Efficient Sprint Planning: 10 Tips That Can Be A Real Gamechanger
Sprint Planning is one of the most significant elements of the Scrum Framework. Essentially, it’s a session, that’s held after the Sprint Retrospective and is deemed the first day of the next Sprint. Since better planning results in a substantially higher chance to reach the Sprint Goal, it’s a factor not to be neglected. Below […]
Common Habits That Keep You From Sustaining A Healthy Product Backlog
A product backlog orders tasks into a list and prioritizes them, so the developers know which items to deliver first. The roadmap and its requirements provide the foundation for the backlog, which usually consist of the following elements: user stories, bug fixes and features. Although the whole scrum team works jointly on the product backlog […]
Agile QuickTip: Increase Team Engagement with a Done Bell
Saved by the Bell: Using a Done Bell to Motivate & Engage Your Team Managers are always looking for innovative ways to keep their teams involved and motivated. But you don’t always have to reinvent the wheel to keep things moving – engaging your teams can be as simple as ringing a bell. Scrum managers […]
Agile QuickTip: Boosting Product and Team Success with Value-Based Planning
Boosting Product and Team Success with Value-Based Planning It’s no secret that some of the greatest product features and innovations come directly from its customers and users. Product teams solicit feedback and ideas from users in order to understand user priorities and needs. With reviews and suggestions in hand, Product Managers and Product Owners identify […]
Agile QuickTip: Maximize Efficiency by Assigning Tasks “Just in Time”
Using the “Just in Time” Approach for Task Assignment Sometimes, pre-planning every detail of a sprint and who is going to work on what task when may not be the best approach for your team. In fact, your team may find that taking a “Just in Time” approach to work and task assignment may be […]
Agile QuickTip: Estimation a drag? Get the whole team involved.
Estimation a drag? Get the whole team involved. While it might seem counter-intuitive, getting your entire team involved in the estimation process will end up providing more clarity, and actually improve your plans overall. Let’s just admit it. Estimating stories or other backlog items is not fun. A lot of times it can even become […]
Agile QuickTip: Conduct your daily scrum in front of the board
Conduct your daily scrum in front of the task board The daily scrum provides team members an update on exactly what’s happened over the last 24 hours, what has been learned, and what sort of adjustments need to be made over the next 24 hours. However, have you ever thought about how you’re hosting your […]
Agile QuickTip: Yellow and Red Cards!
Here’s how introducing yellow and red meeting cards can help you focus your teams meetings, and stop them getting taken off track. We’ve all been there when a meeting loses focus. Sometimes participants get too far in the weeds, sometimes they start talking about things that aren’t relevant, or maybe start talking about redundant things […]
Agile Quicktip: Use Defect Thresholds to Help Product Quality
Use Defect Thresholds to Help Product Quality Most scrum teams have backlogs that contain more than just user stories and new product features. Oftentimes, they contain bugs and defects that have been reported by customers or users or even by the team itself. These aren’t always handled right away. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, […]
Agile QuickTip: Using Multiple Choice Estimates
Agile QuickTip: Using Multiple Choice Estimates If you ever find that estimating tasks during sprint planning is painful and argumentative then multiple choice estimates might really help with your team’s planning. Most scrum teams follow a similar path during sprint planning. Team members will break user stories or backlog items down into individual implementation tasks […]