What is Timeboxing and why Timeboxing?

What is Timeboxing?

It’s a fixed span of time and is called as SPRINT in Scrum. A typical duration of Sprint is 1-4 weeks and below is some the characteristics of Sprint.

Fixed Length – Duration can’t change once agreed even if all works those were forecasted not complete within fixed length. Sprint will expire on set end date and time.

Fixed Team – Team members who start sprint remain united till end of the sprint. There should not be any change in team composition within sprint.

Fixed Goal – Team set goal at the beginning of the sprint and remain unchanged till sprint expire. If goal become meaningless then better to terminate sprint and start new with new goal rather than changing goal in between sprint.

A product increment at the end of Sprint – Team produces a shippable feature or functionality at the end of sprint and new feature/functionality is an increment on top of the existing product.

Why Timeboxing?

Help the team to stay focused on the goal

By Eliminating Procrastination – People usually prefer to do more pleasurable work at beginning than less pleasurable even if more pleasurable work is not urgent. Timeboxing helps team to stay focus and complete all the work in given timeframe even if it is not very pleasurable in rodder to meet Definition of Done (DoD).

A very useful quote about Procrastination - “I am very busy doing things that I don’t need to do in order to avoid doing anything I am actually supposed to be doing.”

By Providing Frequent Opportunity to get Customer Feedback – Since team produces shippable product at the end of every sprint so it’s become very handy to get feedback at the end of sprint from customer. Feedback helps team in further planning.

Leanpitch provides the best scrum and agile training. We are leading provider of Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Certified Scrum Developer (CSD), Kanban, Test Driven Development (TDD), Behavior Driven Development (BDD) in Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Hyderabad. Visit our website to know more about Leanpitch Offering.

Can BDD help in slicing complex story?

What is Behavior Driven Development?

Behavior Driven Development (BDD) is well known practice for collaboration and many organizations practice it to bridge gap between in product management and software development team.

BDD help in describing requirement in the form of feature file and scenarios. Scenarios further get describe in format of Given, When and Then. The language that mainly used in writing feature file is called is Gherkin. Gherkin language can be used to write feature file in more than 40 languages. Some of the important keywords of Gherkin mentioned below that will help in describing features and scenarios:-

Feature, Scenario, Given, When, Then, And, But, Background, Scenario Outline and Examples

How to write Feature file?

You can write feature file in notepad as well so basically there is no need to know any particular tools and below is format.

Feature: Search Flight

As a flyer I want to search available flight between Bangalore and Chennai So that I can book to travel on given date.

#above story/description is optional

Scenario: Search all available flight based on date, origin and destination

Given flyer enter travel date as “12/12/2016” and origin as “Bangalore and Destination as “Chennai”

When Click on Search button

Then search page should show all available flight

And option to book flight

When to write feature file?

If you are practicing Scrum then better to have it during product backlog refinement session else make it mandatory for requirement gathering.

What is complex story/requirement?

Take above example of flight search, this looks very simple but can it be deliver in 2 weeks of sprint? May not possible if you have to complete all work that has been mentioned in Definition of Done (DoD)? So how to slice it to have shippable product at the end of sprint?

Use BDD scenario like below to slice it. Now change scenario to search flights only for one airlines at time because connecting multiple sources may not be possible in one sprint and modify it like below.

Scenario: Search only Indigo flight based on date, origin and destination

Given flyer enter travel date as “12/12/2016” and origin as “Bangalore and Destination as “Chennai”

When Click on Search button

Then search page should show all available flight

And option to book flight

Scenario: Search only Spicejet flight based on date, origin and destination

Given flyer enter travel date as “12/12/2016” and origin as “Bangalore and Destination as “Chennai”

When Click on Search button

Then search page should show all available flight

And option to book flight

Scenario: Search only Jet Airways flight based on date, origin and destination

Given flyer enter travel date as “12/12/2016” and origin as “Bangalore and Destination as “Chennai”

When Click on Search button

Then search page should show all available flight

And option to book flight

Now team can decide to build only those scenario that can be delivered within one sprint and rest scenarios in upcoming sprints.

Above scenarios can also be further sliced like below if needed.

Scenario: One way flight of Indigo

Scenario: Return flight of Indigo

Scenario: Multiple location search for Indigo etc.

Hope it is useful and if you have further query then reach out to me on naveen.singh@leanpitch.com

Leanpitch provides the best scrum and agile training. We are leading provider of Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Certified Scrum Developer (CSD), Kanban , Test Driven Development (TDD), Behavior Driven Development (BDD) in Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Hyderabad. Visit our website to know more about Leanpitch Offering.

