Developing People and Teams [P1]: Facilitation - Facilitation techniques for sprint planning

Question 1

What is the purpose of sprint planning

Answer 1

Initiates the Sprint by laying out the work to be performed for the Sprint. Output is a Sprint Backlog (Sprint Goal + selected PBIs + Plan)

Question 2

Facilitator focus for sprint planning

Answer 2

Enable a collaborative and transparent environment with a clear objective. Keep the team focused on the Sprint Goal.

Question 3

How to facilitate sprint planning?

Answer 3

• Make sure product backlog is visible
• Board to visualize sprint backlog
• Remind team of value and outcome of sprint planning
• WHY, WHAT and HOW
• Ask
  
  • Is everyone comfortable with the plan?
  • Is there a clear sprint goal?
  • Explore further questions in timebox
• Enough detail for first few days of sprint - more info may emerge during sprint
• Can we all commit to the sprint goal?

Question 4

Explain the WHY part of sprint planning facilitation

Answer 4

• Why is sprint valuable? → PO shares the objective for the sprint.
• Craft sprint goal that communicates why this sprint is valuable for stakeholders.
• If we ran out of time and this would be our very last sprint, what is the one thing we still need to do to ensure we deliver value?
• What is one crucial thing the team would swarm so it can be achieved within the sprint.

Question 5

Explain the WHAT part of sprint planning facilitation

Answer 5

• What can be done?
• Dev team decides on what PBIs they forecast for the sprint
• Move order PBIs from PB to SB - ownership
• Dev team will naturally ask questions as they consider moving items across
• Encourage everyone to share their thoughts

Question 6

Powerful questions for creating a good sprint goal?

Answer 6

1. If we don’t work towards this Sprint Goal, what will be inevitably lost or become much harder later?
2. If we wouldn’t have another Sprint after this one, what would be the one thing we’d have to deliver in order to return some value?
3. If we were paying for this Sprint with our own money, what work would give us the highest chance to get that money back?
4. When we achieve this Sprint Goal, what has clearly changed or improved from the perspective of stakeholders?
5. Which steps are required to achieve this Sprint Goal? Which are the least required or could we do without if we really have to?
6. If we suddenly have half the team available and we can do only half the work required for the Sprint Goal, what should absolutely be in there in order for us to still be okay with the outcome? What can we let go of for now and return to later?
7. If there’s an ‘AND’ in the Sprint Goal:Which would you naturally do first if you have to choose? What is irrevocably lost if we do that thing first, and the second thing in another Sprint?
8. What would need to happen while working on this Sprint Goal that would be cause for celebration?
9. What worry about our product is keeping you up at night? What can we build or test this Sprint to make you sleep a bit better?
10. In terms of value and learning about what else is needed from us a team, what is the worst way to spend the upcoming Sprint? What should we focus on this Sprint to prevent that?

⇒ help you discover what is the most uncertain and valuable right now, and thus input for your Sprint Goal

Question 7

Why is the sprint valuable?

Answer 7

• PO proposes how the product could increase its value and utility in the current sprint
• Team then collabs to define a sprint goal that communicates why the sprint is valuable to stakeholders
• sprint goal must be finalize prior to the end of sprint planning

Question 8

What can be Done this sprint?

Answer 8

look at past performance, upcoming capacity, DoD

Question 9

How will the chosen work get done?

Answer 9

• Breakdown PBIs - one day or less in size
• Dev team decides on how to do breakdown

Question 10

What makes up the sprint backlog?

Answer 10

sprint goal + PBIs selected + plan for delivering = sprint backlog

Question 11

How long should a sprint planning session be?

