Chris Sims

From today’s workshop. Team Focus says: Focused teams finish!

Do you have questions about #agile? Agile expert @ChrisSims has the answers! Join Chris for an open office hour on Zoom every Monday from 3:00pm - 4:00pm PDT. This is a chance to ask Chris your questions and get free advice and coaching! Register here: ow.ly/Q7yS50zUJrS

Join us on our every Monday from 3:00pm - 4:00pm PDT for office hours with @ChrisSims This is a chance to ask Chris your questions and get free advice and coaching! For more info and to attend: meetup.com/ScrumProfessional…

Here’s a fun holiday quiz game from @ScrumAlliance There is one detail of one answer that @ChrisSims would quibble with. Let us know if you can find it! scrumalliance.org/games/scru…

This fantastic article, "A Week in the Life of Syntax’s Statistical Programming Scrum Team" is based on an excerpt from The Elements Of Scrum, the book co-authored by @ChrisSims that we give to everyone enrolled in our Certified #ScrumMaster workshop! ow.ly/Tmat50x7YCD

OMG We’ve been teaching Certified Scrum Master (CSM) workshops for over a decade! Here was our first: agilelearninglabs.com/2009/0…

@BGAgile & @ChrisSims at our company off-site.

A team in today’s Certified Scrum Product Owner workshop created a cool working agreement for themselves: ELMO! When the team was getting in the weeds, they would shout ELMO! (enough, let’s move on).

A6 I don’t recommend estimating tasks at all! I like to see the tasks really small, ideally less than an hour each. Don’t estimate them, just ask ‘is this an hour or less?’ If it’s not, break it down further. Read more: agilelearninglabs.com/2015/0… Thanks for joining our chat!

Q6 What is your opinion on estimating the tasks (not the product backlog items / stories) during sprint planning? Should we use hours for these estimates?

A5 (2 of 2) High performing scrum teams typically spend the first 1/3 of sprint planning identifying which product backlog items they will deliver (the forecast). The rest of the time is spent creating their plan (task list) for how they will deliver those items.

A5 (1 of 2) Sprint planning is typically done in two parts: 1. Creating the forecast (what) The team identifies which items they expect to deliver this sprint. 2. Creating the work plan (how) The team identifies the work needed to deliver the items …

Q5 What are the parts of sprint planning and how much time should be spent in each part?

A4 The estimates on product backlog items should not be changed during sprint planning. We only need to know if the item is in the forecast for this sprint. Changing them in sprint planning, or during the sprint, actually degrades long-term predictability.

Q4 Should our scrum team adjust the estimates on our stories (product backlog items) during the sprint planning meeting?

A3 The sprint goal is the over-arching theme, or purpose, of the sprint. It should tie the product backlog items (PBIs) together. The PBIs support the goal. Ultimately, the goal is more important. Having a common goal helps the team members work together as a cohesive unit.

Q3 What is the sprint goal? Isn’t it just the product backlog items the team will deliver in the sprint?

A2 (3 of 3) The work plan, or task list, is the scrum team’s plan for how they will create the deliverables in their sprint plan (the product backlog items in their forecast), and ultimately achieve their sprint goal.