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Sprint Controls are the planning and tracking techniques used by an Agile project team to organize the project tasks and activities.

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Quick reference

Sprint Controls

Sprint Controls are the project management tools that are used by the Scrum Master and Scrum Team to assess performance.

When to Use Sprint Controls

The two primary controls during a Sprint are the Scrum Board and the Burn Down Chart. These are baselined during the Sprint planning session and are updated daily following the Scrum Team meeting. The Velocity chart is created over a period of several Sprints and is used by the Scrum Master and Product Owner when doing Release planning to size Sprints.

Instructions

The Agile/Scrum process does not rely on traditional project management tools and techniques. It is not a top-down planned and executed project. The project control tools are therefore quite different.

  • The primary tracking tool is the Scrum Board. 
    • This tool uses the Kanban philosophy. Kanban is a visual scheduling approach that directs an activity to be started based upon a resource becoming available to do the work. Activities are not started and then left on hold, rather they are started and worked through to completion; then the next is started.
    • The Scrum Board tracks the current status of all the Stories. They are either in the Sprint backlog waiting to be started, in the Work-In-Process (WIP) column while Scrum Team members are working on them, or in the Done column. 
    • The final column is the Roadblock column. This is the list of currently identified Roadblocks. The Scrum Master is responsible for finding a workaround for each Roadblock. 
    • Another column that is often used is the Not Selected column. This contains Stories that were not included in the Sprint Backlog.
    • The Scrum Board is initialized during the Sprint Planning meeting when all of the Stories are placed in the Sprint Backlog column. Many times the Stories are further subdivided into Tasks to complete the Story.  
    • The Scrum Board is maintained by moving the stories from column to column as the work is started and completed. This is usually updated at each Scrum Team meeting, but some Scrum Masters update the Board more frequently.
    • The primary topic of Scrum Team meetings is the status of the Stories so this meeting is usually done in front of the Scrum Board.
  • The Burn Down Chart is a visual indication of the progress made on the Sprint as compared to the goal.
    • The Burn Down Chart shows the amount of estimated effort needed to complete the Sprint Backlog.
    • The Burn Down Chart is initialized following the Sprint Planning meeting.  At that time all of the estimated effort for all of the Stories and Tasks in the Sprint Backlog are added and the value is the initial value of the vertical axis on the Burn Down Chart. The number of time increments for the Sprint – normally days – is then counted along the horizontal axis. A straight line is drawn from the total effort at Sprint time zero, to the total Sprint time and remaining effort of zero. This is the reference line on the Burn Down Chart.
    • At each Scrum Team meeting, the Scrum Team members provide an estimate of the amount of effort needed to complete the open Stories. Following the meeting, the Scrum Master will add these estimates along with the estimate for any Stories that are still in the Sprint Backlog column. The total is then plotted and the team can see how much effort is still required as compared to the original planned estimate.
  • Velocity is a measure that is created over a series of several Sprints and is used to better estimate the size of the Sprint Backlog.
    • After each Sprint, the original estimate of time for each of the completed Stories from that Sprint are summed together to create a score of how much estimated work was done. 
    • This score is then tracked over several Sprints to determine a typical or average amount of work. 
    • This score is also sometimes used to improve the estimating done by Scrum Team members.
    • There is often a high degree of volatility in these numbers until the Scrum Team becomes experienced then they stabilize, often with a slight upward trend.

