Aha! Moments in Agility
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AMIA: #16
Reading Time: ~ 5 minutes
Hello all.
It’s time to get back to continuing our agile journey.
In today’s email:
The story: ChatGPT for Scrum Masters
Introduction
Hey Scrum Master. In our world of Agile software development, we wear many hats. We're facilitators, problem solvers, and the shield that protects our team from distractions. We champion the Scrum framework and guide our teams towards success.
But let's be honest, it can be overwhelming at times, right?
That's where ChatGPT, an advanced language model developed by OpenAI, comes in. This AI-powered tool could be the game-changer you've been looking for.
Today, I'll walk you through how ChatGPT can assist you in your day-to-day activities, making your job more manageable and leaving you with more time to interact and facilitate your team(s).
Engineering the Prompt
The way to think about using ChatGPT for anything is to understand prompt engineering.
A Large Language Model (LLM) like OpenAI’s ChatGPT is trained on a vast amount of text data to generate human=like text based on given prompts.
It’s important to note ‘human-like’. In layman’s terms, the model is really good at predicting what the next word should be. It has ‘read’ immense number of sources of textual data, including books, websites and even code.
To get the best output, we need to do the following:
Setting the context
ChatGPT will respond to any prompt. But to get the best output, we need to give it a proper context. For example, if we prompt it to act as a Scrum Master, it will now have the contextual information to guide its responses.
Define the task
I have purposefully left the prompts in the table below a bit generic. You can use them as-is but I recommend that you play with personalizing them as per your need. When defining the task, it’s a good practice to be explicit about what input you will provide, what is the desired output, what steps it should take for processing, what format should it use for the output; for e.g. in a table format or a list.
Refine the output by giving feedback
I almost never leave after the first response. I always review it, and provide my feedback for improvements. Quite often, I will use my experience and add some step or detail that will spark ChatGPT into providing a better response. Keep going until you are satisfied.
The Context
Here is the context I’ve setup for all the prompts:
Act as an Agile Coach with many years of experience coaching agile software development teams in Scrum ways of working. You understand how to help teams learn by doing. You are working with a Scrum Master who may ask you for help on some TASK. You will help the Scrum Master step by step. First you will read back the ask for help so you and the Scrum Master are on the same page. Then you will ask any clarifying questions that will help you understand the specifics about the topic and nature of help required. Then you will complete the TASK. You’re great at it; you can do it.
TASK: <Add your prompt here>
You can see that this part of the prompt sets upChatGPT to ‘act like’ an agile coach. The rest is there to make the context more specific and outlines the kind of interaction you expect.
I’ve used ‘TASK’ as a placeholder for the prompt that we want to use after setting this context. It’s good practice to separate different parts of the prompt like this. But don’t be fooled into thinking this acts like a variable in code; it does not.
The Prompt
I’ve used the example of Scrum ceremonies and then created some prompts for pre, during and post phases of the ceremony. Here are the prompts in the image below:
The Example
Here are the screenshots of a complete prompt:
Here is a partial screenshot of the response from ChatGPT:
Conclusion
So, there you have it. This AI tool can be a powerful ally, helping streamline processes, providing valuable insights, and even taking over some of the more routine tasks.
This frees you up to focus on what you do best - guiding your team towards success.
But remember:
Never use personally identifiable information or business sensitive data as part of prompts with any AI tool that’s not sanctioned by your organisation.
Use the output as a bouncing board; then further apply your mind, experience and skills to refine. This tool doesn’t do your job for you. It helps you reduce the time required to brainstorm and create initial drafts.
So, whether you're a seasoned Scrum Master or just starting your Agile journey, it's time to embrace the possibilities that AI brings. After all, our goal is continuous improvement, and what better way to achieve that than by leveraging the power of AI!
When you’re ready…
I can help you in 3 ways:
Check out the resources list
Forecast timelines like a Pro in under 1 minute - Zero Estimate System
Fix the root cause of bugs & defects in your team - Root Cause Analysis Template
Book One on One coaching with me - Become a go-to Scrum Master in your organization.
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