As an agile leader,
I want agile team members engaged in the planning and building of high quality products,
So that we deliver the solution as expected.
Performance Circle: Crafting
Agile leaders need to instill a culture of craftsmanship in their own organization as well as other organizations within the product or service value stream. Customers, procurement, and sales all have a role to play, and for technologists to be successful, leaders from those organizations need to demonstrate craftsmanship as well.
Integrated coding-design-testing techniques such as test-driven development (TDD) and business-driven development (BDD).
Effective strategies for managing technical debt and refactoring.
Eliciting and recognizing high-quality requirements, epics, and stories.
Engagement of the business and end users for product ownership and relevant ceremonies.
Implementation of an effective tool chain with sufficient automation across the entire product or service development life cycle.
Holon: Planning
Objective
As an agile leader,
I want agile team members to estimate and plan for the upcoming sprint and groom the backlog mid-sprint,
So that we meet the sprint forecast is met as planned.
Performance Level Outcomes
Planning Performance Level Outcomes
Adopting Level Outcomes | Transforming Level Outcomes | Mastering Level Outcomes |
|---|---|---|
1. Projects demonstrate the use of established agile planning ceremonies and techniques. 2. Agile values are demonstrated during planning. 3. Project team members are trained in the agile planning ceremonies and techniques. | 4. Essential planning stakeholders engage with projects while demonstrating agile values. 5. Agile leaders are trained in agile planning ceremonies and techniques, and use them for their own work. 6. All projects and functional groups use agile planning ceremonies and techniques. | 7. Projects select planning ceremonies and techniques based on project needs and objectives. 8. Agile leaders engage with projects using agile values. 9. Planning ceremonies and techniques are improved and expanded over time. |
Action 1.0: Enable Team Commitment
A culture of agile leadership demonstrates core agile values top-down and bottom-up at all times to enable self-organization of all project teams. Project chartering and Team Agreements define the agile brand of each team.
Ceremonies/Techniques
Project Chartering/Team Agreement
Use project chartering/team agreements to enable agile teams to self-organize around the key characteristics of their team’s values, goals, and objectives. Each team creates their personal “agile brand,” which can include behaviors, operations, and a unique team name.
Self-Subscription
Foster a culture of team commitment and self-organization by ensuring all agile team members are empowered to self-subscribe (pull) work from a backlog based on their availability, expertise, and workload. Self-subscription is a core behavior of lean thinking, and is a powerful tool for promoting agility across teams.
Action 2.0: Create and Agree on a Definition of Done
Backlog grooming, mid-sprint can be used to ensure that a surplus of user stories is always available for the next iteration or sprint. A definition of done is clearly defined for each story, with common criteria captured in team agreements as part of the teams’ agile brand.
Ceremonies/Techniques
Project Chartering/Team Agreements
Use project chartering/team agreement to self-organize around the key characteristics of their team, and the definition of done for epics, stories, code, tests, and more. Let them create their “agile brand.”
Team Agreements
Use team agreements to capture common definitions of done.
Definition of Done
Use definition of done to capture, in unambiguous language, how the team knows a user story is complete and ready to present to the product owner or other stakeholders in a sprint demo.
Backlog Grooming
Use backlog grooming to generate and capture the forecast for subsequent sprints, and define the definitions of done for individual user stories that are being considered.
Action 3.0: Select Work to Complete for Each Sprint
Self-subscription enables the agile team members who are doing the work to pull from a backlog(s) of prioritized user stories. A Definition of Ready is clearly defined and verified for each story on the backlog to ensure they are ready to be selected.
Ceremonies/Techniques
Incremental Development
Use an incremental approach to break development into small, consistent, manageable, and predicable pieces.
Definition of Ready
Use a common definition of ready to increase the likelihood that the team is working with high-quality stories, and that the implementation of a user story in each increment will be successful. Applying screening criteria such as INVEST to user stories is an example of definition of ready.
Self-Subscription
Foster a culture of ownership by empowering agile teams to employ self-subscription while they pull their own work from the backlog. Self-subscription support ownership and commitment with self-organizing teams. Employ self-subscription in all sprint planning and grooming meetings.
Action 4.0: Estimate the Work to Complete in the Sprint
Sprint planning meetings are used to size user stories relative to one another using techniques such as Planning Poker, T-Shirt Sizing, or the Team Estimating Game. As part of planning the upcoming sprint or iteration, team members break the selected user stories into tasks, and then estimate each task in hours to complete. Tasks include activities beyond coding proven to support craftsmanship such as design, unit testing, prototyping, and validation/verification.
Ceremonies/Techniques
Relative Estimation
Use relative estimation to size epics and user stories as larger or smaller than a known, agreed-upon reference. Limit choices and ranges in the Team Agreement to increase estimation consistency, and reduce the time needed to create estimates.