Hints and Tips

  • These charts are easy to create and maintain. If they are hard, you are doing something wrong.
  • Senior managers and traditional project managers will not understand these tools. They may insist on a Gantt chart or RACI matrix. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to create them. Instead, have the Scrum Master meet with them and explain the process.
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  • 00:04 Hi, this is Ray Sheen.
  • 00:05 The agile scrum process approaches scheduling a bit differently.
  • 00:09 It doesn't use the traditional project management scheduling tools.
  • 00:13 Now that doesn't mean it isn't planned, it definitely is.
  • 00:16 Let's look at the schedule tools and techniques that are used for
  • 00:20 planning an agile scrum project.
  • 00:22 We'll start with the scrum board.
  • 00:24 This is the primary tool used for controlling and
  • 00:26 tracking the work of a sprint.
  • 00:28 It is a type of the kanban schedule we discussed earlier.
  • 00:31 Let's look at each of the columns for a minute.
  • 00:33 I'll start with the second column called the sprint backlog.
  • 00:37 At the beginning of a sprint, all the stories and
  • 00:39 their associated tasks are in this column.
  • 00:42 They're prioritized for the sprint.
  • 00:44 When the sprint starts, each scrum team member takes the story or
  • 00:48 task to work on first based upon its priority order, and
  • 00:51 move that story card or task to the work in process column.
  • 00:55 The story stays there until the work is completed and
  • 00:58 the card moves to the done column.
  • 00:59 There's also a column for roadblocks which are listed in the far right column and
  • 01:04 worked on by the scrum master.
  • 01:06 And many organizations use the far left column to hold the story
  • 01:11 cards that were not selected for this particular sprint.
  • 01:15 As you can see, this is a very visual method of monitoring and
  • 01:19 tracking progress in the project.
  • 01:21 The chart is initialized in the sprint planning meeting with everything placed
  • 01:26 at that time in the sprint backlog column and then prioritized.
  • 01:29 The status of each story is clearly indicated throughout the sprint based upon
  • 01:34 its column.
  • 01:35 As the work progresses, the story cards and tasks are moved from left to right
  • 01:39 showing schedule progress, following the kanban approach to scheduling.
  • 01:44 The cards are normally moved at the daily scrum meeting.
  • 01:47 So while there is not a pre-planned schedule of what's to be done in each day,
  • 01:52 there is a prioritized order for each day set at the scrum meeting and
  • 01:56 a very close tracking of progress.
  • 01:58 The next schedule tool is the burn-down chart.
  • 02:02 This tool tracks the remaining work left to complete all of the stories and
  • 02:06 tasks of the original sprint backlog.
  • 02:09 This chart is also initialized during the sprint planning meeting.
  • 02:12 Once all the story cards and
  • 02:14 their tasks have been estimated by the scrum team members,
  • 02:17 all of the estimates are added up to get a total amount of work in the sprint.
  • 02:22 That is the initial value and is plotted on the vertical axis at time zero.
  • 02:27 The horizontal axis is then divided into the number of scrum intervals in
  • 02:32 the sprint.
  • 02:33 Usually that means the number of days until the sprint ends.
  • 02:37 If all the estimates were perfect on the last day of the sprint, the work
  • 02:42 would be completed so that the remaining work left at that time reaches zero.
  • 02:47 That point is plotted at the end of the sprint,
  • 02:50 a straight line is then drawn through these two points.
  • 02:54 If the estimates are perfect and the work goes exactly according to plan,
  • 02:59 that line represents the estimated amount of work
  • 03:02 remaining in the sprint on each day of the sprint.
  • 03:05 During each sprint meeting,
  • 03:07 the scrum master asks each scrum team member to estimate the amount of work
  • 03:12 still needed to complete the tasks that are in the WIP column.
  • 03:15 After the meeting, the scrum master adds up those values along with the estimates
  • 03:20 for all of the stories and tasks that are still in the sprint backlog column and
  • 03:24 not started yet.
  • 03:25 This is the estimated amount of effort needed to complete all the tasks from
  • 03:30 the original sprint backlog.
  • 03:32 This value is then plotted representing the estimate for the day.
  • 03:35 This chart's very helpful for the product owner and scrum master as they do release
  • 03:40 planning and early setup activities for future sprints.
  • 03:43 The third measure of schedule is the velocity.
  • 03:46 This is not a measure within a sprint,
  • 03:49 rather it is a measure across many sprints.
  • 03:51 Velocity is used to estimate how much work can be accomplished in a sprint
  • 03:56 based upon the recent sprint history.
  • 03:59 This helps the product owner and scrum master manage expectations and
  • 04:04 size the scrum team.
  • 04:05 Velocity is determined by adding up the original estimated effort of
  • 04:09 the stories that actually were completed in a sprint.
  • 04:13 Obviously, this can't be done until the sprint is complete.
  • 04:16 This value is then plotted for
  • 04:18 a series of sprints to determine the average value and trends.
  • 04:22 Velocity is a local measure.
  • 04:24 By that we mean that it is both heavily affected by who is on the scrum team,
  • 04:29 how long the sprint lasts, and the type of work done in the sprint.
  • 04:34 There is often a great deal of volatility in these values until
  • 04:38 an organization becomes expert in agile scrum.
  • 04:41 Even then, different teams may have very different velocity values
  • 04:45 depending upon the experience and size of the team.
  • 04:49 The scrum board is the key project management schedule control for
  • 04:53 an agile scrum team and for managing sprints.
  • 04:56 The burn-down chart and velocity measure can be of great help to
  • 05:00 a product owner and scrum master when planning future sprints.

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