Agile Release Planning

Recently, I was training an entire division of a client in OH area. To begin their Agile Transformation journey, we wanted to stand up several Scrum teams. The first logical step was to take them into a formal training on Agile concepts. We also wanted to come out of the workshop so that teams can start their first sprint the very next week.

Gamify to help Scrum Teams

The challenge was to introduce them to agile concepts quickly while involving as well as challenging them. We also wanted them to ‘discover’ and validate the concepts through a series of activities. To achieve these objectives, we used several worksheets, templates, and tools to help them. We wanted to make these activities fun and interesting.

Keeping game theory in mind, we came up with an ‘Agile Bingo‘ – a set of activities that each team has to do, and the first one to finish the sheet wins the ‘Bingo’.

We also came up with Event Canvas to make bring everyone on the same page, regarding their understanding of various events in Scrum, and do this while keeping it fun, interesting, and engaging. As we say, in an Agile team, everyone should be rowing in the same direction. In other words, everyone should be driving towards the common goals. This simple worksheet helped eliminate the myths and bring everyone’s understanding on the same page!

Another wildly popular ideas was that of Scrum Calendar; to help them get to a consensus on a calendar with events, time, and location. This is especially useful when you have geographically dispersed teams involving multiple time zones.

Complete this bingo to jump start your Agile Journey

The toolbox for the workshop

As a trainer and facilitator, I also used several of my ‘home grown’ worksheets and templates; such as:

Agile Timeline
Yellow Card; and other ways to use Post It notes
Scrum Calendar
Event Canvas (to understand various dimensions of different events)
Agile Bingo
Two book ends of User Stories
Dependency Wheel
Start with Y (to understand various dimensions of different roles)
Companion Cards providing visual representation of different concepts

These workshops were a huge success! Everyone loved these activities and felt they got a lot of useful information out of these activities. Here are some pictures from these workshops.

Your team will thank you!

Help your Scrum Team help you! Check out Improve Your Scrum Ceremonies as a first step towards uncovering these hidden gems. Your Scrum Team will thank you for finding these gems!