Team Estimation Game (Planning Poker)
Use the Team Estimation Game or Planning Poker, to size user stories as part of sprint planning. Encourage “relatively right” versus “accurately wrong” estimates using Planning Poker based on a limited-range Fibonacci sequence.
Backlog Grooming
Use backlog grooming to prioritize stories for future sprints.
Sprint Planning
Include the sprint planning meetings to engage agile team members and the product owner in the estimation and planning process. Team members should break down user stories into the tasks (in hours) needed to complete the story and meet the predefined definition of done.
Holon: Solving
Solving is a holon within the Crafting performance circle. The Solving holon contains the actions and ceremonies needed to create and sustain high-quality products and services from the viewpoint of the customer. Solving is a structured and disciplined approach to the design and development of products and services. Craftsmanship starts here.
Objective
As an agile leader,
I want to help agile team members meet their sprint forecast,
So that we develop a high-quality solution using an iterative and incremental approach.
Performance Level Outcomes
Defining Performance Level Outcomes
Adopting Level Outcomes | Transforming Level Outcomes | Mastering Level Outcomes |
|---|---|---|
1. Teams use established product development ceremonies and techniques. 2. Agile values are demonstrated during product development. 3. Team members are trained in the established product development ceremonies and techniques. | 4. Essential product development stakeholders demonstrate agile values. 5. Agile leaders are trained in how to recognize established product development ceremonies and techniques. 6. All teams in the organization select product development ceremonies and techniques from a common set. | 7. Teams proactively select product development ceremonies and techniques based on project needs, objectives, and constraints. 8. Agile leaders engage with teams using agile values. 9. Product development ceremonies and techniques are improved and expanded over time. |
Action 1.0: Burn Down User Stories
Project teams demonstrate self-organization and commitment by completing the implementation of user story tasks for the current sprint or iteration without oversight from a project manager. Disciplined methods are used to complete work, with a focus on quality, and visual information management systems create transparency for all team members and extended stakeholders.
Ceremonies/Techniques
Burn Down Chart
Display daily progress and work that has been completed during each sprint using a burn down chart. Any stakeholder can easily determine if the sprint forecast will be met. Action can be taken early to reprioritize stories and tasks.
Scrum Wall
Use a scrum wall to show the progression of user stories through the workflow states defined by the team in the team agreement. The scrum wall and burn down charts, used together, create transparency for all stakeholders.
Kanban Board
For teams that use Kanban to manage work, use a Kanban Board for visual information management.
Velocity
Velocity, in story points, represents the capacity of a team to deliver value during a sprint. Once established, it creates predictability for each sprint and the overall release plan, given a relatively consistent team.
Pair Programming
Use pair programming for low-defect product development. Although counterintuitive, it is consistently more efficient than working individually.
Mob Programming
Mob programming adds the whole team, not just the developers, to the development effort. Adding different perspectives early reduces all sources of defects.
Test-Driven Development
Use test-driven development to create tests first, and then write code that fails or passes the tests. Working this way increases efficiency by getting both the tests and the code right early in the development cycle.
Unit Testing
Do unit testing finds and eliminate defects early in the development cycle. Automated unit testing is common with agile teams, and it is encouraged for 100 percent of all code.
Action 2.0: Review Activities and Impediments
The team has discussed progress and transparently identifies impediments as a group. The daily standups have a short, focused script, defined in the team agreement, are time boxed, and are facilitated by a scrum master or equivalent. Impediments are recorded in an impediment backlog so they can be addressed outside of the daily stand-up.
Ceremonies/Techniques
Daily Stand-Up/Daily Scrum
The Daily Stand-Up, also known as the Daily Scrum, Huddle, or Daily Meeting, significantly increases transparency and collaboration for the team. The better and more open the daily stand-up is, the higher the likelihood of rapidly solving problems to ensure meeting sprint commitments.
Impediment Backlog
Use an Impediment Backlog to quickly record impediments that cannot be addressed during the daily stand-up. Use Visual Information Management for the Impediment backlog to increase visibility and transparency.
Action 3.0: Remove Impediments
Impediments in the impediment backlog are eliminated, if possible, by the Scrum Master or agile leader. Impediments that cannot be eliminated are used to identify future improvements, or are escalated to the agile leadership so they can be resolved for the benefit of the entire organization.
Ceremonies/Techniques
Impediment Backlog
Continuously improve quality and performance by eliminating impediments recorded in the Impediment Backlog. Instill the value of “Inspect and Adapt.”