Answer 11

max 8 hours for 1 month sprint, less for shorter sprints

Question 12

Top 5 Things You Should Do During Sprint Planning

Answer 12

Craft sprint goal

Pick at least one retrospective commitment for the sprint

Refer Definition of Done

Review Team capacity

Come up with a plan for the initial few days

Question 13

Explain the challenges of “Craft sprint goal”

Answer 13

• The team has random Product Backlog Items, so struggle to craft a sprint goal. It can be avoided by having ordered product backlog, but if it is still needed, the team can ask the product owner about the most crucial Product Backlog Item and set a goal around that.
• The team picks up work for more than one product as they are supporting multiple products. The team can avoid by widening the definition of a product or shortening Sprint duration.
• Team working on multiple components and Items are for components, not for a feature. Avoid such issues through having user-centric features as a Backlog item.
• Team working on support items like defects, incidents, and service requests. A meaningful Sprint Goal optimizes and improves product quality to reduce such defects and incidents.

Question 14

Why should the team “Pick at least one retrospective commitment for the sprint”?

Answer 14

otherwise won’t get adopted

Question 15

Why should the team “Refer Definition of Done”?

Answer 15

• reflects maturity and improving quality of product
• helps them understand how much work can be committed - more things on the DoD list means more work to do for each item

Question 16

Why should the team “Review Team capacity”?

Answer 16

since velocity can fluctuate each sprint and people can go on leave etc.

Question 17

Why should the team “Come up with a plan for the initial few days”?

Answer 17

• sprint planning is timebox and sometimes run out of time
• backlog refinement sessions throughout to refine later work in sprint

Question 18

Top 5 Things You Should Avoid Doing During Sprint Planning

Answer 18

Don’t assign stories to developers

Don’t create skills-based tasks

Don’t force the development team to match the velocity

Don’t plan only defects for the sprint

Don’t have a genericsprint goal

Question 19

Don’t assign stories to developers - why?

Answer 19

• looks for completing stories incrementally
• minimise spillover all they can get feedback early to adjust change if needed
• help team care about each other and learn each different skills to support when needed

Question 20

Don’t create skills-based tasks - why?

Answer 20

• becomes like a waterfall
• component based tasks help promote collective ownership
• skill-based tasks may impact transparency and generate more TD

Question 21

Don’t force the development team to match the velocity - why?

Answer 21

• velocity is not a way to measure productivity
• complexity of work changes - may boost through easy work, may struggle on super complex work
• man hours changes

Question 22

Don’t plan only defects for the sprint - why?

Answer 22

Focus on how to reduce defects by influencing factors that cause so many defects. Having a few stories helps in learning the expectations of the stakeholders. See how the team plans to reduce the technical debt because more technical debts mean higher total cost of ownership. Look for possibilities to adopt excellent technical practices such as BDD, Agile Analysis and EXtreme programming practices - reduce waste

Question 23

Don’t have a genericsprint goal - why?

Answer 23

• generic goal doesn’t define clear purpose of sprint
• Need user focused goal

Question 24

Role of The Product Owner during Sprint Planning?

Answer 24

• Come prepared by having a clear objective for the Sprint and share with the team.
• Keep the Product Backlog ordered and aligned with the objective so the Scrum Team can craft the Sprint Goal easily.
• Respect self-organization and do not demand that team is not comfortable with instead collaborate to see what can team do within constraints.
• Guide Team in forecasting stories by understanding team confidence and looking at available capacity.
• Support Development Team in preparing a plan to meet the sprint goal. Working as a coach during the planning helps the team think like the customer, have a systematic view, and reduce local optimization.

Question 25

Role of The Scrum Master during Sprint Planning?

Answer 25

• Work as peer team members while crafting the sprint goal. It is not true that the Scrum Master only acts as a facilitator. The Scrum Master is part of the Scrum Team, and the Scrum Team defines the Sprint Goal.
• Coach them during forecasting stories if needed by asking powerful questions like how they will feel if they fail to meet the forecast, which helps in having a potentially releasable increment. How are they planning to work as a team?
• Ensure the team understood what to inspect and adapt during the sprint planning. Is the team inspecting the latest Increment, the definition of done, retrospective commitments and team combinations, etc.?
• Enable transparency by helping them how a good sprint backlog can help care about each other and act as an information radiator.
• Facilitate Sprint Planning if needed to ensure everyone respects the timebox, comes up with the sprint goal, and plans for the initial few days.