Question 1

In the past

A couple of hundred years ago, if you wanted to learn how to make clogs, it wasn't so that the master clog maker would give you a piece of wood, some tools, and then say to you, "Here's wood and tools, I have all the trust in you that you will discover in 3 Sprints how to make clogs."

If you look at it, it is folly to approach it in this way because now the apprentice has to go through the whole learning path that all those clog makers before him also went.

The master clog maker did not do this; he would say, "Here's wood and tools, sit next to me and just do like me."

Within a week, the apprentice can make clogs, and after again a week, he could already produce an order on his own for a woman who ordered clogs size 38.

A couple of months later, the apprentice could develop improvement ideas. Improvements the master clog maker could not see himself because he was creating in a habitual way the clogs.

Now, the apprentice moved to mastery.

The master clog maker was first a mentor, and then became a coach.

The Scrum World

Within the Scrum world, I noticed that the Scrum teams were often given wood and tools and were expected to re-invent the clog-producing process again. To say it differently: "The Scrum Master moved too quickly from mentorship towards coaching."

This inside started the "development" of what I now call the Scrum Quick Start.

How it can help Scrum teams

SQS is an ever-evolving set of Good Practices that should not be used as laws but being used as a starting point to get quick results, enable success quickly, enable to celebrate success soon, and show the world that we can DO it!

SQS is a good benchmark for existing Scrum teams where the team can discover improvements or discover that they have developed even better practices, adding to their confidence.

Question 2

What for whom?

Accepted Answer

SQS is constantly evolving and therefore changing new main topics and sub-topics will be added (or removed).

All amount of sub-topics can become a bit overwhelming, so that's why each sub-topic has a two-letter code that gives an identification for whom that sub-topics is intended.

Below the picture of each sub-topic, you will find not only a short description of that sub-topic, and a code for whom that sub-topic is intended.

To mark for whom a sub-topic is interesting, a two-letter code is used.

Used 'for whom' codes;

DT - Development Team

PO - Product Owner

SM - Scrum Master

SL - Servant leader

Question 3

SQS for novice or new Agile Scrum teams

Accepted Answer

When a team starts with Agile Scrum, it is good practice to start with a Good Practice.

This way, the team is;

fast up to speed
starts to deliver quickly, in an Agile way, added value
the team starts to feel ownership
celebrates successes quickly
a feature road-map starts to evolve fast
stakeholders experience that Agile Scrum works

Question 4

SQS as benchmark for existing Scrum teams

Accepted Answer

For teams who are already working for a while "with Scrum," SQS can be of help, it can be used;

as a benchmark against their Scrum processes
detect areas where they can improve
detect areas where they have a better solution then SQS

Question 5

SQS for new team member to get them quickly up-to-speed

Accepted Answer

SQS is a comprehensive set of WoW's right from the beginning of an idea (Saga/Episode/Epic) all the way down to the Stories in Sprints and the WoW's needed in a Sprint.

When new team members join the team, this SQS library will help the new team member in getting up to speed fast and integrating into the team and organization.

Question 6

SQS to answer "how did we do this again" questions

Accepted Answer

"How did we do this again?" SQS serves as a library where team members can go to when they want to know how to do a specific part of the process.

For example; what to do with a Story that is Done and is only waiting on the approval of somebody outside the team?

Question 7

1. Introduction Agile Scrum

Accepted Answer

It is essential that we have the same ideas about what Agile is, what Scrum is, the role of the Product Owner, the role of the Scrum Master, and has some idea about Large Scaled Scrum methods.

There is a lot of information available on the internet, with good and not so good information. These can cause different understanding about topics with Agile Scrum, which can confuse, causing lots of discussions and irritation. It carries a big potential in it to slow down the adaptation of Agile Scrum, and move quickly too; improved velocity, improved quality, and last but not least, improved team and customer happiness.

To avoid this, I have gathered good information so confusion, discussion, time loss, and in the worst case, avoid a not successful implementation of Agile Scum.

Question 8

2. Setting the stage

Accepted Answer

Here we dive into the difference between naming conventions between the old project structure and Agile roadmap structure, and we talk about the importance of Refinement.

Question 9

3. Refinement Good Practice

Accepted Answer

In the Agile Scrum world, there is a Good Practice to come from the initial idea to in a Sprint executable Story.

The three workflows in this part are essential to study because they represent many years and have delivered Good Practice and give you a quality and quick start.

Question 10

4. Refinements WoW's

Accepted Answer

The WoW's you find here will support the team and the Product Owner to create a stable pipeline that spits out, like clockwork, well-refined and poker stories.

The effect of high-quality Refinement of Stories is enormous!

I have seen good working teams jump from an average of 70 Story Points per Sprint to 170 Story Points average per Sprint.

The only thing the team changed was the Story refinement process according to the Good Practice process you can find here.

Question 11

5. WoW, during a Sprint

Accepted Answer

During the Sprint, common interruptions appear, like; an unplanned Story needs to be added to the Sprint, a production incident needs to be solved, a Story is Done but you are waiting on external action, and when to create Sub-tasks for a Story and when not.

This section gives a proven Way of Workings with these common interruptions and discussions, which often occur during a Sprint.

Question 12

6. Scrum Events and Meeting Rhythm

Accepted Answer

The critical reason why Scrum is successful is that the team comes into a cadence that they can maintain over a long time.

The Scrum meeting Rhythm is an essential pillar of this cadence. This section contains an in-practice proven example of a cadence that supports the team in this.

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