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AAC2026_Lister_Understand your 'Scrum DNA' !pdf
Scrum Team DNA as a way of obtaining a graphical way of understanding where a team may need coaching in certain areas. Dr. Paul Lister CST outlines this method in this talk giving you the tools to utilise it yourself ! The talk comes in four different parts: 1) Understanding Any process It is explained that all processes come in three basic parts Ideation – What and why we want to do something Creation – Doing the thing we want to do Validation – Checking that it is done 2) Breaking something like Scrum into fundamental parts. Scrum can broke down into: Value People Change Each of these parts can be broken into smaller parts such as Value Understanding Value – Writing Product Backlog items Prioritising Product backlog items etc… Then Questions can be asked of these parts: How skilled are you at writing PBIs that are independent pieces of value? Etc Divide these questions into the groups, ideation, creation and validation. 3) Create your team’s Scrum DNA. These questions are given a RAG status colour based on a 1 to 5 system (5 good, 1 bad). The questions are answered and assembled into a coloured strip which will show their ‘Scrum DNA’. The team can easily see what they need to action. 4) Summary The talk ends by summarising that this can be used for any process and can give a quick visual way to understand where a team or individual needs to improve with regards to a process. Link to Scrum DNA Miro board for more info: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVJcPlU0g=/?share_link_id=692874657222
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AAC2026_Lister_Understand your 'Scrum DNA' !pdf
- 1. Scrum DNA Visualise YourPath to Improvement Paul Lister PhD. CST
- 2. Who Am I? Simple Contextual Answer: • Have a Scientific background • Became a Software Developer • Became a Manager in a traditional Waterfall system • Went through an Agile Transformation • Worked as a Scrum Master for six years • Became an Agile Coach
- 3. Who Am I? But there are other ‘bits’ of me… Nature Nurture
- 4. A better description… Structureadded to Experience
- 5. So, lets thinkabout doing things Initiation Creation Validation Process
- 6. So, lets thinkabout doing things Value People Change
- 7. Getting to knowScrum Value Understanding Value Writing Product Backlog items How skilled are we at writing clear Product Backlog items that are an independent piece of value ? Structure Experience Process Type Initiation
- 8. Getting to knowScrum Value Understanding Value Writing Product Backlog items Prioritising Product Backlog items Breaking down Product Backlog items Estimating Product Backlog items How skilled are we at writing clear Product Backlog items that are an independent piece of value ? Do we have a clear understanding of how the Product backlog is prioritised ? Regular refining sessions should occur to break down Product backlog items into smaller pieces. How well do we do this ? We should be estimating Product backlog items in order to understand if they can fit into a sprint. What is our skill level in this ?
- 9. Getting to knowScrum Value Creating Value Deciding on and describing and increment Planning how to build the increment Building the increments in priority order Do we create a clear, understandable Sprint Goal that explains the increment we will produce ? In sprint planning do we have a day-by-day plan of how to construct the increments? As a team are we working at a sustainable predictable rate
- 10. Getting to knowScrum Value Validating Value Checking that the value can be completed within the sprint Knowing when the value is completed Having value assessed by stakeholders As a team, do we regularly achieve our sprint goal (i.e. complete all increments) ? Within the Daily Scrum do we regularly check our Sprint plan and amend it if needs be ? Have we got and check a Definition of Done before delivering work to stakeholders ? As a team what is our interaction with stakeholders, every day or just at Sprint Review ?
- 11. Getting to knowScrum People Big Concepts Acting together Acting for Scrum Acting to improve Increments are built by the whole team Teams make decisions together (respect) Team only works on the increment (focus) Team makes sure it work is transparent to all (openness) Team regularly learns from each other Team takes on unfamiliar work to learn Process Do all team members have the skills to undertake any task involved in building an increment? Does the team hold itself accountable for its actions and self manage? Is a single increment worked on by the entire team until it is Done ? Does the team have a level of transparency in place that the team, the stakeholders, and anyone else can view their progress at any level at any time? When completing increments does the team pair up to learn from each other ?
