SAFe Scrum Master Exam Agile development is... - ✔incremental ____________ over processes and tools - ✔Individuals and interactions Working software over... - ✔comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over... - ✔contract negotiation _____________ over following a plan - ✔Responding to change Agile Manifesto - ✔Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan Agile Manifesto Principles 1-6 - ✔1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software 2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage 3. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference for the shorter timescale 4. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project (Have a role for business sides, then roles for IT. Show your work, transparency builds trust) 5. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done 6. The most efficient and effective method of converying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation Transparency builds... - ✔trust Agile Manifesto Principles 7-12 - ✔7. Working software is the primary measure of progress 8. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely 9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility 10. Simplicity - the art of maximizing the amount of work is not done - is essential 11. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams 12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly. (Retrospective "retro"; reuse/revision)
Develop on cadence... - ✔Release on demand Agile is value... - ✔and quality driven Agile teams show that ______ matter - ✔dates Business owners show how __________ matter - ✔priorities Fix _______, not scope - ✔quality Stretch Objectives - ✔Time & capacity to do it, we plan for it, but are not committed to it Backlog is NOT a... - ✔commitment Queue IS a... - ✔commitment Agile frameworks - ✔SAFe Scrum Crystal Kanban eXtreme Programming (XP) Feature-driven development Agile practices - ✔Timeboxing User stories Daily stand-ups Frequent demos Test-driven development Information radiators Retrospectives Continuous integration Timeboxing - ✔a technique that delivers information systems functionality and requirements through versioning. Scrum involves... - ✔planning Kanban involves less... - ✔planning, more of a reaction. Filling people's queues based on capacity. What is the single most important component for ensuring the success of the program? - ✔The Scrum Master
SAFe recommends ______/_________ involved in every demo - ✔clients/consumers Scrum Values - ✔Courage Commitment Focus Respect Openness Iteration length is... - ✔one to four weeks What is the SAFe recommendation for the length of an iteration? - ✔2 weeks (small batch size) Goal is to deliver ________ ___________/___________ at the end of each iteration ✔working software/hardware Avoid adding _____ once the iteration has begun - ✔scope Team Backlog - ✔Represents opportunities, not commitments. Is created by the Agile Team. Is owned and prioritized by the team's Product Owner Backlog refinement (timebox/value?) - ✔~1 hr Prepare requirements for Iteration Planning Iteration Planning (timebox/value?) - ✔2 - 4 hrs Team commits to a set of goals to be delivered in the Iteration Daily Stand-up (timebox/value?) - ✔<= 15 minutes Team members sync regarding the progress of the Iteration Goals Iteration Review (timebox/value?) - ✔~1 hr Deliverables reviewed with stakeholders prviding feedback Also the demo Iteration retrospective (timebox/value?) - ✔1 - 1.5 hrs Team reviews and improves its process before the next iteration. ___ facilitates the Scrum-of-Scrum - ✔RTE Scrum Master Characteristics - ✔Coaches team improvement using values, principles, and best practices Facilitates Scrum team events Protects the development team
Helps to remove impediments Is a servant leader (an optimizer, groups people, supports members. Figure out ways to help others improve.) Interact w/ people on a one-to-one basis. Help them along the way Product Owner Characteristics - ✔The single voice of the customer and stakeholders in the team Owns and manages the Team Backlog (prioritizes it) Defines and accepts requirements (builds quality w/in the team) Makes the hard calls on scope and content Development Team Characteristics - ✔Typically 3-9 people (excluding Scrum Master and Product Owner) Everyone who is needed to define, build, and test Team members are only on this team Self-organizing and accountable Collaborative Cross-functional Empowered (sometimes have to protect team from PO and even from SM. Have to learn to let people fail, when it is safe to fail) Development Team Responsibilities - ✔Listen and talk to people Seek and accept help Embrace change Work on items in an order set by the PO Be proactive and self-motivated Be honest (w/ yourself and others) Be passionate about what you do Embrace "all sink or swim" Everyone involved shares the risks. Make sure you are transparent SAFe Core Values - ✔- Alignment - Transparency - Built-in Quality - Program Execution SAFe Lean-Agile Principles (9 total) - ✔1. Take an economic view 2. Apply systems thinking 3. Assume variability; preserve options 4. Build incrementally with fast, integrated learning cycles 5. Base milestones on objective evaluation of working systems 6. Visualize and limit WIP. Reduce batch sizes. Manage queue lenths 7. Apply cadence, synchronize w/ cross-domain planning 8. Unlock the intrinsic motivation of knowledge workers 9. Decentralize decision-making
