Topic this week: How does Scrum save time? Feel free to add your ideas or disagree in the comments :) Here are my answers, to start…
1) Scrum’s regularly scheduled meetings save time. …
How does that happen? The Scrum Events remove the need for workflow interruptions that happen otherwise. Most people would agree that a lot of time is wasted when they’re interrupted all the time. Have you experienced this? …
When people interrupt with a “quick question” any time of day, or call you into impromptu meetings, not much gets done.
Each Scrum Event has a well defined purpose, and is designed to eliminate the need for excess meetings and interruptions.
Scrum is easy to adopt and when used wisely, the framework can be foundational to an efficient organizational communication structure.
Still on topic of Scrum meetings saving time :) Hang in there — I’ll get to other ways that Scrum saves time too! As always, please feel free to comment, and add your thoughts to any of these ideas. Do you agree that Scrum saves time? Why & how? Or do you believe otherwise?
The timing of each Scrum meeting (or technically “event” in Scrum terminology) is another way Scrum meetings save time. ...
Each event is designed to happen at a specific time within each iteration of work, so that the team will collaborate on that one thing that is the most important for the current stage in an iteration cycle, and not waste time on other items.
For example, Sprint Planning happens at the start of an iteration. The Scrum team focuses on realistic short-term planning for this iteration. ...
By acting on the well-defined prerequisites to Sprint Planning, the team ensures they do not waste time in the Sprint Planning meeting. ...
Here's the Scrum Guide on Sprint Planning: “The Product Owner ensures that attendees are prepared to discuss the most important Product Backlog items and how they map to the Product Goal. The Scrum Team may also invite other people to attend Sprint Planning to provide advice.”
That’s just one example of the *timing* of a Scrum event being effective in saving a team’s time. ...
I will leave it to you to read the Scrum Guide and understand how the timing and order of each of the Scrum Events contributes to saving the team’s time! Here is is: https://scrumguides.org/scrum-...
This thread is getting long, and I haven't even gotten to #2 yet ... I'll keep going. There might be something here that inspires someone. 🤷♀️
Still on the topic of "1) Scrum’s regularly scheduled meetings save time." The *cadence* of Scrum meetings saves time because...
When we reserve a regular time to meet, other meetings are scheduled around it. Simple, but powerful. Consider all the time some organizations put into working around people’s schedules and re-scheduling meetings. That's wasted time. ...
When the Scrum team members and stakeholders agree on and stick to a meeting cadence, it signals commitment to working through the agenda items of those meetings. ...
When the Scrum team members and stakeholders agree on and stick to a meeting cadence, it signals commitment to working through the agenda items of those meetings. ...
After a few iterations, everyone starts to develop a pattern of being prepared and executing the work, together, in a regular cadence. This saves time in handoffs.
Cadence (in Scrum and in general) has further benefits. People who tend to think everything is urgent start figuring out that, since there’s time set aside when we have the attention of the people we need, more things can wait. ...
Consider Daily Scrum. If something really can’t wait until the next day’s DS then perhaps it really is worth interrupting a team’s workflow. Something to think about.
Enough about Scrum meetings saving time. There are a lot more things in Scrum that save time. More to come tomorrow! #scrum #meetings #cadence #timesaving #efficient #productive #agile #agility
2) Timeboxing is a technique in Scrum that saves time With an upper limit on the meeting time and a firm agenda, a team learns to work rapidly and derive the most value from that event in that time. …
There is no rule in Scrum that says you must use the full time box for a meeting. You can energize and challenge your team by experimenting with spending less and less time in a meeting while still accomplishing meeting agenda items. …
What if your Daily Scrums were 7 min? 5 min? 3 min? What communication methods would need to be in place for that to be an effective planning session for the next 24 hrs? …
Timeboxes force visibility into time management issues. If your team struggles with completing agenda items for an event within the time box, Scrum has an event for that! Use the retrospective to take a look at issues and make a plan of action to fix them. …
Time to wrap this up. Before I go, I’ll share one more reason that Scrum saves time. …
3) Keeping a prioritized product backlog saves time. Imagine a world where a team worked on whatever came their way and never had a big picture view of what was coming next or how the prices fit together. Sound dystopian? Many teams do work like that. …
They waste a lot of time and their flow is interrupted when tasks arrive on their desk. Each person prioritizes their own work, without the context of the larger mission. …
One way that Sxrum addresses this is by having a single Product Owner who is responsible and accountable for decisions and communications that ensure the team is working on the right things, in the big picture context. …
The team participates in the refinement of the backlog of work items, so when they start working on them, all the needed information about each work item is readily available. No wasted time tracking things down. …
When backlog items are refined with the team’s contribution there is a huge time savings and only the most lightweight documentation is necessary. …
Three reasons is a good number to land on. I honestly would love to hear people respond and either take the count of reasons Scrum saves time up as far as it can go, or reason with me about why what I’ve posted here is just plain wrong!