Play Scrum on the run with help of Mobile App

Leanpitch has launched a mobile app “PlayScrum Lite” to help you play and practice scrum. App is free and there are more than 800 download after releasing it at google play store. We are receiving a very positive feedback and current rating is 4.7 out of 5. Due to time constraint we have only released android version so far and will be releasing ios version in couple of weeks.

Playscrum App provides below features.

Check the readiness to conduct scrum ceremonies
Check the doneness of conducting scrum ceremonies 
Size product backlog using planning poker cards 
Refresh scrum knowledge

You can download this app from http://leanpitch.com/playscrum-app/ 

Download and keep playing scrum. Don’t forget to rate and write your feedback. We value your suggestion and will try to incorporate in next version.

ABOUT US:-

Leanpitch is agile company and beside than developing products we also provide agile training and consulting.

Please check our schedule based your role in your city (Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune and Delhi)

Coaches and Scrum Master – Look for CSM, Certified LeSS Practitioner or write to me if looking for CSP (Certified Scrum Professional) 

Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS) – http://leanpitch.com/less-workshop/

Certified Scrum Master (CSM) – http://leanpitch.com/csm-workshops/

Product Owner/Product Manager – Check our CSPO course that help if you to understand your role in scrum

Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) – http://leanpitch.com/cspo-workshops/

Development Team members – Check our CSD workshop that’s especially designed for Developers, Testers, Business Analyst and all other skills those are part of development team.

Certified Scrum Developer (CSD) – http://leanpitch.com/csd-workshop/

Agile and Scrum Workshop for Business Analyst and Product Owner

Course Overview

Course will cover the Scrum framework but more importantly, what it means to function as the business analyst, or customer, for a scrum team. Participant will learn about managing stakeholders, creating and refining the Product Backlog, emerging detail with Product Backlog Items and User Stories including Acceptance Criteria and the Definition of Done and Definition of Ready. Course will have many exercises, in-depth discussion, case studies and techniques to help illustrate practices and principles. This workshop is for project managers, business analyst (BA), product owner, product manager and member of product management team.

Learning Outcome  

Understanding of Agile and Scrum

Practical knowledge of Scrum Framework and role of business analyst in Scrum

How to capture product ideas in a Product Vision Statement

How to write appropriate Product Backlog Items, which outline deliverable value for the

product

How to define Product Roadmap and Releases to aid in Product Lifecycle planning

Product and project budgeting in Scrum

Techniques for collaborating and interacting with the Development Team to ensure better

understanding of requirement.

Day -1

Scrum Basics

Understand the Scrum Framework, the core components of the Scrum framework, Roles,

Ceremonies, Agreements and Artifacts

Understand the principles of empirical process control and how to practice it through

simulation

Create work culture that helps in maximizing business value

Roles & Responsibilities

Understand the role of the Product Owner, proxy product owner and business analyst in detail

Understand why product mindset and not project mindset

Product Vision

Understand the importance of having the product vision as an overarching goal galvanizing the

entire Scrum team

Develop Product Vision using real case study

Understand the desirable qualities of the vision and how it can be shaped

Understand the importance of carrying out just enough prep work

Practice Impact Mapping to define product vision and roadmap

Understand the relationship between vision and product roadmap

Day -2

Product Backlog

Understand what the product backlog  and PBIs

Understand product backlog Refinement

Writing effective PBIs

Slicing PBIs using best practices like INVEST

Identification of MVP (minimum viable product)

Keeping product backlog in DEEP status

Prioritization

Understand the importance and benefits of prioritizing the product backlog

Understand the implications of saying everything is mandatory

Understand who should have input into prioritization decisions

Learn prioritization techniques such as MoSCoW and Kano

Understand how much latitude to give a team in adjusting the sequence of work

Estimating

Understand the different estimation levels in Scrum

Practice estimation techniques

Understand that estimates of size and duration can be done separately

Understand the difference between estimating and committing

Day -3

Release Management

Understand the goals and how to of release planning

Understand that planning is adaptive, iterative and collaborative

Understand why software should be released early and frequently

Understand and measure velocity to forecast

Understand release burndown charts

Understand how a release plan can help predict the future

Acceptance Test Driven Development/Behavior Driven Development

Understand how to write testable acceptance criteria

Understand the importance of automation in scrum

How to automate acceptance test

Learn Gherkin language to write feature file

Why and how to become Certified Scrum Professional (CSP)

