Sets
- Coaching:
- Prepare for Action Items
- Tracker:
- Guidance Roles:
- Team Charter:
- Ceremonies:
- Create Quality Process
Coaching
Coach Team Transitions
Change agent or Agile Coach, if supporting a transition of:
- One small team—Skip to “Choose Tracker Option.”
- Two to four teams (only, or up to four at a time):
- Begin the “Choose Tracker Option” step set.
- When far enough along with that, serve as the Facilitator for each team separately to perform the remaining step sets under “The Sprint Process.”
- When the team hits the standard of 100% sprint delivery, help them select a new Facilitator per “Identify PO, Facilitator, and Sprint Length.”
- Go to the next steps set.
- More than four teams at once:
- Have them continue with their current project processes until changed using the following steps.
- Begin the “Choose Tracker Option” step set.
- When far enough along with that, either:
- Hold a kickoff meeting with all teams at which you lead them through the step sets from “Guidance Roles” to the end of that page (if possible) in which you:
- Train them on the background material.
- Hand them a printout of the steps set.
- Have them perform the step set, letting them facilitate themselves as you wander the room to listen in and provide support.
- Facilitate each team through those step sets within a two- to three-week period.
- Hold a kickoff meeting with all teams at which you lead them through the step sets from “Guidance Roles” to the end of that page (if possible) in which you:
- Go to the next steps set.
Details: “You’re the Head Coach.”
Coach the Facilitator
- Schedule weekly training sessions of the Facilitators.
- For the first session, send an agenda asking them to read the “Groom Stories” page and related step sets.
Note: If the teams did not get through all of the sets under the previous section during the kickoff period, start wherever you left off instead. - At each session:
- Facilitate a discussion of any questions or concerns from the previous effort.
- Provide general coaching on any other issues you observed, without identifying the team(s) that had them.
- Decide as a group which step set(s) to cover in the following week.
- Walk participants through the related sections of the “Sprint Process” hypertext and the step set(s).
- Facilitate a question-and-answer session.
- Ask them to invite you to their related team meetings.
- Between sessions:
- Attend as many team meetings as you can, being careful to let the Facilitator do their job.
Tip: Be more of an observer than a participant, only volunteering information if the Facilitator says something wrong about FuSS. - Check the results in the tracker and other documentation.
- Privately coach Facilitators on issues you observe, in person if possible, and by video conference or phone if not.
- Attend as many team meetings as you can, being careful to let the Facilitator do their job.
- When all teams are making progress toward the 100% sprint delivery standard, continue to the “Coach Release Planning” steps set if relevant.
Details: “You’re the Head Coach.”
Prepare for Action Items
- Decide as a team what means you will use to track action items not recorded in the tracker.
- Set an action item for someone to set up the method and make sure all members have access to the list.
Note: In all remaining action boxes, a step saying to create an action item includes recording it in the tracker or other method from Step 2.
Tracker
Choose Tracker Option
- Seek volunteers to do the following steps as a temporary “action team.”
Note: If the tracker will support a group of teams, ask for at least one representative from each team. - Schedule a meeting of those volunteers.
- At the meeting, decide whether to investigate a digital solution.
Note: For multiple teams contributing to the same deliverable, you must eventually use a digital tracker. - For the:
- Digital option—Go to the next steps set.
- Paper option, or to start Scrum before a digital tracker is chosen—Skip to “Create a Paper Tracker.”
- If desired, also go to “Guidance Roles” and continue preparations in parallel with the tracker selection.
Details: “Choose a Tracker.”
Choose a Digital Tracker to Try
- If you have an IT department, contact it to learn the security requirements for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) tools.
- Conduct a Web search using the phrase, “Agile tool,” going deep into the results.
- Choose and gain access to two or three options, making sure each:
- Specifically says it is a Scrum tool (not just “Agile”).
- Offers a free trial, preferably for 60 or more days.
- Allows importing and exporting of user stories through spreadsheets.
- If a SaaS—Meets your IT security requirements.
- Follow the instructions at Agile Tracking Tool Comparison.
Note: This step will take up to a month, so you may begin the “Guidance Roles” sets in parallel. - When finished with Step 4, continue to the next set.
Prepare the Digital Tracker for Trial
- Present your findings to the team and the manager who will fund the tool, if that is not you, and as a group choose the first to try.
- Designate at least two tool administrators.
- Have them:
- Perform any configuration set-up required.
