Steve Trapps

What is Scrum? When and where can you use it? What does Good look like?

In 2020 the Scrum Guide introduced the classification of three commitments - The Product Goal The Sprint Goal The Definition of Done. The Sprint Goal and the Definition of Done already existed in Scrum. With the addition of the Product Goal, the three commitments became core to Scrum, joining alongside the 3 Accountabilities, 3 Artefacts and 5 Events. The Scrum Guide describes the purpose of the commitments as "..to ensure it provides information that enhances transparency and focus against which progress can be measured." and "...These commitments exist to reinforce empiricism and the Scrum values for the Scrum Team and their stakeholders." Transparency improves when people working on something understand what they are looking at and its intention/purpose. By having an explicit, understandable outcome (i.e. a goal or a Definition of Done), the whole Team works together to do everything they can to achieve the outcome. It is a unifying intrinsic motivation for the group. How do the commitments reinforce Empiricism and the Scrum Values to the Scrum Team and their Stakeholders? Scrum.org defines Empiricism as "...Only the past is accepted as certain and in which decisions are based on observation, experience and experimentation." https://www.scrum.org/resource/glossary So How do the Goals Help? Having a Product Goal, Sprint Goal, and DoD serves as a target used to observe progress and evaluate how near we are to the desired state. Questions such as, Have we altered our original plan to keep heading towards the goal? What unexpected changes have we had to address? What additional items must be done to meet the expected criteria, and are they all explicitly known? ..help to answer "How can we use this knowledge to decide what to do going forward?" All help to support an empirical way of working. - Experience, Observe, Experiment. We're basing our decisions on observations and what we've done before, reinforcing Empiricism's principles. What Support do the Scrum Values Provide? "When these values are embodied by the Scrum Team and the people they work with, the empirical Scrum pillars of Transparency, Inspection, and Adaptation come to life building trust." Scrum Guide 2020 When the values are not present, trust can be undermined and damaged. A team will struggle to embrace transparency if any level of mistrust exists; mistrust surrounding the potential behaviour of the Team and stakeholders. Teams will consciously or subconsciously decide to hide the actual state of progress when they have experienced adverse reactions from stakeholders. The absence of the values makes it highly likely that a Team will not demonstrate courage and openness and sugarcoat or watermelon* the actual situation. Scrum Values impact not only the behaviours of the Team but also Stakeholders. Stakeholders may need courage and respect when supporting the Product Owner in their decision making. Hence the accountability of the Scrum Master to be a coach and help the broader organisation understand the Scrum Framework. Behaviours around the Scrum Values are reinforced by having an understandable goal with a known acceptable quality of the Product. It becomes the only natural stance to provide an accurate picture. It takes more effort to create a vague state of progress in an already complex world as the actual condition is transparent. Questions like, Do we have a Done product? Have we achieved the outcome in the Sprint?" become a yes / no option. "How far away from the future state are we?" is obvious. The people inspecting the state can find no place to hide away from difficult conversations. The Commitments reinforce Empiricism within Scrum Teams compare the current state of the increment with its desired future state and may choose to adapt the direction. Progress made within the Sprint is inspected. The quality of the increment is available, visible and understood by all. All this is reinforced by having one of the most overlooked aspects of Scrum - The Three Commitments. *The watermelon effect is when people report everything is ok, "Green", but the actual "Red" state starts to appear when you dig deeper.

As part of a coaching certification programme that I am on we were discussing the difference between Ethics, Values and Morals. You may think that they are the same or that there isn't much difference between the three aspects. Morals are rules set by culture/society, they have most likely have not been set you, however, they are personal to you and externally visible Values are internal to you. Ethics are externally visible and "Professional" behaviours If you want to consider if you are behaving ethically or unethically consider the following questions to help you make that decision. To answer the question - "Am I acting ethically / unethically?" consider the questions below Questions to use to view the situation through What if any, are the issues of confidentiality that may not be honoured here? What if any, are the conflicts of interest, or the appearance of a conflict of interest? If I do, or don't do something what is the impact on my profession? For me, it is question 3 that really brings the point home. If I do, or do not do something what is the impact on my profession. If I bring my profession into disrepute it would be ethically wrong for me to do - regardless of my morals or values. I thought it was useful to share this as it has helped me a lot since finding this out to appreciate why I'm reacting to situations. If you want to find out more about me - https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevetrapps Please feel free to link in!

I have recently started down the path of certification with Co-Active Coaching as I wanted to improve my coaching skills; to know more about what great coaching looks like, to immerse myself in a community that will help me improve my abilities and to have credibility in my own mind about my own skills.

Watching Euro2020, my daughter asked if a football coach could manage two teams at once.

“I keep six honest serving men (they taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How And Where and Who.” - Rudyard Kipling

In the Peoples And Teams section of the Professional Scrum Master course, we discuss the impact of Task Switching. We discuss that task switching destroys efficiency and quality. Using the work of Gerald Weinberg's book, Quality Software Management: Systems Thinking, the course shows that if someone is working on 2 projects simultaneously the effort spent on both isn't 50% but 40%. The individual who is switching loses 20% effort to context switching. That may not sounds a lot and people are often asked to work on more than one thing - this is a common question I asked in the class. It seems that the organisations believe this price a price worth paying, otherwise, why would so many people be asked to work this way? Maybe the true cost of it isn't made visible to the organisation. A technique to make this visible is to show the financial cost of task switching. Let's assume that a developer is being paid £$€600 per day for their effort. If the developer is working on two projects simultaneously then 20% of the £$€600 is lost to context switching - £$€120 - every day they are working on two projects simultaneously. Extrapolate that out and over the year, assuming the number of weeks worked is 48, it is a loss of £$€28,800.00 all due to not being able to start work and finish it. If you want to save money, potentially deliver early and deliver value sooner - help your colleagues to focus on one thing and one thing only. Then move onto the next

A few years ago, I bumped into an ex-colleague of mine who was working with someone who I had also previously worked with - both of us were, or had been, a Scrum Master for this ex-colleague.

