Learning Objective: Learn more about the three roles in Scrum with role-based activities. Each group will play a simulation game called “candy catch” that will have three iterations. The Scrum Master and Product Owner (chosen by group members) will coordinate and help the team achieve the highest target within the shortest time.

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Conduct a retrospective to list 3 techniques to improve the performance and turnaround time.
• Explain the roles and responsibilities of a Scrum Master and a Product Owner.
• List 3 differences between a Scrum Master and a Product Owner and understand why these two roles should not overlap.
• Discuss how a product owner acts as a bridge between the development team and the stakeholders.
• Understand why a Scrum Master is not an active participant but a facilitator in the Scrum events and ceremonies.
• List 3 demerits of having a development team of less than 3 members or greater than 10 members.

Learning Objective: Take part in the Scrum Paper Plane game and learn how the 5 Scrum ceremonies work. There will be 3 sprints, each lasting 15 minutes. You need to prepare the user stories that will cover the features and functionalities along with acceptance criteria.

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Explain the “why” and “how” of sprint planning, daily scrum, sprint review, and retrospective.
• Understand why the scope and duration of a sprint are fixed.
• List 3 ways to avoid sprint backlog spillover.
• Define sprint goals and discuss 5 benefits of having a sprint goal.
• Understand how the Scrum Master and the Product Owner should coordinate with the team and list 5 points to improve such communications.
• Discuss 3 damaging impacts of sprint cancellation and how to avoid it.
• List 10 sprint anti-patterns (E.g. sprint cancellation, variable sprint length) and understand how these impact the delivery and turnaround time.

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• List and demonstrate 5 salient features of a well-formed product backlog (E.g. estimated, prioritized).
• Discuss 2 responsibilities of the Product Owner, Scrum Master, and the Development team in creating and maintaining a product backlog.
• The objective of having a product backlog and best approaches to product backlog refinement.
• Analyze and discuss the ideal time and capacity to be dedicated to product backlog refinement.
• Demonstrate 3 activities (E.g. budget and timeline, release schedule) that take place during a sprint review.
• List 5 sprint review anti-patterns (E.g. delayed   acceptance) and their negative impacts

Learning Objective: Learn about Scrum life cycle by taking part in the “coin game”. The participants will be linking ceremonies to create effective sprint goals. This module will focus on the common challenges in sprint execution and enable team members to improvise.

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Explain the importance of 15-minute timebox for daily scrum meetings.
• List 3 differences between traditional meetings and daily stand-ups.
• Describe 2 roles played by the Scrum Master, Product Owner, and the Development team in daily scrum.
• List the 3 critical questions pertaining to the daily scrum agenda.
• List 2 responsibilities of the Scrum Master, Product Owner, and the Development team during the sprint

Learning Objective: Acquaint yourself with the Definition of Ready with our Lego blocks game wherein the attendees will be asked to build a city out of Lego building blocks. The “definition of ready” checklist for the final deliverable will be determined by the instructor.

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Create an ultimate checklist of Definition of Done.
• List 3 negative impacts of an ill-formed Definition of Done.
• Identify at least 3 benefits of a shared Definition of Done for multiple teams working on the same product backlog.
• List 2 ways to improve Definition of Done.

Clearly understand the differences between “done” and “done done”.

Learning Objective: Acquaint yourself with the Definition of Ready with our Lego blocks game wherein the attendees will be asked to build a city out of Lego building blocks. The “definition of ready” checklist for the final deliverable will be determined by the instructor.

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Create an ultimate checklist of Definition of Done.
• List 3 negative impacts of an ill-formed Definition of Done.
• Identify at least 3 benefits of a shared Definition of Done for multiple teams working on the same product backlog.
• List 2 ways to improve Definition of Done.
• Clearly understand the differences between “done” and “done done”.

Learning Objective: Play the self-organization game “Human Knots” by forming teams of 5-6. Groups where team members can untie themselves first win. The time frame for this activity will be decided by your instructor. Each team will have a Scrum Master and Product Owner chosen by group members.

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Define and understand the steps involved in release planning.
• List 3 benefits of a well-organized release planning.
• List 3 outputs of release planning.

Learning Objective: Acquaint yourself with the Sprint Burndown Chart concepts by taking part in the ballpoint game. There will be 5 iterations and the number of points being expected at the end of the release will be communicated to the team.

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Define and understand sprint burndown chart.
• List 3 primary reasons to use a burndown chart.
• Learn how to create and calculate a burndown chart.
• Explain how to adjust upcoming sprints based on the burndown.
• List 3 critical information obtained from a burndown chart.
• List 5 merits and 2 demerits of using a burndown chart.
• Understand 5 common errors that lead to misleading information in burndown charts.

Learning Objective: Take part in the ballpoint game and understand the in-depth concepts of release burn-up charts and why Scrum teams use them. There will be 5 iterations and once the sprint is completed, the team will put a mark on the release burn-up as to how many points are completed.

What you will learn

At the end of this activity, you will be able to

• Understand the importance of having a release goal (based on historical data and agreement).
• Demonstrate the importance of release burn-up in understanding the current status.
• List 2 differences between burndown and burn-up charts.
• Explain how to adjust release planning (if needed) based on the burndown.
• Tell one primary advantage of a burnup chart over a burndown chart.  

Topics:

• What is product planning
• What is product vision
• How to create a product backlog
• Product Roadmap
• Minimum Releasable features (or) Minimum Marketable Features

Minimum Viable Products

Learning Objective: Be a part of the Lego Building Blocks game wherein participants will be asked to write user stories for every activity involved. The game will entail 3 iterations and attendees will prepare user stories that will cover the features and functionalities along with acceptance criteria. 

What you will learn 

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• Define and explain user stories and understand the importance of user stories in real-time projects.
• Explain the 3 Cs in user stories.
• Discuss the importance of acceptance criteria and list 3 scenarios that might arise when the acceptance criteria are not met.

Learning Objective: Learn more about the “what” and “how” of Agile estimation with our in-class Agile board game “Scrumble”. In an interactive setting, this game will let you analyze the common challenges faced by Scrum team members during implementing different estimation techniques in Agile.

What you will learn 

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• List and demonstrate 5 benefits of Agile estimation.
• Understand the 7 popular Agile estimation techniques and decide which one is the best for your project.
• Discuss 3 benefits of Relative Estimation and Planning Poker.
• List and explain 3 common mistakes made while using Relative Estimation and their negative impacts.
• Discuss in detail the 5 critical steps in Planning Poker. 

Learning Objective: Know everything about planning poker from our popular poker card estimation game. Team members/estimators have to privately select one card and the value on each card would represent the story point. Once all cards are revealed, the values need to be discussed.

What you will learn 

At the end of this activity, you will be able to-

• List 5 benefits of planning poker estimation technique.
• Decide the best sequence for the values (story points) on cards for your real-time projects.
• Discuss in detail the 5 critical steps in Planning Poker. 
• List 3 points to heed for employing planning poker for distributed teams.