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Few Questions on Scrum Guide

Last post 01:42 pm September 21, 2015 by Prem Krishna Natarajan
7 replies
03:11 pm September 13, 2015

1. "Formal opportunity to inspect and adapt".
As per scrum guide “Scrum prescribes four formal events for inspection and adaptation, as described in the Scrum Events section of this document”
• Sprint Planning
• Daily Scrum
• Sprint Review
• Sprint Retrospective

Scrum Guide also states: “Although improvements may be implemented at any time, the Sprint Retrospective provides a formal opportunity to focus on inspection and adaptation.”

Why scrum guide again says “Sprint Retrospective provides a formal opportunity to focus on inspection and adaptation.” ? The same should hold true for other 3 events.



2. Can the development team composition can change during a Sprint?
As per Scrum Guide: During Sprint
• No changes are made that would endanger the Sprint Goal;
• Quality goals do not decrease; and,
• Scope may be clarified and re-negotiated between the Product Owner and Development Team as more is learned.

Hence it’s allowed although it will affect the productivity or it will come under "endanger the Sprint Goal" category? I am not sure here.


3. “The Product Owner may be present during the second part of the Sprint Planning Meeting to clarify the selected Product Backlog items and to help make trade-offs”

I came across above line while taking some online assessments.

As per Scrum Guide: Scrum Guide: By the end of the Sprint Planning, the Development Team should be able to explain to the Product Owner and Scrum Master how it intends to work as a self-organizing team to accomplish the Sprint Goal and create the anticipated Increment.

So my understanding is the PO should be present throughout the Sprint planning. Please correct me.

4. “How the work is planned at the sprint Review?”
My understanding from the scrum guide is: Enough work is planned for the entire Sprint by PO and DT. But DT decomposes the planned Sprint work only for first day or less.

Work is planned by both DT and PO or DT only?


06:08 am September 14, 2015

1. Every Scrum events is an opportunity to inspect and adapt but they usually focus on different things:

The Daily Scrum focus on work since last Daily Scrum (inspect) and plan for the next one (adapt)
The Sprint Planning focus on backlog (inspect) and work to be done in the Sprint (adapt)
The Sprint Review focus on Increment done in the Sprint (inspect) and adapting backlog (adapt)
The Sprint Retrospective focus on how the Scrum process went in the last Sprint (inspect) and plan improvements of the Scrum process (adapt)

2. Scrum Teams are self-organizing. They can choose to change team composition, but they should avoid changing composition of the team during a Sprint, because there will be a loss of productivity AND this could endanger the Sprint Goal.

3. PO need to be present at the Sprint Planning Meeting since its start. During Sprint Planning, the PO should discuss the objective of the Sprint and the related backlog items to be done to reach the Goal. After this, the DT decide and explain how they will do the job. The PO and DT may negotiate the selected backlog items to be done. So PO should be at Sprint Planning Meeting from start to the end.

4. Planning work is the scope of the Sprint Planning and not the Sprint Review. In Sprint Planning, the backlog items to be 'done' and the Sprint Goal are 'fixed'. The work (decomposition of the backlog item) usually is not planned for all the Sprint but just for the first few days. The DT continue creating work from already selected backlog items, during the Sprint and usually is the sole responsible to plan its own work.


11:29 am September 14, 2015

Thank you for your answers.


02:41 pm September 15, 2015

Hi I am new to scrum. I have already posted below question on a different thread. But yet to get an answer. Please clarify below scenario.
I came across few question like (All the questions will be based on PO responsibility and the key to answer was PO can delegate the work to development team.)
1. Who is responsible for managing product back log to show what the scrum team will work next?
2. Who is responsible to clearly expressing Product backlog items?
My answers were: Product Owner
Correct Answer: 1. Product Owner, 2. Development team.
I understand PO can delegate his responsibility to Development team. But PO remains accountable.


02:08 am September 16, 2015

This is pretty clear in the Scrum Guide: "The Product Owner is the sole person responsible for managing the Product Backlog. Product Backlog management includes: Clearly expressing Product Backlog items."

Where did you find the "correct" answer that says the Development Team is responsible for clearly expressing Product Backlog items?

The Product Owner can delegate, but he or she remains responsible and has the final say.

The Prime Minister can delegate creating a legislation to his staff, but once it comes back to him, he still needs to approve it. Or send it back to the drawing board with his corrections. And when he stands before the cameras to present it, he will be held responsible for it, not his staff that he delegated to.


09:28 am September 16, 2015

I agree with Chris. PO is the sole responsible for Product Backlog.
Regarding the backlog, the DT is responsible for estimates but expressing backlog items clearly is a PO responsibility. And although as a PO you can delegate some task, responsibility cannot be delegated - for the same reason PO have to be a specific person and not - for example - a committee.


01:56 am September 21, 2015

Cleared my PSM1 on 17th Sept. Thanks to scrum org. I was able to do it without much background on scrum. It’s a great place to learn scrum.
Special thanks to Prem Krishna Natarajan, Ching-Pei Li, Chris Kulbacki, Amodiovalerio Verde, Ludwig Harsch and Ian Mitchell for helping me and clarifying my doubts.


01:42 pm September 21, 2015

Congrats Soumya.

Best Wishes & Good luck on your future endeavors.


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