- 12. In Sprint Planningdo we restrict the work to what is required as part of the product goal ? As part of the team’s definition of done is user testing done as well as automated testing? When retro actions are generated are they addressed in the next sprint ? How well do we deal with unavoidable changes when they happen mid-sprint ? Getting to know Scrum Change Big Concepts Mitigating Responding Sprint Planning Definition of Done Retrospectives Scope Changes Process
- 13. Investigating Scrum How skilledare we at writing clear Product Backlog items that are an independent piece of value ? How well do we understand how the Product backlog should be ordered ? Regular refining sessions should occur to break down Product backlog items into smaller pieces. How well do we do this ? We should be estimating Product backlog items in order to understand if they can fit into a sprint. What is our skill level in this ? How adept are we at creating a clear, understandable Sprint Goal that explains the increment we will produce ? How capable are we with dealing with retro actions ? In sprint planning, how well do we build a day by day plan of how to construct the increments? As a team what is our skill at knowing how to work at a sustainable, predictable rate ? As a team how well do we interact with stakeholders ? As a team, what is our proficiency at cross-skilling so any developer can work on any increment? With regards to increments, how proficient is the team at completing them together? Does the team have a level of transparency in place that the team, the stakeholders, and anyone else can view their progress at any level at any time? How competent is the team at getting feedback early in the sprint for Backlog items they have completed or working on? In Sprint Planning, how well we restrict the work to what is required as part of the product goal ? With respect to the Definition of Done, what describes how well the team obey and adapt it ? As a team do we regularly all work toward our sprint goal ? Within the Daily Scrum, what is our interaction with the Sprint Plan and adapting it ? What describes the manner in which the team check a Definition of Done before delivering work to stakeholders ? What manner does the team hold itself accountable for its actions and self manage ? How well does the team deal with unavoidable changes when they happen mid- sprint? Ideation Creation Validation
- 14. Measuring Scrum Description ScoreColour code We could teach others how to do this 5 Everyone on the team is good at this but there is still room for improvement 4 Some are good at this but not everyone on the team is 3 We do this but just because its part of Scrum 2 It's something we need help with 1 We don't do this 0 Answer the questions using the matrix to the left. If the number of questions are a factor of a hundred then the numeric total score can be multiplied up to give an overall percentage score (if you’re that way inclined…) The RAGish colour code can then be used for visualisation
- 15. Visualising - ScrumDNA Team that doesn't do scrum Perfect Team Team has problems with the Product backlog which is probably affecting validation. But they are building well, just maybe the wrong things...
- 16. Benefits • If usedwith multiple teams then teams with strong areas may be able to help teams with weaker areas • Enables the start of a conversation, can be used with Retrospectives • But can be used in conjunction with conventional metrics • A metric that focuses on ‘how’ we are doing something not ‘what’ we have built.
- 17. Scrum DNA MethodSummary - Prep 2) Break the elements into the Big Concepts: Value People Change Writing Product Backlog items Increments are built by the whole team Understanding Value Acting together Responding 3) List items from the Scrum Structure relating to these concepts Retrospectives 4) Generate questions for the team relating to the items How skilled are we at writing clear Product Backlog items that are an independent piece of value ? 1) Elements involved in Scrum Do all team members have the skills to undertake any task involved in building an increment? When retro actions are generated are they addressed in the next sprint ? Ideation Creation Validation 6) Divide the Questions into the different Process sections
- 18. Scrum DNA MethodSummary How skilled are we at writing clear Product Backlog items that are an independent piece of value ? How well do we understand howthe Product backlog should be ordered ? Regular refining sessions should occur to break down Product backlog items into smaller pieces. How well do we do this ? We should be estimating Product backlog items in order to understand if they can fit into a sprint. What is our skill level in this ? How adept are we at creating a clear, understandable Sprint Goal that explains the increment we will produce ? How capable are we with dealing with retro actions ? Get the Scrum team to answer the questions Use the colour matrix to record answer Build your Scrum DNA Identify areas of improvement and create concrete actions
- 19. Scrum DNA -Coda Break the elements into the BigConcepts: List items from the relatingto these concepts Generate questions for the relatingto the items Find the different elements for the improvement in mind In theory you could use this for more than just Scrum…. Let’s take Management People Value Effectiveness Leadership Responding to change Fostering learning Aligning management goals with organizational purpose Are objectives linked to purpose? Building trust communication empowerment Adaptability Do we model psychological safety and accountability? How quickly do we respond to change and feedback? Change Focus on outcomes Are decisions outcome-driven?
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