- Arrange for everyone on the team(s) to gain access to the tool with appropriate permissions:
- Editing rights for team members and the Customer, once identified (see next section of boxes).
- Provide instructions to the team members for getting started.
- Ask users to complete any basic tutorials prior to the start of the first sprint, or provide a short training session by the admin(s).
- Create this action item (for each team): “Facilitate team decision on whether to use current tracker or try another one—Facilitator—Next Retrospective.”
Notes:
- If the decision is to try another, come back to this box and repeat the steps above until a tracker is chosen.
- If disagreements arise among teams, reconvene the decision team to choose next steps.
Details: “The Digital Option.”
Create a Paper Tracker
- Arrange for a large white board, cork board, or flat wall space with minimal holes or protrusions to be dedicated to the team’s use.
- Obtain:
- Large lined note cards (at least 5″ x 8″) or sticky notes that size.
- Sticky notes in two colors, 2″ x 2″.
- Masking tape.
- Use the tape to mark these sections vertically from left to right, down the entire board, and label them:
- “Product Backlog”
- “Sprint Backlog,” with these subcolumns:
- “Stories”
- “Planned”
- “In-Progress”
- “Completed”
- “Accepted”
- Use tape to create a horizontal line below the column labels.
- Create at least five rows high enough for your note cards using more horizontal lines of tape.
Note: Leave room at the bottom of the board for more rows, as you won’t know how many you need until you establish your velocity.
Example:
Details: “The Paper Option.”
Guidance Roles
Identify Customer
Team Manager:
- Identify a potential Customer, outside or inside of your enterprise.
- Send that person a copy of the “Customer” section.
- Meet with the person and their direct supervisor to answer questions and address concerns.
- If:
- The person and manager agree, send an e-mail confirming their agreement, with a short deadline by which they must identify a backup.
- Either does not agree, repeat steps 1–3 until you get an agreement from someone to fill the role properly.
- Inform the team.
- Ensure the Facilitator invites the Customer and backup to all Ceremonies except the Retrospective.
Note: The Customer or backup is expected only at the Demo, but is welcome at the others.
Details: “Customer.”
Identify PO, Facilitator, and Sprint Length
Team without the Team Manager present:
- Decide as a group whom will serve as Product Owner.
Details: “Product Owner.” - Decide whether to rotate the Facilitator position, and if so, identify:
- Who is willing to serve.
- The frequency of rotation.
- Where in the sprint/release cycle the change will occur.
Details: “Facilitator.”
- If not rotating the position, decide who will serve as Facilitator.
Note: This includes the option of asking another Facilitator in the organization to do the role, or working with two or three other teams to hire a Facilitator for all. If hiring, refer to “Let the Team Do the Hiring.” - Decide how long to make the sprints initially: one, two, three, or four weeks.
Details: “Choose a Sprint Cycle.” - Continue to the next set.
Consider Additional Guidance Roles
- Discuss whether the team needs outside help with technical issues such as architecture, analysis or cooperation with other organizations.
- If so:
- Review the “Architect” and “Agile Liaison” sections.
- Perform the related steps.*
Create Initial User Stories
Customer and Product Owner:
- If you do not have enough customer and market requirements to fill at least two months of the team’s time under your current processes, try to gather that many.
- Write or convert all requirements into sprint-sized user stories in your Product Backlog, each with at least a first draft of:
- The story statement in this format: “As a [type of user], I want [to do this] so that I can [achieve this purpose].”
- Acceptance criteria—The tangible, measurable proof the story was completed.
Tip: If this proves impossible, convert large requirements into epics in the same format, and then create stories to complete those epics.
- Add an initial set of business and technical requirements, including other needed story types such as support and cross-training stories.
- Read the “Pre-Groom for Speed” section and perform its steps.
Details: “Create User Stories.”
Team Charter
Create a Mission Statement
Team, guided by the Facilitator:
- Decide what application to use for the Team Charter and where to store it.
Examples: Text document in a network share or document repository; a wiki; etc. - Decide whether to include team process and procedure decisions in it, and if not, what location to use for those.
- Write the company’s mission and any division missions on a board.
- Create a draft mission statement.
Suggestion: Ask yourselves, “What do you want to achieve? In other words, why does this team exist?” - Add a “Mission” section at the top of the charter with the draft statement.
- Continue to the next set.
Details: “Set Teamwork Expectations.”
