After the team has picked the requirements from the Project Backlog, during the Sprint Planning Meeting, the team normally drafts a Sprint Backlog, the team starts working on the requirements and through a Daily Stand Up during the Sprint and updates the Sprint Backlog. Once the sprint is complete, the time comes to demonstrate working functionality. For this, the team and product owner gather together for Sprint Review. A Sprint Review is a meeting where the team demonstrates working software corresponding to project backlog items they have completed in a given sprint. There are some simple rules for a Sprint Review:

• The meeting is kept very informal. The team should not have to spend time preparing for the same beyond getting working software ready.
• Powerpoints, presentations, speeches and lectures are not allowed.
• You can only demonstrate working software.
• The preparation [working environment, arranging room] is done by the Agile Coach or Scrum Master.
• The meeting generally lasts about 1 hour per week of work [but this obviously can change depending on number of team members working for the project].
• The whole team, product owner or customers and stakeholders participate in the Sprint Review Meeting.

Of the above focus on “working software” is very important. This keeps the teams focus on delivering working software and adopting processes which aid delivery of the same. Thats another reason why any aids like PowerPoint slides or lectures are not allowed. The team would typically demonstrate each code it has written either through GUI, mock objects or through API calls. Actual working software allows product owner or customer to get first hand experience of the working features and based on the same provide feedback to the team. The feedback to the team is typically of these components:

• Whether they completed enough requirements
• Whether they completed requirements quite early
• Whether they understood the requirements and translated them to working features well enough

All three help the team and product owner plan for the next sprint better. At the end of sprint review meeting, Agile Coach or Scrum Master would announce the date for next Sprint Review and confirm the date for next Sprint Planning session. This sets the tone for the next sprint. After the Sprint Review Meeting, the team moves towards the Sprint Retrospectives.

The Sprint Review also works as a feedback channel for the Product Owner in some ways. The Product Owner invites stakeholders and customers who give her the actual feedback which she can factor into her requirements for future. She can then edit or delete any requirement or add new ones. In addition, they help the Product Owner identify the correct priority for requirements and minimize the biggest risk of all - developing the wrong thing as well as the second biggest risk - developing the wrong thing, the wrong way. Hence, Sprint Review is basically a “feedback, inspect and adaptation” channel in an Agile Development Framework.

Popularity: 30%

Posted on February 28th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Assessment, Collaboration, Introduction, Practices | No Comments »

One of the most popular methods to understand if a team is doing SCRUM or not is through the use of what is called “Nokia Test”. It is a very simple yet very strict test and almost 80% of teams who claim to be doing SCRUM do not pass even Level 1. Here is an overview of the test:

LEVEL 1

• Iterations must be time-boxed to less than six weeks / Do your sprints start and end on planned dates
• Is the software completely tested and working at the end of an iteration
• Can the iteration start before specification is complete

LEVEL 2

• Does the team know who the product owner is
• Is there a product backlog prioritized by business value
• Does the product backlog have estimates created by the team
• Does the team generate its burndown charts and knows its velocity
• Does the team have outside people disrupting the work of the team during the sprint

Popularity: 20%

Posted on December 13th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: Assessment, Maturity | No Comments »