Intro: Welcome to the E6S-Methods podcast with Jacob and Aaron, brought to you by E6S Industries, your weekly dose of tips and tricks to achieve excellent performance in your business and career. Join us as we explore deeper into the practical worlds of Lean, Six Sigma, Project Management and Design Thinking. In this episode number 104, Jacob continues his teachings on "That SCRUM Stuff," in part 4 of our "Jacob Goes Agile" series. Here we go. http://bit.ly/E6S-104; http://bit.ly/E6S-iTunes

Basic Scrum Framework: involves 6 key stages

1. Initial Product Backlog

a. Define Product Backlog Items (PBI)

b. Prioritize

c. Colorize

d. Size – DoD (Definition of Done)

a. & b. are done by the Product Owner and the Stakeholders together

c. & d. is the time when the team is participating along with the product owner

· Size = Effort needed to get the thing done

· Guidance on DoD is provided by the Product Owner and refined by the team

2. Sprint Planning

a. How much work can be done in a sprint

b. How to do the work

i. Team members volunteer for PBI, PBI gets converted into a Plan and the Plan gets estimated by the team

c. Planning Poker is a very good way to do estimation

i. Consensus based approach on the complexity associated with the PBI

ii. Relative Scale

3. Sprint Execution

a. Daily Scrum

i. What did you complete yesterday

ii. What are you going to do today

iii. Any impediments to progress

b. Sprint is done when:

i. Plan for all PBI compete

ii. DoD is complete

iii. Productt Owner approves it

4. Sprint Review

a. Share the work completed in the sprint to Product Owner and key stakeholders

b. Celebrate accomplishments of the team

c. Not an avenue for feedback or criticism

5. Sprint Retrospective

a. Discuss what went well in the sprint and what needs to improve

6. Refinement

a. Revisit Product Backlog to ensure everything still reflects what is needed

Timeline of activities in order and who needs to be involved.

The dividing line splits the activities between two groups –

· Strategic – Customer, Product Owner, Scrum Master

· Tactical – Team, Scrum Master

Activities that are centered need to get both the sides participating.

What’s necessary to make Agile Successful?

· Commitment

· Priorities

· Accountability

· Transparency

· Flexibility

Agile Pitfalls

· Adding new work when a team has committed

· Lack of sponsor support

· Insufficient buy-in and understanding

· Product Owner Role is not properly filled

· Teams not focused

· Lacking test automation

· Allowing technical debt to buildup

· Fixed time & resources for variable scope and quality

Outro: Thanks for listening to episode 104 of the E6S-Methods Podcast. If you have any comments, suggestions, or would like to be a guest on the podcast, contact us through our website or find us on Twitter @e6sindustries. Join our mailing list! Subscribe to past and future episodes on iTunes or stream us on-demand with Stitcher Radio. Don't forget to leave a review and share us with a friend. Find outlines and graphics for all shows and more at www.E6S-Methods.com. “Journey Through Success - If you're not climbing up, you're falling down.”