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Sprint execution is the actual work of the Scrum team during the Sprint to accomplish the tasks needed to complete each Story in the Sprint Backlog.

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Quick reference

Sprint Execution

Sprint execution is the actual work of the Scrum team during the Sprint to accomplish the tasks needed to complete each Story in the Sprint Backlog.

When to use

As soon as the Sprint Planning meeting ends, execution can begin. Sprint execution will continue until the scheduled end of the Sprint.

Instructions

Agile/Scrum and traditional project management both consider execution as doing the project tasks. Where they differ is how the tasks are assigned and tracked. 

  • In an Agile/Scrum Sprint – tasks and stories are not assigned to team members. Instead, they select the tasks and stories, normally in the priority order. Every team member will take one or two tasks and start working on them. Normally they select the tasks that they estimated, but not always.  What is more important is the priority.
  • Remember that the Scrum Team is a self-organizing team. I have seen some team members who work great together as a team. They will jointly select a task or story and work on it together.
  • Part of project execution is tracking progress. With and Agile/Scrum Sprint project, the progress is assessed at the Scrum meetings. 
    • These are normally held daily and last about 15 minutes.
    • At the meeting, Stories and tasks are moved from column to column to reflect their current status. 
    • At the meeting, any new roadblocks are identified and the Scrum Master provides an update on any unresolved roadblocks.
    • Scrum team members provide a revised estimate of the remaining work needed to complete each task in the WIP column.
  • Following the Scrum meeting, the Scrum Master updates the Scrum Board and Burn Down Chart.
  • If a Scrum Team member has a question about a Story or task they should contact the Product Owner for clarification.
  • If a Scrum Team member wants to modify a Story, they need to coordinate that with the Product Owner and get that individual’s approval. However, the Scrum Team member has the authority to change tasks – as long as they deliver the Story and meet the Demo Criteria. 
  • If a team is nearing completion of the Sprint Backlog and the Sprint is not yet scheduled to end, they can select any tasks from the “Not Selected” column and work on those until the Sprint duration has expired.

Hints and Tips

  • Hold your Scrum Team meetings in front of the Scrum Board.
  • If a task or story stays in the WIP column for more than 2 days, investigate. There is a problem.  Ensure if there is a roadblock it is being worked.  Often the individual on that story will need another team member to help them overcome the hurdle they are facing.
  • Avoid multi-tasking. Each Scrum Team member should only be working on one or two tasks in the WIP column.
  • The museum website upgrade example Scrum Board and Burn Down Chart for one day in the middle of the project are shown below. Based upon this, the project appears to be doing OK.
    • Note that the Infrastructure story and the Priority #1 story are complete.  Also, about 1/3 of the webpages have been converted. 
    • There are 4 active tasks in the WIP column - 2.4.2, 2.7.2, 2.8.1 and 2.8.2.
    • There are 3 Roadblocks being worked on by the Scrum Master.
    • On the Burn Down chart, the estimate is a little higher than the ideal line, however it is trending back towards the ideal.
    • Since this was such a short Sprint (only 5 days) we actually held two Scrum meetings every day.  That gave us a better ability to track progress.

