Product Stack and Sprint Planning Essentials
Product Stack
Explain with brevity and clarity the characteristics that define stories or elements of the stack, allowing us and the client to distinguish them.
These require:
- ID: Unique identifier.
- Name: A short description (2 to 10 words).
- Importance: Ratio of importance given by clients, higher value means more important (e.g., 10 or 150). If A = 5 and B = 50, B is 10 times more important.
- Initial Estimate: The team’s initial assessment (e.g., if a rating of 4 takes 2 days, a rating of 2 should take 1 day).
- As a Test: A high-level description of how the story will work at the end of the Sprint (“do this, do that, and then this should happen”).
- Notes: Any relevant information, clarification, or points during story development.
Example:
Other areas within the product stack can be:
- Category: Establishing a category to relate stories and inform the product owner of their part.
- Components: E.g., databases, server, client. This shows the technical parts involved.
- Applicant: The person who requested the story, providing context for the product owner.
- Bug Tracking ID: Important for maintaining a direct error history with or between stories.
Sprint
Sprint Planning
Before starting a sprint, ensure the product stack is properly prepared:
- The stack is complete.
- Priorities are well-defined.
- A product owner is assigned to each product stack.
- The product owner understands each story’s purpose, even without knowing the technical details.
Note: Only the product owner can change priorities. Any applicant can be the owner and change, but only the team can change the estimate.
Sprint planning is the most critical meeting in Scrum. Poor planning can lead to disaster. The sprint’s purpose is to establish clear goals and tasks, allowing the team to work effectively without interruption and gain the product owner’s trust.
In summary:
- A Sprint goal.
- A list of members (and their dedication level if not 100%).
- A Sprint stack (list of stories included in the Sprint).
- A specific date for the Sprint demo.
- A set time and place for the Scrum Journal.
It is crucial for the product owner to participate, analyze each story, establish its importance, address doubts and questions, and adjust estimates as needed.
Fundamental Properties
The Product Owner sets the scope and importance. The team provides the estimate. During Sprint planning, these variables are continuously adjusted through face-to-face dialogue between the team and Product Owner.
Quality (internal or external) is a key property outside this triangle.
- Internal Quality: Not visible to the user but important for future development (code or teamwork). Internal quality must always support external quality.
- External Quality: The user-facing quality, ensuring the product is simple and effective. Sometimes, a business may initially deliver a basic product and later a more refined version.
Importantly, the quality of work is non-negotiable.
Other Important Sprint Planning Concepts
Sprint meetings can be long. Plan them well, dividing them if necessary to avoid unanswered questions. Schedule meetings clearly, defining each party’s role.
Decide on a Sprint goal. Often, the team doesn’t know the goal. This goal should be something new, and the product owner must be convinced that time is needed to achieve it.
To manage time and priorities during Sprint creation, focus on the following before the meeting ends:
- A Sprint goal and demo date.
- A list of stories the team agrees to finish in the Sprint.
- An estimate for each story in the Sprint.
- “As a test” descriptions for each story in the Sprint.
- Calculation of speed and resources (team members and commitments).