Category Archives: Planning

Agile, Ceremonies, Estimating, Planning

Product Backlog Grooming

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Although this material may be found in a variety of places on the web, clients have often asked me to provide them write-ups and explanations.  Enclosed is a brief summary of the Product Backlog Grooming.

Pre-Requisites

The Product Owner has a prioritized Product Backlog that aligns with their Release Plan and Roadmap.  To help expedite the meeting, the Product Owner should send out a list of stories that he/she wants the team to estimate. The team can then do any necessary research.

Duration

1 hour, 2 to 4 times during an Iteration

Purpose

The purpose of Product Backlog Grooming is for the Product Owner to present new stories to the Team, discuss the stories intent, capture the acceptance criteria and story point the story.  It is a time-boxed meeting where the goal is to estimate as many stories as possible in the allotted time.

If this meeting is conducted regularly, Iteration Planning – Part 1 will be much faster and smoother for everyone.

Attendees

Participants1

  • Product Owner
  • Team
  • ScrumMaster

Observers2

  • Anyone

Concludes

This concludes when the meetings allotted time has expired or all the stories that were prioritized for that session have been estimated (planning poker).

Standard Scrum Ceremonies / Meetings

  1. Participants in this document refer to individuals critical to the meeting and are allowed to talk during the meeting. ↩
  2. Observers in this document refer to individuals allowed to observe meetings, but aren’t allowed to talk during the meeting. ↩

Agile, Ceremonies, Planning, Templates

Iteration Planning – Part 2

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Although this material may be found in a  variety of places on the web, clients have often asked me to provide them write-ups and explanations.  Enclosed is a brief summary of Iteration (Sprint) Planning Part 2 for Agile Teams.

Pre-Requisites

Iteration Planning – Part 1 has completed.

Duration

1 to 2 hours

Purpose

On Day 1 of the Iteration the Team takes the stories they’ve discussed with the Product Owner and decide what tasks they need to create to deliver that story and the estimates (in hours) associated with each one of those tasks.

The Product Owner is not required during Part 2 of Iteration Planning.  Often the Product Owner is “on call” if the Team has questions.  Usually as Teams mature, Part 2 of Iteration Planning is not facilitated by the ScrumMaster.  The ScrumMaster charges the team with what they need to accomplish and asks the team when we can get back together with the Product Owner to review.  That may often take 1 to 2 hours depending upon the number of stories pulled into the Iteration.

Note: if the entire team is not present during Iteration Planning – Part 2, it will take longer for the team to commit to their body of work.

Attendees

Participants1

  • Team
  • ScrumMaster (depends on team maturity, in the beginning the ScrumMaster is typically more involved)
  • Product Owner (on demand, as required)

Observers2

  • Not applicable, although anyone could observe, but as teams mature this activity is often done distributed and “heads-down” by the team members.

Concludes

The Team, Product Owner and ScrumMaster will re-convene and review the tasks identified to support the stories.  As a group they will conduct a “sanity check” to confirm that we have the right tasks.  Additionally, they will check to see if they have too much work or not enough work for the iteration.  If so, the Product Owner and the team will adjust accordingly.

After the team plans out the tasks, in ideal hours, the ScrumMaster will assist the team in comparing against their available capacity.

Part 2 of Iteration Planning concludes when the team commits to the work for the Iteration.

Standard Scrum Ceremonies / Meetings

  1. Participants in this document refer to individuals critical to the meeting and are allowed to talk during the meeting. ↩
  2. Observers in this document refer to individuals allowed to observe meetings, but aren’t allowed to talk during the meeting. ↩

Agile, Ceremonies, Planning, Templates

Iteration Planning – Part 1

2 Comments

Although this material may be found in a variety of places on the web, clients have often asked me to provide them write-ups and explanations.  Enclosed is a brief summary of Iteration (Sprint) Planning Part 1 for Agile Teams.

Pre-Requisites

The Iteration Goal or Theme has been identified by the Product Owner.   The Product Owner has a prioritized list (based on business value, risk and dependencies) of user stories (stories) that he/she wants the team to deliver by the end of the Iteration.

Note: the less prepared the Product Owner is the longer Iteration Planning – Part 1 will take (see Product Backlog Grooming to determine how to make Iteration Planning more effective).

Duration

1 to 2 hours

Purpose

On Day 1 of the Iteration the Product Owner and Team discuss the prioritized stories.  The Product Owner will present the story to the team, and together they will create and agree on the stories acceptance criteria.

Once the team feels they understand the story, they will then conduct Planning Poker.  Planning Poker is an activity the Team conducts to determine the relative size of a story compared to other stories in their product backlog.  There are a variety of ways to size stories, but the simplest and often most effective way is to size a story based on Extra Small (XS), Small (S), Medium (M), Large (L) and Extra-Large (XL).

The Scrum Master will assist the team by showing them their planned velocity vs. historical velocity, to make sure it is work the team can accept.  This will be further validated at the end of Iteration Planning – Part 2 when the team commits to their work.

Attendees

Participants1

  • Product Owner
  • Team
  • ScrumMaster

Observers2

  • Anyone

Concludes

This meeting concludes when the team feels they have enough work for the Iteration and are ready to task out each story in detail so they can determine the steps required to deliver the story for their Product Owner.  The team then moves on to Iteration Planning – Part 2.

Standard Scrum Ceremonies / Meetings

  1. Participants in this document refer to individuals critical to the meeting and are allowed to talk during the meeting. ↩
  2. Observers in this document refer to individuals allowed to observe meetings, but aren’t allowed to talk during the meeting. ↩