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About this lesson
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
Step 4: 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 Step 4: Sprint Execution
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 is 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 and 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 the 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 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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