Topic Title: Top 10 Minimum Valuable Lessons for New Scrum Teams

Initiator: Michelle Michael

Participants:
Jack Cayon, Vicki Braun, Daniel Hamilton, Bernie Manlapig, Eli Bernos, Brandon Peacock, Efrain Perez Jr., Zack Lyons, Serhvy (Serg) Lvaahov, Ed Wilson, Prachi Jazn, Jane Fox, Richard Martinez, Marianne O’Donnell

Discussion Highlights:

Resolve Conflicts

• Vote on disagreements
• Be open-minded
• Don’t wait until retro to resolve

Build Trust

• Build rapport within the team
• Understanding everyones agenda – no hidden agendas
• Conduct team building activities
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help or help others
• Initiate trust with others
• Be honest with what you are doing
• Straight forward and honest feedback with professional delivery
• Don’t overestimate work
• Accountability – team member should hold each other accountable

Effective retrospectives

• What went well, what needs to improve.  
• What needs to improved can turn into an action item, which can be something that went well next retro
• Lesson learned are incorporated into future sprints

Problem definitions / understanding

• Have the team come together and re-assess/plan for bugs, emergencies
• Have one person per sprint assigned to emergencies
• Track time spent on emergencies and adjust time allocated for emergencies in future sprints appropriately

Small projects verses big projects

• Delivering commitments when emergency work come in – look to the product owner to make the decision on what work effort takes priority.  
• If more is added into the sprint, then something has to give (come out)

Common vocabulary / understanding

• Provide clarity
• Make sure everyone is on the same page
• Ask for feedback to make sure team understands
• Do exercises to reinforce ideas/processes

Fail Fast, Fail often

• It’s ok to fail
• Lessons learned from failing will help the team

Take Ownership

• Deliver quality work
• Provide stakeholder feedback to developers (during reviews)
• Have a team vision