Sprint – Scrum Team

Quick reference

• 00:04 Hello, I'm Ray Sheen.
• 00:06 The work of the Sprint is done by the scrum team.
• 00:09 Let's take a closer look at how this team operates.
• 00:12 One key difference from traditional project management,
• 00:15 is that the team does not have set roles or titles.
• 00:18 Rather it is a collaborative group that works together, sharing leadership, and
• 00:22 decision making.
• 00:24 This trait of a collaborative team is common among the Agile methodologies, but
• 00:28 it is different from most traditional project management methodologies.
• 00:32 For that reason, the team members often need training.
• 00:35 Of course they need training in the methodology to
• 00:37 unlearn habits that develop from traditional projects.
• 00:41 In addition, they need training in team leadership.
• 00:44 Scrum team members shared the leadership of the team among themselves.
• 00:47 So everyone needs to be comfortable with team facilitation, team decision making,
• 00:52 communicating with team members, and giving and receiving feedback with peers.
• 00:56 These are not naturally acquired skills in most technical schools or organizations.
• 01:01 But they are very important to the success of an Agile/Scrum project.
• 01:04 Don't scrimp on training.
• 01:06 Another aspect on the collaborative nature of the teaching
• 01:09 is that the team is normally co-located.
• 01:11 Physical co-location in a common workplace is best to encourage natural collaboration
• 01:16 and to make it easier to conduct the daily scrum meetings.
• 01:19 However I have used virtual co-location on several occasions.
• 01:22 When in that mode I find it best to schedule a daily WebEx or
• 01:26 video conference to foster the collaboration.
• 01:29 If working in the virtual world, also create an online workspace,
• 01:33 where everyone on the team can share files.
• 01:36 One of the ways an Agile/Scrum project is very different from a traditional project
• 01:40 is the leadership roles within the project.
• 01:42 Let's look at these.
• 01:44 First is the product owner.
• 01:45 In my opinion, this is the most difficult role on any Agile/Scrum project.
• 01:49 This individual is responsible for interacting with all the stakeholders
• 01:53 to determine their needs and create the story cards for the project.
• 01:57 Including the demo criteria for each story.
• 01:59 They write the stories, prioritize the product backlog, and
• 02:02 interface with the scrum team to answer any questions about any of the stories.
• 02:07 We'll talk more about the role on a session dedicated to product owner.
• 02:11 Next is the scrum master.
• 02:13 Let me first clear up a possible misconception.
• 02:16 The scrum master is not a master of anything on the project.
• 02:19 Their roles is to be facilitative the team and to keep the project running smoothly.
• 02:24 Therefore, they take care of maintaining the Scrum board and burn down chart.
• 02:28 Another important responsibility is to remove roadblocks and
• 02:31 impediments that the scrum team identifies.
• 02:33 We have a session coming up that is dedicated to this role also.
• 02:37 The primary role in an Agile/Scrum project is that of Scrum Team Member.
• 02:42 These are the people who both plan and do the work.
• 02:45 They estimate the effort required to complete each story
• 02:48 which leads to the size of the Sprint backlog.
• 02:51 They then determine how to best organize themselves to accomplish the work
• 02:54 in the priority order which was set up by the product owner.
• 02:58 Every day,
• 02:58 they assess their progress and decide how best to accomplish the work before them.
• 03:03 They also participate in the Sprint demo,
• 03:04 where they demonstrate the results of the work they have accomplished.
• 03:08 The group that hasn't been mentioned yet is senior management in the business team.
• 03:12 Their primary point of interaction is the product owner.
• 03:15 The Scrum Master may interact with them at the beginning of the overall project, or
• 03:19 if there's a roadblock that he or she needs to help with.
• 03:22 The only time they interact with the team is at the Sprint demo, and
• 03:26 then only if invited by the product owner to participate.
• 03:30 Let me go a little deeper into the idea of a self organizing team.
• 03:33 This concept is quite novel for some country and business cultures.
• 03:36 The first attribute to point out is that there is no assigned manager or leader.
• 03:41 No one is the boss.
• 03:42 For some people in organizations, this is very disconcerting.
• 03:46 They want to have a single person that they can hold accountable, and
• 03:49 that individual does not exist in an Agile/Scrum project.
• 03:53 Team assignments and team decisions should made by the team and
• 03:55 whatever fashion, the team determines.
• 03:58 Another characteristic is that the team creates its own plan for
• 04:01 how to do the work.
• 04:03 They apply their expertise when planning, but they aren't directed by someone who is
• 04:07 not on the team, as to how they have to do the work.
• 04:10 Now they still have to comply with codes and standards, this is not a license for
• 04:14 chaos, but if they find that what works best for
• 04:17 them is to approach a portion of the project in a non-traditional manner.
• 04:21 They are free to make that decision.
• 04:23 Along with that freedom, is the freedom to change the plan whenever they want.
• 04:27 The plan is not fixed to a baseline that is controlled by an independent group.
• 04:31 Rather, the team sets the plan and they can change it.
• 04:34 That does not mean they can change the project goal or
• 04:37 the priority list of the Sprint backlog.
• 04:40 But they can change how they intend to complete
• 04:43 the stories in the Sprint backlog.
• 04:46 We can summarize this team environment with the terms autonomous, adaptive, and
• 04:50 accountable.
• 04:51 It is an autonomous team, meaning it does not need
• 04:53 permission from anyone else to decide how to accomplish their work.
• 04:57 It is an adaptive team, meaning that it can quickly react to success and
• 05:01 failure on tasks, changing the plan for how to continue forward.
• 05:05 It is an accountable team, meaning that the team is accountable for
• 05:08 accomplishing the stories and must demonstrate the results
• 05:11 to the product owner and their designees at the Sprint demo.
• 05:15 There is no trust me on these projects.
• 05:18 Rather the Scrum team must prove the results work.
• 05:21 There is one other element of accountability that is worth mentioning.
• 05:24 Some people thrive in this type of work environment, and others can't handle it.
• 05:29 Every day at the scrum meeting,
• 05:31 each individual must acknowledge what they finished during the previous day.
• 05:35 If someone is not accomplishing anything,
• 05:37 that will quickly be apparent to the whole team.
• 05:39 And by the same token, if someone is making tremendous progress,
• 05:43 that will be evident also.
• 05:45 So, in addition to team accountability, there is personal accountability.
• 05:50 A smoothly operating Scrum Team is great fun to work with.
• 05:55 It's dynamic, exciting, and much is accomplished.
• 05:59 Best of all the project success is clearly a team success.

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