THE AGILE PLAYBOOK

Start

A How-To Guide on Executing Agile Right From the Start

The Agile Playbook

DOING

IDEA

DONE

READY

PRIORITY

The Agile Playbook

SPRINT RETROSPECTIVE

SPRINT REVIEW

DEFINE BENEFIT

GOAL SETTING

FEATURE PLANNING

NEW IDEAS

INTEGRATION

DEPLOYMENT

ACCEPT TEST

SPRINT PLANNING

SCRUM

REFINEMENT

PLAN REVIEW

IDENTIFY USER

PRETOTYPE

BRUTAL ESTIMATE

PORTFOLIO KANBAN

DEFINE IF IT IS NEW/CHANGE

IDENTIFY OWNER

DESCRIBE IDEA

FEATURE REFINEMENT

Done

Doing

Ready

Priority

Idea

A new idea is added to the funnel as an epic

DEFINE IF IT IS NEW/CHANGE

IDENTIFY OWNER

DESCRIBE IDEA

IDEA

IDEA

WHO: Idea is described by the originator. This could be the Customer, Product Owner or Developer.WHAT: Describe who has the need, what they want to achieve and how they will benefit from it. Make it brief. Preferably in a format that can be on a post-it. Place the idea on the Portfolio Kanban board.WHY: The idea should be written down using SMART (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic and Time Bound) to enable conversations.

DESCRIBE IDEA

IDEA

IDENTIFY OWNER

WHO: Product OwnerWHAT: Identify a customer who needs the outcome of the idea and is able to give feedback iteratively and incremental on development.WHY: Developers and Product Owners must work closely with the customer to be able to deliver valuable solutions.

IDEA

WHO: Developers and Product OwnerWHAT: Developers define wheter the idea is a change to existing features or a new feature in itself.WHY: Knowing if the idea is concerning a change to existing features makes it easier for the developers and product owner to determine if it is within the current scope/vision for the product or not.

DEFINE IF IT IS NEW/CHANGE

An epic is prioritized based on cost, business value, opportunities, etc. It starts as a rough idea and will be prioritized on the Portfolio Kanban.

PRIORITY

DEFINE BENEFIT

IDENTIFY USER

PRETOTYPE

BRUTAL ESTIMATE

PORTFOLIO KANBAN

PRIORITY

IDENTIFY USER

WHO: Product Owner and DevelopersWHAT: Discuss with the author of the idea on who would be the potential receiver and user of the outcome.WHY: Working on a new idea it is crucial to identify the receiver to collaborate towards a success.

PRIORITY

WHO: Product Owner, Customer, and DevelopersWHAT: New ideas should always be beneficial for the user, otherwise they should be cancelled.WHY: Collaborate with the user to define the benefit of the idea. The benefit could be described in many ways: economical, increase in user base, etc. It may be a good idea to define the benefit using Business Value Game.

DEFINE BENEFIT

PRIORITY

PRETOTYPE

WHO: Product Owner, Customer and DevelopersWHAT: Build a cheap sketch, illustration or mockup with out investing in development. The purpose is to validate that the user can benefit from the outcome and to verify that the team is able to build it. Depending on the idea it will be a good idea use some of the following techniques: Pretotyping, Design Sprint, Shaping, Hackathon, Mob-programming, etc.WHY: Illustrate the idea to confirm benefit and feasibility.

PRIORITY

BRUTAL ESTIMATE

WHO: DevelopersWHAT: Based on the pretotype the idea can be relatively estimated using Story Points, T-Shirt Sizing, etc.WHY: The brutal estimate is used for prioritizing the idea against other great ideas.

PRIORITY

WHO: Product Owner and Customers are key persons. Scrum Master facilitates.WHAT: Update the Portfolio Kanban at the recurring Portfolio Scrum event.The Portfolio Kanban is a board showing the state of the Product Backlog. It visualizes the flow of work items processed by the Developers. Product Owner and Customers collaborate on ranking and prioritising the Product Backlog. Impediments raised by the Developers can be discussed to determine if the investment in active work items is still relevant or if something else needs to be prioritised.The portfolio kanban meeting should be as often as needed. Ideally once a week. Here's a typical agenda for the meeting:What has happened since last time?What will happen until next time?Any new or updated impediments, issues or risks?WHY: To visualize flow and discuss priorities, ranking and impediments.

PORTFOLIO KANBAN

+ info

To be ready, it's crucial to to know what is needed and how to build it. Here, an epic is refined into features, and sketches are co-created with users and planned.

