Dominik Maximini has created a nice video where he explains the paragraphs about the Sprint Backlog from the Scrum Guide.
Sprint Review Anti Patterns and How to Overcome Them
If your Sprint Review looks like this, you are doing it wrong:
- Approval Session
- Development team presentation
- Closed feedback bubble
Signs you are doing it right:
- Product Owner owns the event
- Who is who? Everybody is engaged.
- It provides valuable feedback
- It gives the direction where we want to move to
- It can give insight in likely completion dates
Retrotip: Treasure Map
Invite your team to form groups and have them create a treasure map based on their journey so far (or the past couple of Sprints). What is the treasure they’re looking for? What obstacles and traps are on their way? What hidden temples have they found? After twenty minutes of creative work, let the groups present their treasure maps and work together to identify themes and find improvements.
I stole this retrorip from The Liberators đ
Share novel ideas and creative solutions with âShift & Shareâ and âCaravanâ
Shift & Share is a Liberating Structure that helps spread novelty across groups and functions. Innovators showcase their ideas or products and gather meaningful feedback in short cycles. In one hour or less itâs possible to include everyone in a large group and make every voice heard in a structured, constructive way.
Read about it in this article: https://medium.com/the-liberators/liberating-structures-are-33-microstructures-that-allow-you-to-unleash-and-involve-everyone-in-a-9f55c2cdab56
Clearly express essential needs across groups with âWhat I Need From Youâ
The Liberating Structure âWhat I Need From Youâ (WINFY) helps groups to clearly express their needs and for others to clearly respond to those requests, sidestepping the kind of corporate jargon that often muddies such requests.
Read all about it in this article: https://medium.com/the-liberators/clearly-express-essential-needs-across-groups-with-what-i-need-from-you-8114093a312
Create focus with Ecocycle Planning
The Liberating Structure Ecocycle
Read all about it in this article: https://medium.com/the-liberators/create-focus-with-ecocycle-planning-7d86c4b8b799
The (surprising) 9 most common challenges that Product Owners face, and affect their Scrum Teams
- The PO doesnât have enough time
- The PO doesnât have the right skills and Iâm expected to train him/her
- The PO canât create a Release plan (or other critical artifacts for that role, like Vision or Product Backlog)
- The PO does not engage with the team and ends up working alone
- The team suffers from slow feedback and the PO doesnât get the feedback they need either
- The PO does not feel empowered to make decisions
- The PO serves many teams and/or has many roles
- The PO is a micro-manager and wants to control everything that happens
- The PO needs to serve and align with too many stakeholders
Read the complete post and listen to the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast here: https://scrum-master-toolbox.org/2018/11/blog/the-surprising-9-most-common-challenges-that-product-owners-face-and-affect-their-scrum-teams/
Six Guidelines for Saying No to a Stakeholder
Saying no can be very difficult. Most of us like to please others. But when we say no, we disappoint the requester.
Here are six guidelines for saying no to a stakeholder by Mike Cohn:
- Be Clear with Stakeholders: Is this No? Or No, for Now?
- Express Appreciation and Empathy for Customers
- Offer Only One Reason for Saying No
- Convey that You Each Have the Same Goal
- Explain the Consequences of Saying Yes to the Stakeholder
- Offer the Customer an Alternative
Read the complete article here: https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/blog/six-guidelines-for-saying-no-to-a-stakeholder
Video reviews
Great resource for reviews of books in the form of sketch videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/Callibrain/videos
Ten Things the Beatles Can Teach You About Being Agile
Mike Cohn wrote an interesting blogpost about ten things he learned from the Beatles about being agile:
- Getting Better
- Can’t Buy Me Love
- With a Little Help from My Friends
- A Day in the Life
- I Am the Walrus
- We Can Work it Out
- Tomorrow Never Knows
- Come Together
- Don’t Let Me Down
- Eight Days a Week
Read the post here: https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/blog/ten-things-the-beatles-taught-me-about-being-agile