"How do you get an inexperienced Product Owner to concentrate on the why's and the value delivered by a feature/requirement, rather than a list of what's e.g we must gather a,b,c... x,y,z info from our users"

I was recently asked What should each role be doing during the Sprint? So, I took a copy of the latest Scrum Guide (November 2017), read it (again) and broke it down for them and now for you! The items below are taken directly from the Scrum Guide Novermber 2017 and so may see vague or less prescriptive than you're expecting. As Scrum is framework, your teams may be doing additional things in the events - which is fine,as long as they're getting value from doing the actions. Hope you find this useful (Oh and thanks to fellow PST Rich Visotcky for proof checking, however any errors are all mine! ) During the Sprint The Product Owner Clearly express Product Backlog items. Order the items in the Product Backlog to best achieve goals and missions. Optimise the value of the work the Development Team perform Talk with customers. Interview stakeholders. Gather market feedback. Etc.” Ensure that the Product Backlog is visible, transparent, and clear to all, and shows what the Scrum Team will work on next. Ensure the Development Team understands items in the Product Backlog to the level needed. Clarify scope and re-negotiated between the Product Owner and Development Team as more is learned. Can cancel the Sprint if the Sprint Goal is obsolete. Decide to release the increment Exhibit the Scrum Values The Development Team Clarify and re-negotiated Scope as more is learned. Build the Product Increment. Raise any potential issues. Inspect & Adapt approach based on the current state of sprint. Hold each other accountable for each other’s actions Exhibit the Scrum Values Be Self Organising and Cross Functional The Scrum Master Promote and support Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide Facilitating Scrum events as requested or needed. Exhibit the Scrum Values Ensure that goals, scope, and product domain are understood by everyone on the Scrum Team as well as possible Support the PO by: Finding techniques for effective Product Backlog management; Helping the Scrum Team understand the need for clear and concise Product Backlog items; Understanding product planning in an empirical environment; Ensure that the Product Owner knows how to arrange the Product Backlog to maximize value; Understanding and practicing agility; Support the Dev Team by: Coaching the Development Team in self-organization and cross-functionality; Helping the Development Team to create high-value products; Removing impediments to the Development Team’s progress; Facilitating Scrum events as requested or needed; and, Coaching the Development Team in organizational environments in which Scrum is not yet fully adopted and understood. Support the Organisation by: Leading and coaching the organization in its Scrum adoption; Planning Scrum implementations within the organization; Helping employees and stakeholders understand and enact Scrum and empirical product development; Causing change that increases the productivity of the Scrum Team; and, Working with other Scrum Masters to increase the effectiveness of the application of Scrum in the organization. During Sprint Planning The Product Owner Explains the objective that the Sprint should achieve and the Product Backlog items that, if completed in the Sprint, would achieve the Sprint Goal. Help to clarify the selected Product Backlog items and make trade-offs. Craft the Sprint Goal The Development Team Forecast the functionality that will be developed during the Sprint. Renegotiate the selected Product Backlog items with the Product Owner, if the Development Team determines it has too much or too little work. Decide how it will build this functionality into a “Done” product Increment during the Sprint. 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. Estimate the size of the Product Backlog Items Craft the Sprint Goal The Scrum Master Facilitating Scrum events as requested or needed During The Daily Scrum The Development Team Plan the work for the next 24 hours Inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal and to inspect how progress is trending toward completing the work in the Sprint Backlog Understand how it intends to work together as a self-organizing team to accomplish the Sprint Goal and create the anticipated Increment by the end of the Sprint. Responsible for conducting the Daily Scrum. The Scrum Master Facilitating Scrum events as requested or needed During the Sprint Review The Product Owner Invite attendees to the Sprint Review Explain what Product Backlog items have been “Done” and what has not been “Done” Discuss the Product Backlog as it stands. He or she projects likely target and delivery dates based on progress to date. Obtain feedback from stakeholders on what they’d like next in order to potentially update the Product Backlog The Development Team Discuss what went well during the Sprint, what problems it ran into, and how those problems were solved Demonstrates the work that it has “Done” and answers questions about the Increment; The Scrum Master Facilitating Scrum events as requested or needed During the Sprint Retrospective The Product Owner Create a minimum of 1 continuous improvement Idea for the next Sprint Act as a peer participant and make transparent the interactions and processes from the past Sprint The Development Team Create a minimum of 1 continuous improvement idea for the next Sprint The Scrum Master Facilitating Scrum events as requested or needed The Scrum Master ensures that the meeting is positive and productive. The Scrum Master teaches all to keep it within the time-box. The Scrum Master participates as a peer team member in the meeting from the accountability over the Scrum process. The Scrum Master encourages the Scrum Team to improve, within the Scrum process framework, its development process and practices to make it more effective and enjoyable for the next Sprint. My offer to you.... If you attend one of my courses, I'd like to offer you a complementary coaching session with me - so that you can experience a Co-Active coaching session. Course details can be found at https://www.scrum.org/classes?uid=226040 If you can't see a course that you'd like to attend please have a look at my profile page to see the courses I can deliver - it could be that you've just missed the course that you're interested in - https://www.scrum.org/steve-trapps. More details on the coaching can be found at https://www.theagiletrainer.com/coaching