Agile Challenges Series

Sprinting or not sprinting? How to get started sprinting.

Adopting an agile culture is undoubtedly filled with obstacles. In this particular blog post, I will discuss some of them. This blog will focus primarily on the essential requirements for a team to begin sprinting successfully. These are the most essential points to remember:

Agile Team Training

Initially, all team members must have a fundamental understanding of the procedure that will be used, regardless of its nature. As soon as the decision to sprint is made, all agile teams must have a plan of action. Now is the time for a Scrum Master to prepare a presentation and instruct the team on how Scrum works.

It can include all of the ceremonies, sprint duration, sprint objective, team member responsibilities, how success will be measured, and all of the agile definitions that will be used.

Even if your team members are well-versed in agile, different organizations typically implement it differently. You must ensure that all team members understand agile definitions and your agile process. It is of vital importance. Everyone has to understand how sprinting will work, and all concerns regarding the process must be addressed.

Clear Sprint Goal

The team must explicitly define and agree upon sprint goals. Every member of the agile team must be committed to the sprint's goal. Any uncertainties must be clarified.

Enough refined tickets

Before beginning a sprint, you must have "Ready" tickets that have been refined and are estimated to be taken up by the team. You may not bring tickets to the sprint for which the team still has concerns or lacks clarity.

The developer must precisely understand the 'What', the QA must know how to test, and the team as a whole must have a full understanding of "Done."

Dedicated Fixed-Size Team

The success of an agile team will depend solely on having a team of the same size working together and increasing their contributions from sprint to sprint. For sprinting to be successful, a dedicated QA and product owner with time for the team is required. Since the team's velocity will determine success, you cannot add or remove team members during each iteration.

Same Project/Product

Work on the same project, product, or feature is strongly encouraged. It is very difficult if the team has multiple initiatives underway. Priorities are misplaced, and the team is uncertain of what is expected of them. Team members do not participate in daily discussions because they are focused on various priorities and compete for them. As with any sports team, it should be built to win.

This will demonstrate how to begin sprinting. If you have covered these five points, you should be able to give it a shot with a reasonable possibility of success. Last but not least, it takes a few sprints for the team to build up speed and determine whether or not it works for them. You cannot think that you failed if your first efforts were not 100% successful. You have to continue to educate, adjust, and build an agile team. Typically, it takes four to five sprints to form an agile sprinting team with excellent velocity.

Happy Sprinting!