READY

GOAL SETTING

FEATURE PLANNING

PLAN REVIEW

FEATURE REFINEMENT

READY

WHO: Product Owner with help from DevelopersWHAT: Refinement Activities:Prioritised features and epicsExpected delivery date from usersList of involved users available for collaborationWHY: Build a feasible plan for the super sprint

FEATURE REFINEMENT

READY

FEATURE PLANNING

WHO: Developers and Product Owner. Facilitation is done by Scrum Master.WHAT: Team plans how to deliver as many of the prioritized features and epics as possible:Update realistic capacity for each team member in the coming super sprintsCreate/update important datesCreate/update epicsCreate/update featuresCreate/update goal setting with mapping features and important datesCreate/update user stories for the featuresEstimate the user storyScope the user story for sprint completion. Break up larger user stories to fit.Plan the user story in a specific sprintCreate tasks for the first sprintVerify that estimates match capacity in the team for the coming super sprint or make adjustmentsNote dependencies, issues, risks, decisions that may hinder the progress.WHY: To build a feasible plan for a super sprint.

READY

WHO: Product Owner and CustomersWHAT: If necessary the Product Owner calls for a review of the super sprint plan before presenting at Goal Setting to make sure that potential gaps are identified and managed.WHY: Assert that the plan is building what users and stakeholder needs.

PLAN REVIEW

READY

GOAL SETTING

WHO: Developers, Product Owner and Scrum MasterWHAT: Walk through of super sprint plan to identify issues, dependencies and risks. Build a goal for the super sprint to be used as overall goal for the involved sprints.WHY: Agree on a long-term objective for the Scrum team. They must fulfill the long-term goal through short-term sprint goals.

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+ info

SPRINT RETROSPECTIVE

SPRINT REVIEW

User stories are developed by the team alongside users to enable features.

DOING

SPRINT PLANNING

SCRUM

REFINEMENT

DOING

WHO: Scrum Master facilitates, Product Owner has refined the Product Backlog with Developers.WHAT: Given an updated capacity the team pulls user stories in the sprint and create a sprint plan and sprint goal:Update team capacity and availabilityMove agreed ”left overs” from previous sprint into currentIdentify dependencies to/from planned user storiesVerify that all tasks are assigned to team membersComittment from team that the plan is doableDetermine impact on Super Sprint Plan for work that is moving between sprintsAgree on Sprint GoalWHY: Build a feasible plan for the sprint

SPRINT PLANNING

DOING

SCRUM

WHO: Developers, Scrum Master (or Developer) facilitates, Product Owner is allowed to observe and answer questions.WHAT: Daily meeting with focus on collaboration, impediment busting and progress:Tasks are updated before the meeting (status, remaining work reduced/increased, completed work is updated)At the meeting:Discuss if the team is on track for completion, what is hindering completion and who can helpWHY: Team collaborates on reaching the Sprint Goal. Any impediments, blocks, etc. are discussed.

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DOING

REFINEMENT

WHO: Product Owner and Developers, Scrum Master often facilitates.WHAT: Prepare work for next sprint planning:Product Owner created and prioritized user stories for next sprintsTeam identifies competencies neededTeam discusses the tasks and estimatesIdentify dependencies to/from planned user storiesPreparation by Product Owner (feel free to get help from team):User story, Features and Epics createdUser story prioritizedUser story understood (who needs it, what do the expect and why do they need it)Output:Draft plan for next sprint updatedDepedencies or impediments for starting the work are identified and handledWHY: Make sure that user stories are ready for next sprint.

DOING

SPRINT REVIEW

WHO: Developers and Customers, Scrum Master or Product Owner facilitates.WHAT: Completed user stories are demonstrated to the stakeholders by the team.WHY: Inspect outcome of sprint and discuss further adaption.

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DOING

WHO: Developers, Scrum master facilitatesWHAT: Improve the teams way of collaborating and delivering:Celebrate what worksIdentify what can improveCreate tasks to become betterWHY: Plan ways to continue improving quality and effectiveness.

SPRINT RETROSPECTIVE

+ info

Here, features are delivered to users on demand

DONE

NEW IDEAS

INTEGRATION

DEPLOYMENT

ACCEPT TEST

DONE

WHO: DevelopersWHAT: Compile, Validate, Review, Unit Test, System Test and Integration Test.WHY: All developed products should be integrated often to reduce the risk of single pieces not working when assembled in a larger puzzle

INTEGRATION

DONE

DEPLOYMENT

WHO: DevelopersWHAT: Deploy to test servers, Deploy to product servers, Configuration management and Containerization.WHY: To deliver the developed products as fast as possible to start harvesting the benefits.

DONE

WHO: Customers, Developers and Product OwnerWHAT: Customer test the product, Developers fixes issues and Product Owner records any new ideas.WHY: To confirm that the developed products fits the purpose of the customer.

ACCEPT TEST

DONE

NEW IDEAS

WHO: Customers, Developers and Product OwnerWHAT: Throughout the whole process everyone should be creative and enable idea generation. All ideas could turn into new pieces of work. New ideas are added to the Portfolio Kanban Board and ignite the flow starting with the Idea activities.WHY: To capture any relevant ideas to enhance the product.

SCALING

PRODUCT OWNER

AGILE MANIFESTO

AGILE MINDSET

SCRUM MASTER

CUSTOMER

DEVELOPERS

SCRUM

PORTFOLIO KANBAN BOARD

GLOSSARY