Let’s play a game

In any project, regardless of the management methodology, there are two things that need to be decided up front by all the stakeholders:

• Requirements: what is the structure?
• Delivery: when it is ready to ship?

In SCRUM we call them:

• Definition of Ready
• Definition of Done

For each one we have a specific template that we built in time, based on experience and lessons learned.

Why they are so important?

Would you play a game without knowing the rules?

Even from childhood we are comfortable with playing the game only if we know the rules.

Each project is a game : you either win (the delivery is exactly what the client expected) or lose  (you end up in ping-pongs on each requirement, or endless discussions and arguments on what was delivered)

Definition of Done and Definition of Ready  are vital for project success simply because everyone needs to know the rules. More preciseley : establish up front what needs to be done for each requirement in order to be approved.

Audience: Project Managers, Product Managers, SCRUM Team members| Estimated reading time: 5 mins

Retrospectives, cartoons and skiing

All meetings in scrum are important, but one weighs more than all: Scrum Retrospective (notice that I even used Caps Lock to write the name – it is that important). You can live without it, of course, but you will certainly not improve, nor identify possible mistakes.

In other words: you will find yourself  doing “Homers’ D’OH!” at least once in your future. Especially when you will discover that you did the same mistake twice.

Audience: Scrum Team members or anyone interested in keeping the meetings short & productive | Estimated reading time: 20 mins

Chapters:

• 1. Is Scrum as simple as making soup?
• 2. Good meetings are like skiing
• 3. What I’ve learned through experience
• 4. How we use to keep the  Retrospectives
• 5. How we currently keep the Retrospectives