Create a Team Behaviors List
Team, guided by the Facilitator:
- Write on the board the team’s list of answers to this question: “Thinking back over your whole work life, what kinds of things have teammates done that drove you crazy?”
- Delete, combine, and revise the items to a list of no more than ten behaviors.
- Reword these into rules.
Example: If the item was, “People interrupting each other instead of listening,” your rule might be, “Wait until someone finishes their point to speak.” - (Optional) Group and label these according to values.
Example: The rule in the previous example might fall under “Respect.” - Decide what to call this list (Values, Rules, Code of Conduct, etc.).
- Add a section by that name and the list to the charter.
- Continue to the next set.
Details: “Set Teamwork Expectations.”
Set Meeting Rules
Team, guided by the Facilitator:
- Decide if the team can agree to follow the rules under “Initial Mandatory Rules” for two months.
- If there are major objections to any of the rules, negotiate a change that will make the rule acceptable.
Note: You are only trying these rules for now, and will be able to change them after seeing how they work. - Ask if anyone knows another meeting time-waster that should be addressed.
- If so, negotiate a rule to address it.
- Discuss whether to implement the “Silence or absence equals consensus” rule immediately or wait six months.
- If the decision is to wait, create an action item to consider it at that time.
Details: “Set Meeting Rules.”
Ceremonies
Set Initial Grooming Sessions
Facilitator:
- Find out the date by which the Product Owner expects to draft the minimum number of stories (see the “Create Initial User Stories” box.
- Guess how many stories the team can do in two sprints.
- Schedule grooming sessions starting after the Step 1 date that:
- Together allow a half-hour per story from Step 2.
- Last a maximum of two hours per session.
Notes:
- For nine stories (4.5 hours), you might set two, two-hour meetings, plus a one-hour meeting, for a total of five hours.
- Allow at least one calendar day between each session to prevent people from burning out.
Details: “Set Initial Grooming Sessions.”
Set Meeting Schedule
Facilitator:
- In a team meeting, facilitate decisions on:
- Whether to skip a day between sprints (two-week or longer sprints only).
- Starting and ending days of the week for sprints.
- Days for Grooming Sessions each sprint.
- Preferred times for each of the ceremonies, at times all team members will usually be able to attend.
- Record the decisions in your Team Charter or procedure location.
- Schedule using your organization’s calendar tool, or an online tool:
- The ceremonies as recurring meetings.
- Grooming sessions if recurring.
Tip: If you have virtual attendees, create a Web conference and embed the link into your meeting invitation.
- If using a digital tracker, set up the first few sprints.
Details: “Schedule Meetings.”
Set Sprint Schedule
Facilitator:
- In a team meeting, facilitate decisions on when to schedule:
- A Planning Ceremony (one hour per sprint week) on the first day of each sprint.
- A Daily Standup (15 minutes) every sprint day except the first and last.
- A Demo (30−60 mins.) the last day of each sprint.
- A Retro (30 mins.) between the Demo and next Planning Ceremony, with only team members invited.
- Grooming sessions (see table in the section linked below), unless part of a longer Planning Ceremony.
- Use your calendar tool to set the meetings, negotiating moves of existing appointments with specific members if needed to accommodate the team’s preferences.
Tips:
- You may find it easier to schedule scrums every workday, and cancel specific instances that conflict with ceremonies or days off when you get close to them in real time.
- Even if you hold your Retro right after the Demo, schedule them as separate meetings and warn stakeholders they will be released after the Demo portion.
Details: “Choose Ceremony Days and Times.”
Create Quality Process
Team, guided by the Facilitator:
- If your organization has a bug-tracking method, decide whether to adapt it to Scrum or to use your tracker.
- Create a table that defines criticality levels if your organization does not have one, and responses to each, like the table in “Set Criticality Levels and Responses” (or simply adopt that table).
- Decide whether to use a triage team, and if so:
- Identify members, including a facilitator and backup.
- Set an initial meeting schedule.
Details: “Triage and Resolve Defects.”
- Record the decisions in your Team Charter or procedure location.
- Create an action item to prepare the bug-tracker or your Scrum tracker with a field reflecting the levels, and create an Action Item.
Do not proceed with the “Groom Stories” steps until you have completed all of the steps above. Generally, you need to:
- Create your Team Charter.
- Have your tracker ready to go, including initial training of the team on its use.
- Set up your ceremonies.