SCRUM CHECKLISTS

1.   Overview

Impediment Backlog

Impediments occur on both team and organizational levels. Identify, prioritize and make them visible using the Impediment Backlog.

General Meeting

All meetings follow a common standard. These basic rules not only increase the efficiency of the meetings but also make them more satisfying for all participants.

Estimation Meeting

Product Owner and team work on the estimation of the entire Product Backlog providing the basis for Release and Sprint Plannings.

Sprint Planning 1

The team and the Product Owner define the Sprint Goal and the Selected Product Backlog based on the effort estimation.

Sprint Planning 2

In the Sprint Planning 2 meeting the team works on the Selected Product Backlog by adding tasks to each Backlog Item. The effort of each task should not be bigger than one day.

Daily Scrum Meeting

The Daily Scrum Meeting helps the team to organize itself. It is a synchronization meeting between the team members. It takes place every day at the same time, at the same place. The meeting is time-boxed to 15 minutes.

Sprint Review Meeting

The status of the project is controlled by reviewing the working functionality. The Product Owner decides if the delivered functionality meets the Sprint Goal.

Retrospective

Inspect and adapt is a fundamental part of Scrum. During the Retrospective the team analyzes the previous Sprint to identify success stories and impediments.

2.   Impediment Backlog

·         Prepare a flip chart with 3 Columns: New, In Progress, Done

·         Go through to the ten typical impediments below. If you are experiencing any of the impediments then:

o    Write it down on a Post-it

o    Add it to the “New” column on the Impediment Backlog

Typical Impediments

1.    The meeting rules are not followed

2.    Product Vision and Sprint Goal are unclear

3.    The Product Owner is not available for questions

4.    The Product Backlog is not prioritized by business value

5.    Not everyone who contributes to the delivery is in the team

6.    The Scrum Master has to perform other tasks and is not able to focus on the team progress

7.    The team is too big (> 7 members)

8.    The team has no room where they can work together

9.    The team has no dashboard to access the Sprint Backlog

10. Add all known additional impediments to the “New” column on the Impediment Backlog.

11. Prioritize the impediments in the “New” column

12. Each time you start resolving an impediment move it to the “In Progress” column

13. Resolve that impediment as fast as possible

14. Each time an impediment is resolved, move it to the “Done” column

15. Collect new impediments during the Daily Scrum Meeting and Retrospective

3.   General Meeting

Note: Every meeting is time-boxed. The Scrum Master facilitates all meetings.

Meeting Preparation

·         The meeting has a goal

·         All participants are invited

·         The agenda is defined at least one day before the meeting takes place

·         The meeting goal and agenda has been sent to all participants

·         All resources are booked

o    Room

o    Data Projector

o    Notebook with net access

o    Flip chart and markers

·         The meeting room is fully prepared before the meeting starts

Meeting Moderation

Note: A parking lot is a list on a flip chart to collect topics which are not part of the meeting agenda.

·         Present the meeting goal

·         Present the agenda

·         If a discussion about a topic starts, which is not part of the agenda:

o    Add the topic to the parking lot

·         If the meeting time is over but the goal has not been reached:

o    Arrange a new meeting

·         If the participants achieve results:

o    Write the results down on the flip chart

o    Make sure everyone agrees about the written results

·         If the parking lot is not empty:

o    Find a person responsible for each topic

o    Add the name of the person in charge to each topic

Meeting Result

·         Every participant knows where to find the results

4.   Estimation Meeting

Goal: The sizes of the next relevant Product Backlog items are estimated.

Meeting Preparation à General Meeting

·         Participants are invited:

o    Product Owner

o    Scrum Master

o    All team members

·         Product Backlog is prioritized

·         Product Backlog is visible and accessible to everyone in the meeting

·         A set of cards for Planning Poker labeled 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 89 for each team member is at hand

Meeting Moderation

·         Present the goal of the meeting

·         The Product Owner presents the portion of the Product Backlog that he wants to be estimated

·         If the Backlog is not estimated at all:

o    Select a Backlog Item that you expect to be one of the smallest stories you’ll work on, give it 2 story points

·         For each Backlog Item in the Product Backlog:

o    The Product Owner explains the story behind the Backlog Item

o    Each team member selects one of his Planning Poker Cards to vote for the relative size of the Backlog Item

o    The team members show their cards at the same time

o    If the estimates differ, the most contrary team members discuss their view of the Backlog Item and the voting is repeated up to 2 times until all team members share the same opinion

o    The estimate is added to the Backlog Item

·         End the Estimation Meeting with a wrap-up

·         If necessary, schedule an additional estimation meeting

Meeting Results à General Meeting

The estimated Product Backlog is available for everyone in the organization

5.   Sprint Planning 1

Goal: Define the Sprint Goal and the Selected Product Backlog.

