When Can a Process Change be Identified?
There is another Retrospective meeting held at the end of the project, where process changes can also be recommended. These changes should be noted for application to the next project.
When it comes to large projects, there can be more than one sprint team. It is a good practice to share all the process improvements that each team applied. There is no formal meeting in the Scrum Guide for doing this, but a consolidated Retrospective where all teams are involved could be used for this at the end of each sprint and after the individual sprint retrospectives. It is recommended that the number of days for a Sprint be the same for all Sprint teams, so that they remain in synch.
Measuring the Improvement
If a process is optimised, there needs to be a check and balance that the change was an improvement. This is why it is advisable only to apply process changes at the start of the next sprint; if changes are applied halfway during a sprint it is hard to get an accurate assessment of the improvement. Some possible measures are :-
- improvement in quality – % of work completed during a sprint
- improvement in throughput – did the sprint velocity improve?
these metrics could be charted and put on the project wall, and could also be demonstrated during each Sprint review, for the benefit of stakeholders who are attending.
An Additional Benefit of using Scrum
So, not only does scrum produce a quality product in the shortest possible time, it teaches team members about process optimization and how to apply continuous improvement. This is the highest level of process maturity; the entire team has been exposed to how it works and how to recognise where change is required. Improving the process also teaches each team member more about Scrum as a framework.
Recommended Further Reading
The following materials may assist you in order to get the most out of this course:
Course Contents
Section 1: Agile Project Management
Section 2: Using the Agile Manifesto to Deliver Change
Section 3: The 12 Agile Principles
Section 4: The Agile Fundamentals
Section 5: The Declaration of Interdependence
Section 6: Agile Development Frameworks
Section 7: Introduction to Scrum
Section 8: Scrum Projects
Section 9: Scrum Project Roles
Section 10: Meet the Scrum Team
Section 11: Building the Scrum Team
Section 12: Scrum in Projects, Programs & Portfolios
Section 13: How to Manage an Agile Project
Section 14: Leadership Styles
Section 15: The Agile Project Life-cycle
Section 16: Business Justification with Agile
Section 17: Calculating the Benefits With Agile
Section 18: Quality in Agile
Section 19: Acceptance Criteria and the Prioritised Product Backlog
Section 20: Quality Management in Scrum
Section 21: Change in Scrum
Section 22: Integrating Change in Scrum
Section 23: Managing Change in Scrum
Section 24: Risk in Scrum
Section 25: Risk Assessment Techniques
Section 26: Initiating an Agile Project
Section 27: Forming the Scrum Team
Section 28: Epics and Personas
Section 29: Creating the Prioritised Product Backlog
Section 30: Conduct Release Planning
Section 31: The Project Business Case
Section 32: Planning in Scrum
Section 33: Scrum Boards
Section 34: Sprint Planning
Section 35: User Stories
Section 36: User Stories and Tasks
Section 37: The Sprint Backlog
Section 38: Implementation of Scrum
Section 39: The Daily Scrum
Section 40: The Product Backlog
Section 41: Scrum Charts
Section 42: Review and Retrospective
Section 43: Scrum of Scrums
Section 44: Validating a Sprint
Section 45: Retrospective Sprint
Section 46: Releasing the Product
Section 47: Project Retrospective
Section 48: The Communication Plan
Section 49: Formal Business Sign-off
Section 50: Scaling Scrum
Section 51: Stakeholders
Section 52: Programs and Portfolios