Scrum Events Cycle
Example Solution
Timing: 15 minutes for short version (steps 1-4), or 25 minutes (steps 1-6).
Materials:
Per team/group: Printed handout, scissors, marker pen, flip chart poster or whiteboard area.
Scrum Events Cycle Handout
Instructions:
I’ve mainly used this as a Connect (4C from Back of the room) exercise, but it has also served to deepen understanding.
It usually takes a group of four participants 10 minutes (or less) to complete steps 1-4 below. After that, I move teams clockwise in the room so they inspect the output from one of the other teams. After that, I debrief by assembling everyone in front of one the posters where they got all (or most of it) right, and just briefly walk through it. I ask if there were any unanswered questions.
If done with many teams, I instead debrief by drawing the cycle on a flip chart and talk it through.
If you intend to let teams complete 5 and 6, consider also having Scrum Guide printouts nearby, as there may be a lot of discussion. If you can’t (or don’t want to) moderate and provide some guidance, referencing the Scrum Guide to find the answer(s) may be a good way to “step back”.
Instructions to teams:
- Cut out all the boxes.
- Put the events in the order they appear in the Scrum Sprint cycle. Draw arrows to show the flow of things.
- Put the description boxes next to the event they describe. One should be left out.
- Put the timeboxes next to the event they belong to. One should be left out.
- For each event, write down (or use “icons” to indicate) which roles participates in the event.
- For each event, write down the things we inspect & adapt.
If you get stuck here, thinking in terms of inputs & outputs may help, although they may not be exactly the same thing.
Learning Points:
- tell (and show) in which order the events appear in a Sprint
- correctly associate description of events, with the actual event
- tell what the timebox of each event in Scrum is (and Product Backlog Refinement)
- tell which roles should attend which event
Could we get an answer key?
Of course. As I did the exercise myself just now (in order to produce a key), I timed it and it took me 3 minutes to cut all the pieces. 1 minute to get it right. Spent another 3 minutes creating small arrows. (That makes 7 minutes in total.) Here’s a photo of what the result may look like: https://goo.gl/photos/SWbVyCMkBy3PHCjP7
why is retro<4h and why is review<3h? shouldn't it be 2hrs maximum for each?
@Cheney: The exercise describes Scrum as described in the Scrum Guide, hence the usual 4 and 3 hours max time boxes are included in the exercise.