Forming cross-functional agile teams
Cross-functional, self-organizing entities that can define, build, test, and where applicable, deploy increments of value
What are agile teams?
Coaches the Agile Team in self-management
• Helps the team focus on creating
increments of value each iteration
• Facilitates the removal of impediments
to the team’s progress
• Ensures that all team events take
place, are productive and kept within
the timebox
What is the Scrum Master?
A virtual organization of 5 – 12 teams (50 – 125+ individuals); Synchronized on a common cadence, a Program Increment (PI); Aligned to a common mission via a single Program Backlog
What are Agile Release Trains (ARTs)
Provide the details of the Story from a testing point of view
What is Acceptance Criteria?
The number of points of stories accepted in the Iteration.
What is Velocity?
5 to 11 team members, Create and refine Stories and acceptance criteria, Define, build, test, and deploy Stories, Build quality in to each increment of the solution, Develop and commit to team PI Objectives and Iteration goals
What are the responsibilities of the Agile Team?
• Contributes to the Vision and Roadmap
• Acts as the Customer for team
questions
• Creates, clearly communicates and
accepts Stories
• Prioritizes the Team Backlog
What is the Product Owner?
Acts as the chief Scrum Master for the train.
What is the RTE (release train engineer)?
Justifies development cost and provides business perspective for decision-making
What is the Feature benefit hypothesis?
A singular number that represents volume, complexity, knowledge, and uncertainty
What is a story point?
Organized around the development and support of platforms that provide services to other teams
What is a Platform Team?
► Coordinates with other Product Owners, the System Team, and
Shared Services in the PI Planning meetings
► Works with the above teams throughout each Iteration and PI
► Coordinates with other Scrum Masters and the Release Train
Engineer in the Scrum of Scrums
► Helps team understand and operate within its capacity
► Helps team operate under architectural and portfolio governance,
system-level integration, and System Demos
► Fosters team adoption of Agile technical practices
What is the Scrum Master in the Enterprise?
Provides architectural guidance and technical enablement to the teams on the train.
What is the System Architect/Engineering?
Build the groundwork for future
What are Enabler Stories?
Align team members to a common purpose, Align teams to common Program Increment (PI) Objectives and manage dependencies, Provide transparency and management information
Organized around specific subsystems that require deep specialty skills and expertise.
► Establishes the sequence of backlog items based on program priorities, events, and dependencies with other teams
► Operates as part of an extended Product Management Team
► Understands how the Enterprise backlog structure operates with Epics, Capabilities, Features, and Stories
► Work with Product Management to plan Program Increments (PI)
► Uses PI Objectives and Iteration Goals to communicate with management
► Coordinates with other Product Owners, the System Team, and Shared Services in the PI Planning meetings
► Works with other Product Owners and the Product Management team throughout each Iteration and PI
What is the Product Owner in the Enterprise?
Owns, defines, and prioritizes the Program Backlog.
What is Product Management?
► Business rule variations (e.g. single variation,
then remainder)
► Workflow steps (for multi-step stories)
► Simple/complex (e.g. search for single word, then
for phrases)
► Scenarios (e.g. use case exceptions)
What are story splitting techniques?
• Helps alleviate velocity
degradation due to
technical debt
• Keeps existing customers
happy with bug fixes and
enhancements
• Can change at Iteration or
PI boundaries
What is capacity allocation?
Organized to assist other teams with specialized capabilities and help them become proficient in new technologies
What is an enabling team?
What are Product Owner and Scrum Master?
Release Train Engineer, System Architect/Engineering, Business Owners, Product Management, System Team
Roles on the Agile Release Train
Infrastructure
Architecture
Exploration
Compliance
What are the four types of enabler stories?
• Team commits to delivering specific value
• Business stakeholder commit to leaving
priorities unchanged during the Iteration
What is reciprocal commitment?