Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time

by Jeff Sutherland

What did you do yesterday to help the team finish the Sprint? What will you do today to help the team finish the Sprint? What obstacles are getting in the team’s way?

The Fibonacci sequence is a pattern where the next number in the sequence is the sum of the previous two, e.g., 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55 …

On a scale from 1 to 5, how do you feel about your role in the company? On the same scale, how do you feel about the company as a whole? Why do you feel that way? What one thing would make you happier in the next Sprint?

Pick a Product Owner. This person is the one with the vision of what you are going to do, make, or accomplish. They take into account risks and rewards, what is possible, what can be done, and what they are passionate about. (See Chapter Eight: Priorities for more.) Pick a Team. Who will be the people actually doing the work? This team needs to have all the skills needed to take the Product Owners’ vision and make it a reality. Teams should be small, 3 to 9 people is the rule of thumb. (See Chapter Three: Teams for more.) Pick a Scrum Master. This is the person who will coach the rest of the team through the Scrum framework, and help the team eliminate anything that is slowing them down. (See Chapter Four: Waste for more.) Create and prioritize a Product Backlog. This is a list at a high level of everything that needs to be built or done to make that vision a reality. This backlog exists and evolves over the lifetime of the product; it is the product road map. At any point, the Product Backlog is the single, definitive view of “everything that could be done by the team ever, in order of priority.” Only a single Product Backlog exists; this means the Product Owner is required to make prioritization decisions across the entire spectrum. The Product Owner should consult with all stakeholders and the team to make sure they are representing both what people want and what can be built. (See Chapter Eight: Priorities for more.) Refine and Estimate the Product Backlog. It is cruci...