Sprint 0 – Getting ready for your FIRST SPRINT

Getting ready for your FIRST SPRINT

Definition of “Ready”

When a Product Backlog item is described as “Ready”, everyone must understand what “Ready” means for your team.

Scrum team members must have a shared understanding of what it means for work to be “Ready” and when we say ready it means ready to be planned into a sprint and worked on by the development team.

To ensure transparency and efficiency we want product backlog items to come into a planning session ready to be worked and not come to a halt in when we realise the Product backlog item is not “Ready” and this could be for a variety of reasons.

The definition of “Ready” is used to assess when work is ready to be planned into a sprint and turned into a product Increment. This should be defined in your Sprint 0 as you do not want to hit issues in your first sprint because a ticket was not ready to be worked on and has blockers or an unclear goal.

Definition of “Done”

When a Product Backlog item or an Increment is described as “Done”, everyone must understand what “Done” means.

Although this may vary significantly from one Scrum Team to another, members must have a shared understanding of what it means for work to be complete. This is to ensure transparency.

The definition of “Done” allows all members of the Scrum Team to have a common understanding of done and is used to assess when work is fully completed on the product Increment. It is very important that this is defined before the first Sprint and it is clear to all what is and isn’t expected.

Sprint Reference stories

Reference stories are used as a guide to help Development teams when estimating in refinement or planning sessions.

It provides a commonly understood story or task that has been completed to the definition of “Done” and acts as a guide to base new estimates on. Reference stories are reviewed after each Sprint in the retrospective or when ever necessary.

When estimating a new story, reference stories will be displayed to the whole development team. This allows all members of the team to continuously refer to them as needed. This will help the team determine and agree on the new stories size in story points. 

Define Tools and ways of working

Define the tools you will be using to manage and track your Sprints progress. There are a lot of different tools for you to use and you don’t want to just choose the first one that pops up on a google search do your research. Work backwards what do you and your team want from a tool and then find one that meets your needs.

With the current situation we are in with a lot of companies and teams working from home research the software that you will use to run your Scrum events on what tools will allow you to keep up that constant communication between the team. What tools will you use to estimate effectively? Do you need virtual whiteboards for you Scrum events?

These are all Questions that should be answered and addressed in sprint 0 its not to say these will work first time and be the best tools for the job as the heart of scrum we continuously Inspect and Adapt but this is the time to get some good research into them.

We must agree a Sprint Start and End day. How long we will run each sprint for? Will it be a 2 week sprint a 3 week this should all be discussed and agreed upfront?

Outline your Scrum Ceremonies and ensure the team are aware what ceremonies, artefacts they will be using where they will be stored and what the purpose of them is.

Sonny Watson

A Certified Salesforce Consultant, Certified SCRUM Master and ISTQB Qualified QA Lead with experience in a variety of industries. Over 8 years of testing experience with exposure to huge array of projects and initiatives such as Product Launches, Media Advertising and Government Mandatory Financial Projects. My current role is at BrightGen, who have been an official Salesforce Platinum Partner since the start of the programme. BrightGen provide Salesforce expertise and strategic thinking that enables organisations to transform their business to Cloud-based technology.

qaforce.co.uk