Almost 200 professional become either Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) or Certified Scrum Developer (CSD) through Leanpitch every month. We strongly advise every participant to focus on continuous learning and share your learning with others as often as possible. If you are learning and have required experience then also become certified scrum professional (CSP). Certified Scrum Professional (CSP) is not only a certificate but a milestone that demonstrate your skills and experience. If you are planning to become coach or already working as coach and wanted to earn Certified Scrum Coach (CSC) certification then CSP is 1st step towards it. Same apply for Certified Scrum Trainer (CST) as well. CSP doesn't required any training like CSM, CSPO or CSD but needed 70 SEUs (Scrum Education Units) that shows how much you are investing on continuous learning. These SEUs can be earn through various way and same mentioned below:-

Category "A" - Unlimited SEUs through Scrum Gathering and User group meetup. You can join Playscrum user group and attend monthly meetup in your cities. Playscrum user group available in 5 cities. -Playscrum-Pune, Playscrum-Bangalore, Playscrum-Chennai,Playscrum-Delhi and Playscrum-Hyderabad. Playscum also facilitated one day playscrum meet in Chennai and planning to keep facilitating same in other cities as well.

Category "B" - Unlimited SEUs through Scrum alliance training program like CSM, CSPO and CSD. You can also earn these Scrum Education Units (SEUs) through other courses like Test Driven Development (TDD), Behavior Driven Development (BDD), User story and agile estimation etc. Leanpitch deliver corporate training on TDD, BDD and User story development in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Category "C" - 15 SEUs under this category and same can be earn through attending any agile workshop like Kanban, LeSS practitioner, DevOps and PMI-ACP workshop. Leanpitch regularly conduct Kanban training in Bangalore, Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Category "D" - 15 SEUs under this category through volunteer service for Scrum Gathering or User group meetup. You can reach out to playscrum  community.

Category "E" - 15 SEUs through self learning like reading few books. I would recommend reading below books. One hour of reading is equal to one SEU.

1. Agile Estimating and Planning: Mike Cohn

2. Professional Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products: Jim Highsmith 

3. Professional Agile Retrospectives: Esther Derby, Diana Larsen, Ken Schwaber 

4. Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game Author: Alistair Cockburn

5. Coaching Agile Teams: Lyssa Adkins 

6. Effective Project Management: Traditional, Agile Extreme: Robert K. Wysocki

7. Exploring Scrum: The Fundamentals: Dan Rawsthorne with Doug Shimp 

8. Kanban In Action: Marcus Hammarberg, Joakim Sunden

9. Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for your Technology Business: David J. Anderson 

10. Lean-Agile Software Development: Alan Shalloway, Guy Beaver, James R. Trott  

11. The Software Project Manager’s Bridge to Agility: Michele Sliger, Stacia Broderick

12. User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development: Mike Cohn 

13. Agile Product Management with Scrum: Roman Pichler

Category "F" - 15 SEUs through co-training or live webinar 

Leanpitch has brought below program for you to learn and earn SEUs in your city.

Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) - 16 SEUs under Category "B" - For product owner, product manager, project manager, business analyst and leaders to maximize product business value. Leanpitch conduct Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) training in Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi and Hyderabad.

Certified Scrum Developer (CSD) - 24 SEUs under category "B" - This will give you opportunity to learn agile engineering practices and most suitable for scrum master, developers, testers, agile coaches and as well as for managers to build value and focus on outcome. Leanpitch conduct Certified Scrum Developer (CSD) training in Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi and Hyderabad.

Certified Kanban Management Professional - 15 SEUs under Category "C" - For practicing scrum professional including scrum master, agile coaches and senior management to maximize value. Leanpitch conduct Certified Kanban Management Professional training in Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi and Hyderabad.

PMI-ACP Exam series -1 :: Why not PMI-ACP certificate

PMI-ACP has changed exam content and now focusing more on Scrum and Kanban. I would not recommend PMI-ACP to anyone due to exam fee and examination process itself but reading reference material is always helpful. PMI approach is not encouraging especially when it's come to Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP) certificate. Purpose of this PMI-ACP exam series not to criticize but elaborate what contents get cover in exam. I will be writing a separate blog on each topics in coming days. 

Here is details why not PMI-ACP.

Content:-

Unlike PMP there is NO guide from PMI and only suggest to read below 12 books. These books are anyway available and agile enthusiast refers it. Why should I go to PMI to get this list if same is available everywhere. In case of PMP, PMI does provide a guide called PMBOK.

