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DoD guiding Sprint Planning

Last post 11:13 am July 4, 2019 by Ian Mitchell
7 replies
01:35 am June 25, 2019

Per the Scrum Guide:

The same definition guides the Development Team in knowing how many Product Backlog items it can select during a Sprint Planning.

Are there any examples from any one's experience where their teams referred to the DoD in terms of picking up PBIs in sprint planning and concluded which they can pick up and which they cannot (and what was done in that case, splicing of PBIs to take enough for sprint planning)?

Looking for some real time examples/scenarios in the above context. It will help me relate more to the above statement.


02:26 pm June 25, 2019

Might a Definition of Done help a team to estimate during Product Backlog refinement, so work is made "ready" for Sprint Planning?


02:35 pm June 25, 2019

Product Owner(PO) had 9 Product Backlog Items(PBI) that, when combined, produced a feature that stakeholders had been asking for over a period of 2 months.  The PO had been working with the stakeholders to refine the stories.  When the stories were finally descriptive of the feature, the PBIs were ordered at the top of the Product Backlog. At the next Sprint Planning, the PO explained that the stakeholders had "been waiting for this feature for months" and asked if the Development Team(DT) could pull all the stories into the next Sprint. 

The DT discussed the request and reviewed the stories.  Their Definition of Done included this statement: "All known technical debt identified in code changed is resolved."  The DT already knew that they would have to upgrade multiple of the third party components that was used in the code that would be modified.  They also knew that with that work included, they could not do more than 4 of the 9 stories. They took 4 stories in and explained to the PO the reason for their decision. PO respected their decision since the DT are the ones that define the Sprint Backlog and have the knowledge of the technical implementation. 


02:23 am June 26, 2019

Thank you Daniel, that helps. 

Would be great if others on this forum also share more real world examples. Thanks.


06:01 am July 4, 2019

Have another question: Can a PO influence the DoD?

For example: having the PO accept features/stories developed and completed against mocked/stubbed data versus a end-end integration with live data.

Let's say, the development team includes the former as a DoD with the assumption that as long as the back end honors the contract the feature will work properly against the real data. But the PO is not comfortable and needs the latter to be a part of DoD. In that case who will have a final say on the DoD for this specific point?

Hope I am clear enough. 


06:26 am July 4, 2019

But the PO is not comfortable and needs the latter to be a part of DoD. In that case who will have a final say on the DoD for this specific point?

If it wasn’t part of the DoD, would each Sprint increment be of release quality?


10:05 am July 4, 2019

I agree that it has to be a part of the DoD. But which one of the below:

 

1. developed and completed against mocked/stubbed data -- this is favored by the Development Team as this enforces the back end team to stick to a contract early, and also finish the work early and move on to new work

2. developed and completed against end-end integration with live data - this is favored by the PO as this gives more confidence to release as it allows the PO see the feature work against real data. this is not favored by the Development Team as it is exhaustive test and needs multiple pieces of the system, owned by different teams, working in perfect sync on test environments (which is less likely to happen)

Considering the above who will have the final say to choose from one of the above to be a part of DoD.


11:13 am July 4, 2019

this is favored by the PO as this gives more confidence to release as it allows the PO see the feature work against real data.

How important do you believe it is, in Scrum, to have a Definition of Done that gives a PO the confidence to release?


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