Questions Asked by Participants during 22nd Agile Training Session on 8th April 2013

I found following questions unanswered on questions backlog:

1.       What if the difference between agile and distributed agile methodology?

We can build the distributed agile teams using Daikibo (means, large in Japanese Language) and 2 in a box model (copy right to Cognizant). Scrum master has to protect the team from external disturbances at onsite as well as offshore. Product   Owner or Business analyst should always stay at arm distance to help the teams whenever they have questions, hence, we can duplicate the roles of Scrum master and Business analyst at onsite and offshore. We will make sure that these two people are interacting at least twice a day so that they can help the developing team seamlessly !!

Developing team of onsite and offshore should make sprint commitment together so that they will be self-organized. Both the teams should participate actively, in all ceremonies (Sprint 0 activities, sprint plan, daily standup, review, retrospective and backlog grooming etc. ) so that all the members as a whole team can improve the productivity that can give high business value to end customer.

Refer to “Scrum Team Training Session  3” slide 17 in the course material.

2.       Will there be any SIT, UAT, IR Testing environments?

Agile always asks you to do what is Enough.  We still need to maintain the developing and testing environments as it is if these are giving higher benefit to end customer. However, they way we operate is littile tricky like, we will ask both developers and testes as part of in-scrum testing to work on Dev Environment together, so that the defects can be prevented. Validation testes can use  QA and other environments so that the defects can be identified.

Refer to “Scrum Team Training Session  4” slide 15 thru 18  in the course material.

3.       What if product owner realizes an user story in execution has  to undergo a change during sprint?

We need to see the root cause for this problem and address it at that level. Problem may recur if we are giving situational solutions instead of addressing root cause. Analyze …

·         At what stage this is   occurring?

·         Did PO analyzed the requirements during Sprint 0?

·         What is he doing during Backlog grooming sessions?

·         Look at what is meant by “enough elaboration” in PO view?

·         Bring this in retrospective meeting !!

Breaking the sprint should be a last option just before performing bypass surgery to scrum heartbeat. We should not make this is first or only option, as multiple by-pass surgeries can become more risky to agile framework and to the team !!

4.        Ideal scrum team – jack of all and master of none?

Agile team should consists of 7 or more/less Cross Functional team members. This doesn’t mean, 7+/- 2 Jacks .. it meas 7 +/- 2 human technically skilled human beings !! It is the responsibility of the team and scrum master to make all these human beings all masters over the time !!

Refer to “Scrum Team Training Session  1” slide 39 in the course material.

5.       Can we have intermediate releases?

Ideally, in agile world, We should target to build shippable (than potentially shippable !!!) product at end of every sprint so that the review is healthy and gives higher business value. IMHO, each sprint review is a release. No need to tag an intermediate release.

Will this be possible all the time?

Refer to “Scrum Team Training Session  1” slide 59 in the course material.

6.       Can we have intermediate Deliverables?

Same as the above !!