AMIA#09 | The Counterintuitive Scrum Master Guide: Unlocking Success from Day One (Part 3) - Understanding Scrum Ceremonies
Understanding Scrum Ceremonies
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AMIA: #09
Reading Time: ~ 7 minutes
Hello all.
It’s time to get back to continuing our agile journey.
In today’s email:
The story: Understanding Scrum Ceremonies
Introduction
Welcome back to the Counterintuitive Scrum Master Guide Series! By now, you're probably comfortable with the concept of Scrum and its value in driving iterative progress, as we've explored in our previous posts.
In Part 1, we explored when Scrum is the right choice for your team.
In Part 2 we examined the power of iterative sprints and how they can unlock continuous progress and learning for your agile team.
Today, we're going to dive deeper into the heart of Scrum – its ceremonies. We'll dissect each ceremony, discussing its purpose, your role as a Scrum Master, and some practical examples for both software and non-software teams.
Understanding Scrum Ceremonies
n Scrum, we have four primary ceremonies that provide a structure and rhythm to our Agile way of working. They are:
Sprint Planning
Daily Scrum
Sprint Review
Sprint Retrospective
Each of these ceremonies serves a unique purpose, and as a Scrum Master, you play a critical role in facilitating each one.
Let's delve into each of them.
Sprint Planning: Setting the Stage for Success
What: Sprint Planning is where we, as a team, define the work and strategy for the upcoming sprint. We create a Sprint Goal and select Product Backlog items to work on.
As a Scrum Master: your role is to ensure that the team understands the goals, to facilitate the prioritization of backlog items, and to ensure discussions are productive.
Software Teams Example: In a software team, the team might focus on selecting items that are technically related, leading to a Sprint Goal like "Implement user authentication feature".
A handy tip is to use prioritization techniques like MoSCoW (Must have, Should have, Could have, Won't have). In large organizations, there may be other stakeholders that determine the priority too. For e.g., marketing may have a lead time that requires the software team to start early on a feature.
Non-Software Teams Example: For a marketing team, the sprint planning could revolve around planning a campaign, with a Sprint Goal like "Launch social media campaign for product X".
Ensure your goals are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound).
Daily Scrum: Keeping the Momentum Going
What: Daily Scrum is our daily sync-up. We share progress, identify any blockers, and adjust the plan if necessary. When it comes to feedback loops, this is slower than pair programming, automated tests etc. Yet, from a human point of view, very important to start the day with a collaborative discussion.
As a Scrum Master: Your role is to help the team stay on topic and focused, and to assist in removing identified impediments.
It is common for this meeting to turn into a status update. It is your role to ensure that this is a collaborative discussion towards achieving the sprint goal.
Software Teams Example: In a software team, a developer might bring up a blocker due to a complex bug. You may arrange a pair programming session to tackle complex issues.
Non-Software Teams Example: In an HR team, a member might discuss the progress of interview scheduling. Consider using visual tools like Kanban boards to better track progress. Remember, in non-software teams, Service Level Expectations may be a better measure of progress than Story Points Completed.
Sprint Review: Showcasing Our Progress
What: The Sprint Review is our chance to review the work done in the Sprint, present it to stakeholders, and get feedback.
This is also our opportunity to adjust the sprint backlog for the next sprint, and review the metrics we track to measure our effectiveness as a team.
As a Scrum Master: your role is to help present the Increment and ensure that the team receives constructive feedback.
It is also your role to set the right expectations. Some teams make this ceremony so formal that they incur heavy overhead in preparing for it.
Software Teams Example: A software team might demonstrate a new feature they've implemented. Make sure all features are properly tested before demonstration.
Non-Software Teams Example: A sales team might review the leads they've followed and the deals they've closed. Consider using customer feedback surveys to gather feedback and data.
Sprint Retrospective: Looking Back to Move Forward
What: During the Sprint Retrospective, we reflect on the past sprint and identify opportunities for improvement.
As a Scrum Master: You should promote a blame-free culture, encourage open discussion, and help devise action plans for improvement.
Conduct a safety survey at the start to ensure everyone is feeling sufficiently safe to participate.
This ceremony is the only one alluded to in the 12 principles from the Manifesto for Agile Software Development.
At regular intervals, the team reflects on how
to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts
its behavior accordingly.
Software Teams Example: A software team might identify that stand-ups are taking too long.
Ask how it impacts the team and individuals. Collate suggestions from the team and note down the action we will try in the next sprint and how we will know if it worked.
Non-Software Teams Example: A customer service team might find they need better tracking of customer complaints. They may want to try using a new tool or process to better manage customer complaints.
Beyond Scrum: Additional Practices to Complement Your Agile Journey
While the Scrum ceremonies we've discussed are the cornerstones of the Scrum framework, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention some additional practices teams often adopt to address their specific needs.
Remember, Agile is about individuals and interactions over processes and tools, so feel free to adapt and expand on these as suits your team.
Backlog Refinement (or Grooming): While not an official Scrum ceremony, many teams find it useful to set aside dedicated time for refining the backlog. It’s an opportunity to review, estimate, and prioritize items in the backlog, usually involving the Product Owner, the Scrum Master, and the Development team.
If you choose one of these additional ceremonies, I recommend you choose Backlog Refinement. I have yet to see a team that can manage a backlog successfully without refinement sessions.
Story Time (or Story Mapping): Another practice you might find helpful is a regular 'Story Time' meeting. This is a chance to decompose larger user stories (or Epics) into smaller, more manageable chunks.
Techniques like Story Mapping can be really useful here, as they help visualize the user's journey and understand how smaller stories fit into the larger narrative.
Release Planning: If your team is part of a larger organization or working on a complex project, you may find value in conducting a release planning meeting.
This is an opportunity to look at a longer-term view than the typical Sprint Planning meeting, coordinating across multiple Scrum Teams if necessary.
Retrospective of Retrospectives: In organizations with multiple Scrum teams, each team has its own Retrospective. Following these, it can be beneficial to have a 'Retrospective of Retrospectives'.
This allows patterns and challenges across teams to be identified, enabling improvements at an organizational level.
Adopting these practices isn't mandatory, but they can offer additional opportunities for transparency, inspection, and adaptation. They can enhance communication, alignment, and effectiveness within and across teams, so do consider whether they might be of value in your context.
Conclusion
Scrum ceremonies provide the heart beat, the rhythm, to our agility based ways of working. They allow us to plan, collaborate, review and improve.
Having said that, I encourage you to start with these in your sprint cadence, but don’t do it for the sake of it. Involve your team in understanding what works and what doesn’t.
Always give preference to agility - ready ability to move with quick easy grace.
Next week in this series, we will explore Building and nurturing high performance teams.
Stay tuned.
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