Meeting Preparation à General Meeting

·         Participants are invited:

o    Product Owner

o    Scrum Master

o    All team members

·         Product Backlog is prioritized

·         Backlog Items are estimated

·         Product Backlog is visible and accessible to everyone in the meeting

·         Planned absences (e.g. holidays) of team members are known

·         The room is suitable for team discussions

·         The results of the Sprint Review and the Retrospective are available

Note: Every appointment for the regular Scrum meetings is defined before the Sprint starts.

Recommended duration for regular Scrum meetings of a 30 day Sprint:

·         The Sprint Schedule is defined

o    Appointment for the Sprint Planning 1

o    Appointment for the Sprint Planning 2

o    First day of the Sprint is defined

o    Last day of the Sprint is defined

o    Appointment for the Daily Scrum Meeting

o    Appointment for the Sprint Review Meeting

o    Appointment for the Retrospective

·         (Optional) Pin board for the Selected Backlog:

o    A pin board of the size of at least 2 x 2 meters

o    Cards or Post-its

o    Markers

·         (Optional) Cards for planning poker

Meeting Moderation

·         Make the Sprint Schedule visible to everyone

·         Make the Sprint Review Meeting results visible to everyone

·         Make the Retrospective results visible to everyone

·         The Product Owner informs team about the product vision

·         The Product Owner and the team define the Sprint Goal

·         If there are Backlog Items missing:

o    The Product Owner can add the Backlog Item

Note: A story point is one of the values in the row: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 89.

·         If the Backlog is completely unestimated:

o    Select a Backlog Item that you expect to be one of the smallest stories you’ll work on, give it 2 story points

o    Assign story points to the other Backlog Items in relation to the smallest one

·         If there are some Backlog Items which are not estimated yet:

o    Estimate the Backlog Items in story points relative to the other ones.

·         If the Product Backlog is not well prioritized:

o    The Product Owner prioritizes the Product Backlog

·         The Product Owner and the team mutually agree on the Sprint Goal and the Selected Product Backlog

Meeting Results à General Meeting

·         Selected Product Backlog is well prepared for the Sprint Planning 2

6.   Sprint Planning 2

Goal: Define tasks to create the Sprint Backlog and commit to the Sprint Goal.

Meeting Preparation à General Meeting

·         Participants are invited:

o    Scrum Master

o    All Team members

o    Product Owner (has to be reachable for questions)

·         The Selected Product Backlog is accessible for the task planning

·         (Optional) Pin board for the Backlog:

o    A pin board of the size of at least 2 x 2 meters

o    Cards or Post-its for the tasks

o    Markers

Meeting Moderation

·         Team members find tasks for each Backlog Item

·         Make sure, that every piece of work is taken into account

o    Coding

o    Testing

o    Code review

o    Meetings

o    Learning new technologies

o    Writing documentation

·         If a task effort is bigger than one day:

o    Try to split the task into smaller tasks

·         If the team believes that the Sprint Backlog is too large:

o    Remove Backlog Items together with the Product Owner

·         If the team believes that the Sprint Backlog is too small:

o    Move the most important Backlog Items from the Product Backlog to the Sprint Backlog together with the Product Owner

·         The team commits to the Sprint Goal

Meeting Results à General Meeting

·         Sprint Goal and Sprint Backlog are visible to everyone in the organization

·         The tasks in the Sprint Backlog are accessible to all team members

7.   Daily Meeting

Goal: Synchronize the team.

Meeting Preparation à General Meeting

·         Participants are invited:

o    All team members

o    Scrum Master

o    (Optional) Product Owner

o    (Optional) Other stakeholder

·         Tasks on the Sprint Backlog are editable, addable, removable and sortable

·         State of a task can be set to “To Do”, “In Progress” and “Done”

Meeting Moderation

Note: The meeting is time-boxed to 15 minutes.

Note: Every team member answers the following 3 questions and takes care of the correlated actions.

·         What tasks have you finished since last meeting?

o    Set task from “In Progress” to “Done”

·         What tasks do you plan to finish before the next meeting?

o    If task is in state “To Do”: move it to “In Progress”

o    If task is not on the Sprint Backlog: add it

o    If task is not realizable within one day: divide it into smaller tasks

o    If task is realizable within one day: set state to “In Progress”

o    If task is already in state “In Progress”: ask if there is an impediment

·         What is in your way?

o    If something is in the way: add it as an impediment to the Impediment Backlog

·         If a discussion starts:

o    Remind the team members to focus on answering the questions

·         If a stakeholder wants to say something:

o    Remind him politely, that this meeting is only for the team

Meeting Results à General Meeting

·         Impediment Backlog is up-to-date

·         Sprint Backlog is up-to-date

·         Burndown Graph is up-to-date

8.   Sprint Review Meeting

Goal: Review all Backlog Items the team has delivered in this Sprint and check if the Sprint Goal was achieved.