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  • 00:04 Hi, I'm Ray Sheen.
  • 00:05 Well, it's finally time to get down to business.
  • 00:08 Let's talk about sprint execution.
  • 00:11 Sprint execution is usually fast and furious.
  • 00:14 Every team member is working on a task or story.
  • 00:17 No one is waiting to be told what to do.
  • 00:20 Everyone is 100% dedicated.
  • 00:22 They're not busy on other projects or other activities.
  • 00:25 The daily scrum team meeting keeps the pulse quick and
  • 00:28 the tracking is action focused.
  • 00:30 If you like to get things done, then this environment can be intoxicating.
  • 00:35 Every scrum team member has selected a task or story to work on.
  • 00:39 They're normally selected in priority order.
  • 00:42 And as a rule of thumb, people select the tasks that they estimated.
  • 00:46 Keep in mind, that the team is self organizing.
  • 00:49 Each member can be doing their own task, or
  • 00:51 they may be operating in teams or small groups working on the tasks.
  • 00:56 The scrum team is conducting a regular scrum team meeting usually every day.
  • 01:01 At this meeting, they're reporting on the status of their tasks and
  • 01:05 stories in the WIP column.
  • 01:07 Since it is only the WIP column work and process that is discussed,
  • 01:10 the meeting usually is only about 10 or 15 minutes long.
  • 01:15 Progress is easily tracked on the scrum board.
  • 01:18 When a scrum team member is free to start a new task, they will move the task or
  • 01:22 story card from the sprint backlog column to the WIP column.
  • 01:26 When they complete the task or story, they move the card to the Done column.
  • 01:31 The scrum team member will also provide an estimate of how much work is needed to
  • 01:36 complete any task or story that is still in the WIP column.
  • 01:40 That is so that the scrum master can update the burn-down chart.
  • 01:43 Finally, scrum team members identify any new roadblocks that they have
  • 01:48 encountered and the scrum master provides the updates or
  • 01:51 the status of any previously identified roadblocks.
  • 01:54 Let's take time now to look at roles and responsibilities and the deliverables for
  • 01:59 a team that's in the middle of a sprint.
  • 02:02 The scrum team members are doing the work and
  • 02:04 providing the status updates as I mentioned.
  • 02:07 The scrum master is doing a lot of things to facilitate the process.
  • 02:11 They're conducting the meetings, updating the various boards, and
  • 02:14 working on roadblocks.
  • 02:15 Part of the facilitation role will also be the coach team members who are struggling
  • 02:20 with communication or the agile scrum process.
  • 02:23 The product owner is often hovering about the scrum team to answer questions and
  • 02:28 help remove roadblocks.
  • 02:29 Occasionally, I've had a product owner who was disengaged.
  • 02:32 They attended the planning meeting, ignored the team during the sprint,
  • 02:35 and then showed up again at sprint demo.
  • 02:37 This will likely lead to a disappointing sprint demo.
  • 02:40 The team almost always has questions about something along the way and
  • 02:44 the product owner should be available to answer those questions.
  • 02:48 Finally, we see that senior management has no responsibility or deliverables.
  • 02:53 Again, they selected the scrum team members.
  • 02:56 Now they can wait a few weeks to see what the team generates.
  • 02:59 Let's look at a project example and how progress is tracked on the scrum board and
  • 03:03 the burn-down chart.
  • 03:04 In this case, there were four major stories.
  • 03:07 An infrastructure story added by the team and three stories from the product owner,
  • 03:12 that made up the sprint backlog.
  • 03:14 One of those stories, number two,
  • 03:16 was a chapter story that was further divided into 15 detailed stories.
  • 03:21 Each of those stories is comprised of several tasks
  • 03:24 that can be completed within a few hours.
  • 03:26 So let's look at the scrum board for this project.
  • 03:29 The scrum board is for a time about halfway through the project.
  • 03:33 You can see that the infrastructure story and
  • 03:36 priority number one story are completed in the Done column.
  • 03:40 The priority number two story, the chapter which was divided into 15 story cards,
  • 03:45 is about a third of the way complete.
  • 03:47 Story cards 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.5, and 2.6 are done.
  • 03:53 And the first task for 2.4 and 2.7 are done.
  • 03:58 Looking in the WIP column, we see that the second task for 2.4 and
  • 04:02 2.7 are in work along with both tasks for 2.8.
  • 04:05 The remaining stories, 2.9, 10 11, 12, 13, 14 and
  • 04:10 15 have not been started yet, nor has the priority number three story.
  • 04:15 We also see three roadblocks being worked on by the scrum master.
  • 04:20 When you see a scrum board in action, it makes a lot of sense.
  • 04:24 Now onto the burn-down chart, which helps us estimate the overall sprint completion.
  • 04:28 You can see we started great, following the line exactly.
  • 04:32 Then we had a little problem that caused us to revise some estimates upward.
  • 04:36 However the trend is coming back towards the line.
  • 04:39 So we still have a good chance of completing everything on
  • 04:42 the sprint backlog by the end of the sprint.
  • 04:45 The tracking and monitoring of an agile scrum project during sprint execution is
  • 04:49 easy and straightforward.
  • 04:51 The team can stay focused on the work of the project, and not on updating files and
  • 04:56 charts and presentations.

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