95
votes
How to deal with unavoidable on-demand tasks in Scrum? Or should we even try?
I recently experienced exactly the same situation you are describing. While I'm not the Scrum Master for my team, I was the only person on the team who had used any Scrum methods previously. To solve ...
- 1,051
53
votes
Accepted
Task estimation for PMs who are not developers
If at all possible, they don't.
They ask developers to estimate it.
Estimates should always be made by the people who will perform the work being estimated. If this is not done, then you run the ...
- 14.8k
49
votes
Accepted
How can a Scrum team work with a Waterfall team
Pretend the Waterfall team is an outside contractor
Since you're interfacing with the Waterfall team's code solely via an API, just pretend you're hiring an outside contractor to create that code for ...
- 605
38
votes
Accepted
What are the definitions and differences between: Theme, Epic, Feature, User Story and Task?
Each organization and author has a different definition for these terms.
In this article, Mike Cohn provides his definition of User Stories, Epics and Themes:
A user story is simply something a ...
- 916
36
votes
Accepted
How do you schedule delivery dates in Scrum?
TL; DR
Agile release planning is based on fixed-length, normed-capacity cycles that operate on dynamically-planned and dynamically-scoped features. In Scrum, fixed-date release planning must be ...
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33
votes
How should a Scrum master handle disagreements about story-point estimates in Scrum?
With that much variation in the estimate, it seems like the work as it's currently defined is not ready for estimation yet. Based on that wide spread in estimates, I would say that the team doesn't ...
- 18.8k
33
votes
Senior developers 'reject' agile. What now?
As a Product Owner or product manager, you shouldn't be too concerned with the details of how the development teams are working on a day-to-day basis. If you believe that certain aspects of the way of ...
- 18.8k
28
votes
Accepted
Difference between grooming and refinement
The phrase "backlog grooming" was officially replaced with "backlog refinement" in the Scrum Guide back in 2013. The change was largely done for:
Clarity of semantics. Arguably, ...
- 49.5k
28
votes
Accepted
QA is at capacity, Development has room
It seems to me that you are trying to fill each sprint to capacity, and keep everyone fully utilized. Planning for 100% resource utilization is a bad idea. You will only end up with busy people and ...
- 14.5k
27
votes
Which is better: large feature branches or merging frequently? Which is better small work items vs large work items?
There is a lot to unpack in your question, but from what I read I see two main issues:
the old guard (as you name it) doesn't want to change their way of working. What they did might have worked ...
- 14.5k
26
votes
Accepted
In Scrum, is a Scrum Master position higher than a Product Owner?
It's impossible to answer your question because "Scrum Master" and "Product Owner" are roles, not job titles. Their job positions may be different and depend on the company.
For example, a Product ...
- 5,291
26
votes
Accepted
The contradictions between agile approach and the growth of individual team member
Let's unpack this a bit:
For example, a software engineer can be assigned to UX design tasks in the name of agility.
Agility is something people want to achieve because they can respond faster to ...
- 14.5k
25
votes
Accepted
What can a Scrum Master do in a team that has mastered scrum?
I don't think there is a simple answer to this question. Instead, I think there are a number of different scenarios:
A team is very experienced in Scrum and rotates the Scrum Master role. They have ...
- 19.1k
25
votes
Agile Principles: What does "sustainable development" mean?
Agile processes promote sustainable development.
The explanation is right in the next sentence:
The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
It means ...
- 8,348
24
votes
Hot swapping people in a scrum team
The situation you describe is Scrum Zombie, not Scrum. My answer will try to organize a few of the aspects you mentioned.
Software developers are not resources
business needs the resource and cannot ...
- 1,107
23
votes
How should a Scrum master handle disagreements about story-point estimates in Scrum?
The first thing you should do is encourage the team to bring concrete arguments.
"Things are more complicated than they seem" or "I don't think those complications are valid" are ...
- 508
23
votes
Agile: in a sprint retro can I bring up a negative which isn't affecting me personally but I know another team member has a problem with it?
I don't see any problems with raising concerns that you are aware of yet don't directly impact you. There may be ramifications to your relationship with coworkers if they see that as breaking some ...
- 18.8k
23
votes
Agile in a reactive organisation?
You ask:
What is the best way to implement agile in these circumstances?
Before thinking about this question you should think about how to bring in some common sense into the situation. Having ...
- 14.5k
22
votes
Help - Technical team does not want to work in agile way
You don't make any mention of a Scrum Master in your Question, so I'm going to assume that either s/he doesn't exist or isn't helpful. If not, make sure you involve the Scrum Master! It's his/her job ...
- 14.8k
22
votes
Accepted
In Scrum what are the benefits of self-managing?
This is the sort of things people write books about, so this is just going to touch on a few things at an incredibly superficial level.
Autonomy leads to motivation: Research has shown that autonomy ...
- 16.8k
21
votes
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Why use both story points and hours?
Story Points Estimation and Hours Estimation have different purposes.
We use Story Points during Product Backlog Refinement.
Story Points are good for high-level planning.
When we make an ...
- 5,291
21
votes
How to motivate offshore teams and trust them to deliver?
when pushed to do 60, they will deliver 60.
This is a pretty meaningless measure in these circumstances. A team could drop quality to deliver more points or simply game the estimation of stories. ...
- 19.1k
21
votes
Accepted
Are self-organizing teams subject to self-blocking, when there's a disagreement?
If the team is truly self-organizing, then the members would recognize that they have an issue that needs outside assistance and would, among themselves, find a way to resolve it. One option would be ...
- 18.8k
20
votes
Accepted
How do I facilitate a first time Agile retrospective?
Awesome for you. The retrospective can be one of the most fun and informative "ceremonies" of agile.
So once you get the book, Diana is going to recommended never falling into a rut and tailoring ...
- 12.4k
20
votes
Accepted
How to manage story points when several developers work on 1 story?
When estimating user stories, everyone should be estimating the complete effort it will take the team to get the story to Done. So, the back-end dev should not just estimate the effort it will take ...
- 2,730
20
votes
Accepted
When does a Scrum Team assign story points to the stories in the Scrum methodology?
The only certain answer is: sometime before the story is added into the sprint. After that the story point estimate doesn't add much value.
Common times that Scrum teams estimate stories:
Backlog ...
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20
votes
Accepted
Should PO define execution order of stories in a Sprint?
No, the Product Owner shouldn't be defining the execution of work during a Sprint.
At the Sprint Planning event, the Product Owner and Developers collaborate to craft a Sprint Goal, select Product ...
- 18.8k
19
votes
Accepted
How to convince upper management of the need for agile software?
To tweak the Field of Dreams quote "Do it and the tools will come." Tools are not the solution, they are tools to aid the solution. You need the solution first.
Start running agile with a physical ...
- 12.4k
19
votes
Accepted
Should a Scrum team formally track daily commitments?
Coordination/Collaboration, Not Formal Task-Tracking
While the Scrum Guide used to refer to the stand-up as a commitment meeting, it currently says:
The Daily Scrum is a 15-minute time-boxed event ...
- 49.5k
19
votes
Accepted
Planning a sprint after reduced team strength
If you reduce a team from 7 to 4, especially if the reason is something outside the team, the best course of action is probably to treat this as a completely new team. People will need to change into ...
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