Action 4.0: Review Completed Work
The customer or end user of the product or service reviews and accepts or rejects what was completed by the team during the current sprint or iteration. The customer or end user accepts the work, identifies changes to be made, or identifies new needs or stories for a future sprint or iteration. Prioritization of changes or new stories is defined and agreed upon.
Ceremonies/Techniques
Sprint Demo
Use the Sprint Demo, also known as a Sprint Review, or Show and Tell, to capture immediate feedback from the customer or business owner of the product being demonstrated. Capture both defects and change requests at this time to efficiently manage changes and improvements.
Action 5.0: Identify Improvements
The project team conducts a retrospective after each sprint to identify improvements and learning opportunities. The retrospective is facilitated by a scrum master, or equivalent, and appropriate learning information is shared beyond the boundaries of the project team so the entire organization benefits.
Ceremonies/Techniques
Sprint Retrospective
Ensure the team conducts Sprint Retrospectives to identify what went well (continue doing), what did not go well (stop doing), and what should be improved (learning) for the next sprint. Share appropriate learning with all teams doing similar work.
Milestone Retrospective
Do Milestone Retrospectives to collaborate with additional stakeholders outside the localized agile team.
Holon: Delivering
Delivering is a holon within the Crafting performance circle. The Delivering holon contains the actions and ceremonies needed to plan product or service releases at a higher level than individual sprints or iterations. Delivering contains planning how product assembly and testing are done at the sprint or iteration level, and at the release level, as well as how and when the assembled and tested product is made available to the customer or end user.
Objective
As an agile leader,
I want team members to integrate and test the solution,
So that it meets the needs of the customer and end-user.
Performance Level Outcomes:
Delivering Performance Level Outcomes
Adopting Level Outcomes | Transforming Level Outcomes | Mastering Level Outcomes |
|---|---|---|
1. Projects use defined delivery ceremonies and techniques. 2. Agile values are demonstrated during delivery. 3. Project team members are trained in the defined delivery ceremonies and techniques. | 4. Essential delivery stakeholders engage with projects using agile values. 5. Agile leaders are trained in the delivery ceremonies and techniques. 6. All projects use defined delivery ceremonies and techniques. | 7. Projects proactively select organizational delivery ceremonies and techniques based on project needs, objectives, and constraints. 8. Agile leaders engage with projects using agile values. 9. Delivery ceremonies and techniques are improved and expanded over time. |
Action 1.0: Plan each Delivery
The product owner, or their equivalent, creates a release plan that connects the completion of the stories in each sprint or iteration to individual releases. The release plan is at a level higher than the individual sprints or iterations, and is continuously updated and communicated to the team as part of backlog grooming.
Ceremonies/Techniques
Release Planning
Identify the high-level release schedule and the goal for each release by doing release planning. Work to deliver the highest value (from the perspective of the end user) user stories early in the development.
Backlog Grooming
Use backlog grooming to target user stories for planned releases.
Action 2.0: Assemble Product or Service Component for the Sprint
The assembly of the product or service components are accomplished using the methods and tools defined as part of release planning. Automated builds and continuous integration are used to improve efficiency, quality, and the craftsmanship of the end product or service.
Ceremonies/Techniques
Automated Build
Use Automated Builds to build code modules, and run automated unit tests each time code is checked-in. Bias the process towards rapidly finding and fixing defects early (fail fast).
Continuous Integration
Use Continuous Integration to build the product at the component level, and run automated integration tests each time the product is built. Bias the process towards rapidly finding and fixing defects at the interface level.
Action 3.0: Test Assembled Product or Service
The assembled product or service is tested to make sure performance matches the expectations and commitments made during the sprint or iteration. Detailed information is captured for defects, enabling root cause analysis, and resolution occurs within the sprint or iteration, or de-prioritized and added to the backlog. The team analyzes defects or bugs, and uses the information gathered for future retrospectives to drive continuous learning and improvement.
Ceremonies/Techniques
Acceptance Testing
Conduct Acceptance Testing to ensure that product works correctly for the end user. If possible, the customer or end-user should perform testing in the presence of the team via the Sprint Demo.
Usability Testing
Leverage Usability Testing to ensure that the end-user will have a positive impression of the user experience.
Action 4.0: Deliver the Assembled Product or Service
The product or service is delivered to the customer or end-user as defined in the release plan. Changes or defects identified after delivery are placed on the backlog, reviewed with the customer or end-user, prioritized, and sequenced into future sprints or iterations.
Ceremonies/Techniques
Continuous Deployment
Using automation, promote the assembled and tested product to the production environment at the end of each sprint to receive rapid feedback from the user community.
Frequent Releases
When automated build is not possible, promote the assembled and tested product in the production environment at a rapid cadence to receive frequent feedback from the user community.