Meeting Preparation à General Meeting

·         Participants are invited:

o    Product Owner

o    Scrum Master

o    All team members

·         The Sprint Goal is visible to everyone

·         The Selected Product Backlog is accessible and visible to everyone

·         The team has prepared workstations, devices etc. to demonstrate the new functionality

Meeting Moderation

·         The team presents the Sprint results and demonstrates the new functionality, Backlog Item after Backlog Item

·         If the Product Owner wants to change a feature:

o    Add a new Backlog Item to the Product Backlog

·         If a new idea for a feature occurs:

o    Add a new Backlog Item to the Product Backlog

·         If the team reports an impediment which is not solved yet:

o    Add the impediment to the Impediment Backlog

Meeting Results à General Meeting

·         Common understanding about the Sprint results and the product state

9.   Retrospective

Meeting Preparation à General Meeting

·         Participants are invited:

o    Scrum Master

o    All team members

o    (Optional) Product Owner

·         Additional facilities:

o    Text markers for all participants

o    Post-its

o    Red and green sticky dots

o    Whiteboard and flip chart

Note: Prime Directive: Regardless of what we discover, we must understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job he or she could, given what was known at the time, his or her skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand.

·         A flip chart with the Prime Directive

·         A time-line over at least 3 connected flip charts

·         A flip chart with “What Went Well”

·         A flip chart with “What could be Improved”

·         A flip chart with “Who is in Control” divided in 2 areas “Team” and

·         “Organization”

Meeting Moderation

Present the goal of the meeting

Present the Prime Directive

Mark the start and the end date of the Sprint on the time line

Note: Working with Post-its: Write only ONE event on each Post-it.

·         Explain to the participants how to work with Post-its

·         Hand out Post-its and ask everyone to write on them all significant events of this sprint; Timebox: 5 min.

·         Each participant in turn adds his Post-its to the time-line and explains in two sentences the story behind each event

·         Hand out Post-its and ask everybody to write on them “What went well”; Timebox: 5 min.

·         Each participant in turn adds his Post-its to the flip chart “What went well” and explains it

·         Hand out Post-its and ask everybody to write on them “What could be improved”; Timebox: 5 min.

·         Each participant in turn adds his Post-its to the flip chart “What could be improved” and explains it

·         For each item on the “What could be improved” flip chart:

o    Ask the team “Who is in control of this impediment?”

o    Move the Post-it to the corresponding column on the flip chart “Who is in control”

·         Prioritize both lists with the team

·         Run a wrap-up of the meeting:

o    Each participant gives a short reflection about the retrospective

Meeting Results à General Meeting

·         The “Who is in control” flip chart is visible to everyone in the organization

·         The impediments related to the organization are added to the Impediment Backlog

·         The impediments related to the team are added to the Product Backlog

10.               Roles

Product Owner

The Product Owner is the representative of all stakeholders. His focus is the business side of the product. He carries the product vision to the team. He formalizes a specific, measurable and reasonable Product Backlog and prioritizes it by business value.

Team

The team does everything to win the game – to deliver the product. The team is cross-functional. That means the full know-how to realize the product is located in the team. The team needs to understand the vision and Sprint Goals of the Product Owner in order to deliver potentially shippable product increments.

Scrum Master

The Scrum Master is the coach and facilitator of the team. He improves the productivity. He always has a training plan for the team – the Impediment Backlog. The Scrum Master controls the “inspect and adapt” cycles of Scrum. He protects the team and works with the Product Owner to maximize the return on investment. He takes care that the agile ideals are understood and respected by all stakeholders.

11.               Artifacts

Product Backlog

The Product Backlog lists any required deliverables. Its contents are ordered by business value. Backlog Item priority might change, requirements can be added and removed – thus the Product Backlog is a continuously maintained plan towards a growing business value.

Selected Product Backlog

The Selected Product Backlog is the result of the Sprint Planning. It defines the amount of work the team has accepted. It remains unchanged during the whole Sprint.

Sprint Backlog

The Sprint Backlog consists of the necessary tasks to realize the final accepted a version of the Selected Product Backlog. The team uses it to synchronize its activities.

Impediment Backlog

An Impediment Backlog lists any issues that have to be solved within or concerning the team. The Scrum Master makes sure that Impediment Backlog items are assigned and worked on.