1. Agile Estimating and Planning: Mike Cohn

2. Professional Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products: Jim Highsmith 

3. Professional Agile Retrospectives: Esther Derby, Diana Larsen, Ken Schwaber 

4. Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game Author: Alistair Cockburn

5. Coaching Agile Teams: Lyssa Adkins 

6. Effective Project Management: Traditional, Agile Extreme: Robert K. Wysocki

7. Exploring Scrum: The Fundamentals: Dan Rawsthorne with Doug Shimp 

8. Kanban In Action: Marcus Hammarberg, Joakim Sunden

9. Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for your Technology Business: David J. Anderson 

10. Lean-Agile Software Development: Alan Shalloway, Guy Beaver, James R. Trott  

11. The Software Project Manager’s Bridge to Agility: Michele Sliger, Stacia Broderick

12. User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development: Mike Cohn

Approach:-

PMI test agile enthusiast skills through exam but since content is not provided by them and course will not going to be taught by PMI accredited trainer then why someone has to write PMI exam? Unlike PMI, other organizations like Scrum Alliance and Lean kanban University teaches same and conduct their own exam which are more focused on  good content and good trainer. Becoming Scrum alliance trainer is difficult and someone should really be good in agile and scrum and has to go through well managed process. In case of PMI, anyone can teach without even knowing agile and scrum. Bad part is participants come to know about poor training only when they fail in exam and same time PMI is not going to take any action against trainer.

Exam Fee:-

$495 (33,000 INR) only for exam? but why? what if I have failed due to poor training by any trainer? Will PMI take any action against trainer? NO then $495 just for exam? Because PMI is a brand and can issue a piece of paper? I was hoping that PMI will reduce exam fee and will keep it around $200 but unfortunately exam fee remain same. Participants also has to spend 15,000 for training and around 5,000-10,000 for books. Total cost of PMI-ACP certification comes around 55,000-60,000 INR in India.

Scrum Alliance program cost is very less that includes training, content and exam/certification fee. Participants can attend multiple program and get certificates in 55,000 - 60,000 INR in India then why PMI-ACP?

Certified Scrum Master CSM) cost around 24,000 INR and Certified Scrum Developer (CSD) cost around 27,000 INR so total cost for both still 51,000 INR that will also help in getting Certified Scrum Professional (CSP). 

If not Certified Scrum Developer then you can think of getting Certified Kanban Professional Management or Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) in 27,000 INR same will also help in getting certified Scrum Professional (CSP).

I will definitely recommend to read above books but will not suggest to spend lots of money to test your learning skills through expensive exam.

This is my personal view please ignore if you don't like. 

Agile adoption start from you

Why agile? I think adoption start with this question but honestly many fails to answer this simple question. Answer is usually very generic like reducing time to market, faster releases and improved productivity etc. Well all these is fine but what exactly you are trying to achieve through agile adoption? Is there any dysfunction in the organization? not able to compete in market? or employee attrition rate is too high? Clear answer will help in setting clear goal for transformation.

Which framework? Can we adopt Scrum, Kanban, LeSS, SAFe or XP? Any framework is fine as long as framework is empirical in nature. Even you can ignore all these frameworks to start with and let people decide which is more suitable as per complexity in adoption. You can design your own framework but better to have someone to facilitate teaching, mentoring, setting it up and answering all your doubts. Usually people call them "Agile Coach" or "Transformation Agent". Selection of framework depends on work and organization complexity but to reduce complexity, better not to choose complex framework.

How to select Agile Coach? Better to hire someone good in facilitation and understand software engineering. Someone with lots of certificate? may be if you don't know anyone because there is no other way to filter but better to speak to their customers to understand more about individual behavior and approach. Hire Agile coach and not "Enterprise Agile Coach", "Executive Agile Coach" or "Team Agile Coach" etc. Agility is also about getting away from complex organization design if coaches themselves start promoting hierarchy then what they will bring for you is a big question. Coaches should facilitate rather preach to ask question around facilitation techniques. Someone having good knowledge about agile, facilitation techniques and software engineering can be a better choice. Must be a good listener.

From where to start? Start from wherever you are. Yes you need a leader within organization who understand why agility. Better situation if leader is very senior in hierarchy else someone very influential. Even that's not the case then adoption will slow down but still possible. Start small rather than big bang implementation but once you see success and win confidence of leaders then better to go big bang. Ensure transformation not restricted to software development but happen in all supporting department like human resource, payroll, marketing and general administration as well. If not then agile organization will not be possible and such cases people may go back to old path because required support to sustain agility will be missing. Ensure there are leaders (not managers) from every field to lead and support transformation to see better result.