Looking for an Agile training course for handling unknowns
Not sure how to best phrase this question.
I am a new Scrum Master for a small software development team only managing one Project (which is our Product). Currently, the two company founders are the Product Owners, but they don’t have time for it and want me to take on that role as well as the Scrum Master.
I am looking for professional courses class or online that will help me run extremely dynamic Sprints where there are a lot of unknown factors involved.For example, we will have a Sprint planning session where we as a Scrum team define all the tasks needed to complete the Sprint. However, we end up creating new tasks as we go due to technical issues which can cause us to change course and create all new tasks. This results and having to extend the Sprint because due to all the unknown factors that creep up during development.
So I as the Project Manager/Scrum Master am looking for a course or courses that will help me better use the Agile method to run Sprints using Jira?
You may wish to start with this site PSM learning path, as what you are currently doing does not sound like scrum.
Yes I was considering this live in person class coming up in January
https://www.scrum.org/courses/professional-scrum-master-plano-tx-2022-0…
Will this class help me figure out how to guide our team so we can have productive Sprints and how we can address things that happen where it can cause us to have to extend Sprints, etc. Looking for how best to approach these kind of situations using Agile and Scrum?
Some things to consider on your learning path:
- A Scrum Master doesn't manage a project, or even "run Sprints"
- In Scrum, one Product would not have two Product Owners
- A lot of unknown factors are to be expected with a complex product and therefore in Scrum
- Sprints are not extended: doing so would cover problems up
I think what's best for you and your team is to not do Scrum at the moment and focus more on building your product properly. Take the time to figure out the technical aspects, design, etc. There is no point in "forcing" the use of Scrum if you and your team are not ready for it, it will just hinder your productivity.
It seems to me you are doing Scrum wrong, so it might be better to not focus on implementing Scrum right now, but to learn Scrum first, then implement it when you understand it better.
To add more points to Ian's:
- There is no project manager role, the team self-manage itself.
- Even tho it's not forbidden, it is not recommended that the Product Owner and the Scrum Master be the same person.
Out of curiosity, what is your team composition?
When you are starting new with Scrum, A strong recommendation is to follow the Scrum guide as it is.Following the framework by guide helps you to identify differences that team has in terms of way of working, team alignment. The inspection process in Scrum itself will help your team to find out which practices, tools can fit for your product development over the course of time. So don't alter the events order, timeline other elements.
This results and having to extend the Sprint because due to all the unknown factors that creep up during development.
Technical/Functional uncertainties will be there irrespective of what technology choices you made, domain etc. Backlog refinement is a continuous activity which can help your team to align on what is expected out of a backlog item. So ask your team to spend some time on refinement activities during the sprint. this will help to discover the unknown factor to some extend before planning in a sprint.