CHOW #102- The Spirit of Agile

Many years ago, I attended an Agile workshop conducted by a leading guru in a plush hotel. Everyone would get a valuable piece of paper at the end of two days proclaiming mastery to the world at large. I thought that kind of spirit was great – uplifting the masses, what? To add to that spirit of the gig, I had a private tête-à-tête with the aforesaid guru over more spirits who deemed it all very befitting.

Seriously, so many people just having gone through a few days of training program and focus on the ceremonial are missing the point of it all.

So, you can give it a shot (after a few shots) at filling the table below. Refer to the tips and diagram on the last page which should help you along.

If you would like our feedback on your completed form or have some questions, please send a mail with the form to shiv@pm-powerconsulting.com. We will get back to you as soon as we can.

Cheers!

To download the fillable form click here

Suggested Solution:

NoScum eventAgile/XP ValuesPrinciplesPractices
1Daily ScrumAgile: Individuals and Interactions Over Processes and Tools

Responding to Change Over Following a Plan;

Scrum: Commitment

XP: Communication, Openness, Focus

Principle 4: Business people and developers working together daily

Principle 5: environment and support for motivated individuals

Principle 6: face-to-face conversations

Principle 8: sustainable development & constant pace

Principle 11: self-organizing teams

  • Individuals taking ownership for their updates during the stand-up – not a status check by SM / manager
  • Re-planning on a daily basis as needed
2Sprint planningAgile: Individuals and Interactions Over Processes and Tools

Scrum: Commitment; Courage; Respect

XP: Communication; Courage; Respect

Principle 1: early and continuous delivery of valuable software to satisfy the customer

Principle 3: deliver working software frequently

Principle 4: business people and developers working together

Principle 6: face-to-face conversation

  • Everyone participates in sprint planning
  • PO provides inputs on goals, priorities for the sprint and explains stories as needed
  • The team estimates; the PO does not influence
  • The team ensures stories to be taken up are “ready”; Definition of Ready is commonly understood
  • The team openly discusses stories that may not be doable within the sprint
  • Time-boxed event to articulate sprint goals, sprint backlog and how to get work done
3Sprint executionAgile: Individuals and Interactions Over Processes and Tools; Collaboration;

Responding to Change Over Following a Plan;

Scrum: Commitment; Respect; Openness, Focus

XP: Communication; Simplicity; Feedback; Respect

Principle 1: early and continuous delivery of valuable software to satisfy the customer

Principle 2: welcome change in requirements for customer’s competitive advantage

Principle 5: environment and support for motivated individuals

Principle 7: working software is the measure of progress

Principle 8: sustainable development & constant pace

Principle 9: continuous attention to technical excellence

Principle 10: simplicity – maximize work not done

Principle 11: best architecture & design emerge from self-organizing teams

Principle 12: team reflects on how to become more effective

  • On-going interactions between the developers and the PO for clarifications and feedback
  • The team provides visibility to progress and work remaining to be done
  • Developers, testers, UI, DBA and others work together to achieve sprint goals
  • The SM and the other leaders remove impediments faced by the team and enable higher level of performance
  • The team with the PO prepares for future sprints; refine stories
4Review / DemoAgile: Working software  

Scrum: Openness

XP: Communication; Feedback

Principle 1: early and continuous delivery of valuable software to satisfy the customer

Principle 2: welcome change in requirements for customer’s competitive advantage

Principle 7: working software is the measure of progress

  • The team works together in preparing for the Review / Demo
  • The PO leads the Review / Demo, provides an overview to stakeholders present and accepts the work done by the team as “done”
  • The team captures feedback from stakeholders and updates the product backlog as needed
5RetrospectiveAgile: Individuals and Interactions Over Processes and Tools; Responsiveness  

Scrum: Courage, Openness

XP: Communication; Feedback; Courage; Respect

Principle 5: environment and support for motivated individuals

Principle 6: face-to-face conversation

Principle 8: sustainable development & constant pace

Principle 9: continuous attention to technical excellence

Principle 12: team reflects on how to become more effective

  • The team reviews the work done, issues, challenges and individual inputs on the sprint just completed
  • The team acknowledges successes and individual contributions
  • The team focuses on stakeholder inputs from the sprint review & performance shortfalls and how to improve
Leadership, Communication; Culture
What do you think?

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