interested in coming to Sprint Planning, every sprint?

Show them the VALUE! Use my 7Cs of sprint planning to keep your sprint planning on track and make it the most productive meeting for the team. 

7Cs of Sprint Planning

7Cs of Sprint Planning

Let me explain each of these Cs in detail to help you make your Sprint Planning the most productive one. 

Close

CLOSE refers to Closing your current sprint 🙂 You need to make conscious decisions on any of the ‘left over’ stories, the ones that the team did not complete during this sprint and then close the sprint in preparation for the next, upcoming sprint

Confirm

Confirm, as a Team, with the Product Owner (PO) that the Stories that are at the ‘top’ of the Product Backlog are still his/her highest priorities and that the team got them READY through previous refinement sessions.

Confirm that those stories are READY and meet the Definition of Ready (DoR) criteria. You can read more on DoR and DoD here https://www.nimeshsoni.com/art-getting-done-less/

Capacity

How many Stories can you load into the Sprint backlog? To answer this question, you will need to know the Velocity of the team as well as the capacity for this Sprint, as a Team.

When I say Capacity, I am not referring to how many hours. Instead, I am referring to the Day offs, Holidays, Planned Vacations, etc. Is any one taking any time off during this sprint? What about holidays and company-wide events that will take time away from this sprint and impact your capacity.

To help you answer these questions easily, I strongly recommend you set up a Team Calendar where each team member keeps his/her time-off requests. This team calendar becomes your go-to artifact to answer the Capacity questions.

Remember, the Capacity will also impact team’s Velocity.

Consensus

Bases on the discussion on Capacity, and using Velocity as a guide line, team should be pulling top priority items from Product Backlog into the Sprint Backlog. How many stories to load into the sprint will depend on the capacity and velocity. 

As a team, you need to come to a consensus as to how many stories / story points is feasible in this sprint. 

Commit

Once team has a consensus on the number of stories, story points and what stories to load, the team Commits to them. Team promises to do everything in their power to drive these stories to completion through this sprint. 

This is where you can mark the completion of your Sprint Planning event. The team can go back to their work environment and actually start working on them. 

The next two Cs are more for the Scrum Master than the entire team. 

Communicate

Now that you have completed an awesome and highly productive Sprint Planning event, the Scrum Master should communicate to the stakeholders. Send out a communication as to what is the scope for this sprint, what stories were committed, and what feature/functionality the team is attempting to complete through this sprint. 

This will keep the stakeholders in the loop, and they will know what to expect at the Sprint Review.

Remember one of the pillars of Scrum!? The Transparency!

Collect

I am not a big fan on Task writing. But, if team decided to capture Tasks under the stories, then we need to collect them quickly. I generally advise Scrum Master and team to set a deadline here. For example, by end of the day, enter any tasks that you may want to capture. 

Stand out from the Crowd!

Don’t settle being a mediocre Scrum Master. Stand out from the crowd with this advanced certification.

Click here to Enroll in A-CSM certification workshop Now

There you have it folks! Use these 7Cs as your guiding posts as you go through your next Sprint Planning. Do let me know how it goes 🙂

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Join my new WhatsApp group – mentorME

Please join my WhatsApp group, aptly named ‘mentorME‘. 

mentorME - the WhatsApp group

mentorME – the WhatsApp group

Why this group?

  • I am starting this group in the spirit of ‘Giving back to the Community’.
  • I love to share my knowledge and experience with fellow Agilists on this journey.
  • Promote sharing of knowledge along with the tools, templates, and techniques.
  • Share and learn from each other
  • Provide support, motivation, and a helping hand

Who is it for?

This group is for the Scrum Masters, Product Owners, and the Team members alike. In essence, this groups is for you if ..

  • you are hungry to learn new tools, techniques
  • you love sharing and collaborating
  • you are looking to advance your skills and sharpen your saw
  • you don’t mind landing a helping hand to your fellow agilists

How do I join

Send Nimesh Soni an email with your WhatsApp details and he will gladly add you to the group. You can send him email at nimesh@nimeshSoni.com

Please include..

  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Phone number for adding you to WhatsApp
  • Brief Bio (tell us who you are, where you are from)

mentorME – the WhatsApp group

Click here to send email and JOIN

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Coaches Clinic at Scrum Gathering…

Writing this blog post from Coaches Clinic (CC) in Dublin, Ireland.

Nimesh Soni at Coaches Clinic SGDub17

Nimesh Soni at Coaches Clinic SGDub17

I am volunteering at the Coaches Clinic as part of attending Scrum Gathering #SGDub17. For me, it is very satisfying to give back to the community, and we served many ‘clients’ at the gathering.

Who is it for?

Coaches Clinic (CC) is designed to provide you, the client, valuable guidance, for free. It is available to anyone and everyone; for any one who is looking for some guidance, some help as s/he is going through the agile journey. May be it is a challenge that you are running into, may be it is something new that you want to experiment, may be it is something that you want explore, may be it is some frustration that you want to vent, .. whatever it is, bring it to CC. We, the coaches, are here to help!

WIIFM – What is in it for me?

I had several coaching sessions during the three day Scrum gathering recently, serving up clients from different countries and different background. I remember, one of my client almost cried at the end of the session; a Happy cry 🙂 She was so happy to hear the feedback, confirmation, and motivation she was getting from the session.

Another person, from completely different background and experience, started the coaching session listing his feelings, negative feelings about what he was describing (from his organization). And, within few minutes of the coaching session, he happily mentioned those feelings being replaced by positive ones, him feeling motivated and looking forward to getting back to the organization to continue to push the change.

I share these stories to highlight the fact that the Coaches Clinic is all about YOU.

It is all about one-on-one conversation, between the Coach and the Client.

For me, as a coach, it is very satisfying to see a client leave the session feeling positive. It feels great to see the negative energy replaced with positive energy and enthusiasm.

For the client, it gives an opportunity, to have one-on-one conversation with a world-class coach, an experienced and expert individual who have ‘been there, done it’.

During the CC session, the coach promises to give you complete, undivided attention, to hear your problem, challenge and give you contextual, pragmatic and practical advise that you can implement as soon as you get back to your organization.

And, it is completely FREE! You might even get free T-shirt at the end of the session 🙂

Why miss the FREE coaching?

You definitely should not miss this opportunity to tap into all these knowledge and expertise. You have easy access to several world-class coaches, eager and ready to jump in at a moments notice, to help you, guide you, and mentor you. 

There is no time limit to a session as well! We (the coaches) want to ensure that you, the client, get the most value from the session. Our goal is that the negative feelings (frustration, anger, confusion, anxiety) are replaced with happy feelings (knowledge, solution). Know that you have a partner, a mentor, and a coach in us. Bring your problems, struggles, challenges and we are here to help! 

Make sure to attend next Scrum Gathering and make it a point to stop by at the Coaches Clinic. Hope to see you at the next CC!