A "feature" is a collection of _______ - ✔stories Agile Release Train - ✔a virtual organization of 5-12 teams (50-125+) that plans, commits, and executes together A _______ _________ (__) is a fixed timebox; default is 10 weeks - ✔Program Increment (PI) Agile release train - ✔Define new functionality Implement Acceptance test Deploy ART Roles: Release Train Engineer (RTE) - ✔acts as the Chief Scrum Master for the train ART Roles: Product Management - ✔owns, defines and prioritizes the Program Backlog. ART Roles: System Architect/Engineering - ✔provides architectural guidance and technical enablement to the teams on the train ART Roles: System Team - ✔provides processes and tools to integrate and evaluate assets early and often ART Roles: Business Owners - ✔are the key stakeholders on the Agile Release Train Program Events for the ART - ✔PI Planning ART Sync System Demo Inspect and Adapt event ART Program Events: PI Planning - ✔Timebox: 2 days Value: Teams commit to a set of objectives to be delivered in the PI ART Program Events: ART Sync - ✔Timebox: 1 hr Value: train teams to sync regarding the progress of the PI ART Program Events: System Demo - ✔Timebox: 2 hrs Value: deliverables reviewed with stakeholders providing feedback ART Program Events: Inspect and Adapt event - ✔Timebox: 1/2 day Value: The train reviews and improves its process before the next PI
SPC - ✔SAFe Program Consultant 1 Increment equals... - ✔... 5 iterations For a large solution, how many people can be on one ART? - ✔50 to 125 The 5th sprint is the... - ✔Innovation and planning sprint. Sometimes lasts 3 weeks. Sometimes works to have a longer time. Need to build in flexibility in your cadence How a Scrum Master supports and Agile Team - ✔Coaches the team to create better Solutions, improve business results, and better their processes Facilitates team and program events Removes impediments to the team's progress Assists the team in implementing SAFe and working with other teams who may or may not be using SAFe Fosters adoption of Agile technical practices Assists the PO in preparing and refining the backlog for PI and Iteration Planning Coaches the team on the best ways to refine their backlog and create Stories The Scrum Master is the great ________ - ✔optimizer Ensure demos are _________. Strive for _________ code. - ✔integrated How to be a servant leader - ✔Listens and supports team members in problem identification and decision-making Understands and empathizes with others Encourages and supports the personal development of each individual Persuades rather than uses authority Thinks beyond day-to-day activities Looks to help without diminishing the commitment of others Coaches the team on Agile best practices What makes up PI Planning? - ✔2 days every 8-12 weeks (10 weeks is typical) - all members should be involved Everyone attends in person if at all possible Product Management owns Feature priorities Development teams own Story planning and high-level estimates Architect/Engineering and UX work as intermediaries for governance, interfaces, and dependencies A benefit hypothesis... - ✔justifies feature implementation cost and provides business perspective when making scope decisions User Story Guidelines (the 3 Cs) - ✔Card - written on a card or in the tool and may annotate with notes
Conversation - the details are in a conversation with the Product Owner (PO) Confirmation - Acceptance criteria confirm the Story correctness User story template - ✔As a <user role>, I want to <activity> so that <business value>. Acceptance Criteria - ✔Provide the details of the Story from a testing point of view Are created by the Agile Team Express the conditions that need to be satisfied for the customer Provide context for the team, more details of the Story, and help the team know when they are done Are written by the customer/PO and refined by the team during backlog refinement and Iteration planning Use User Acceptance Test Scenarios typically as a starting point Advantages of Acceptance Criteria - ✔Continue the conversation between the PO and the team Helps solidify expectations for the Story Spawns negotiation, trade-offs, and options to split a large Story into smaller Stories Establishes a high-level test plan Provides a basis for Solution design Acceptance Criteria Formats - ✔Test that <criteria> Demonstrate that <this happens> Verify that when <a role> does <some action> they get <this result> Given <a context> when <this event occurs> then <this happens> How much acceptance criteria? - ✔Stop when: You have enough to size the story Testing will become to convoluted You have made 2-3 revisions of the criteria INVEST Acronym - ✔Independent Negotiable Valuable Estimable Small Testable Enabler Stories - ✔Can represent different types of work: Exploration, Architecture, Infrastructure. Demonstrated just like any other Story Enables functional value by another future story Don't deliver actual business value Types of Enablers - ✔Spikes and Refactors
Refactors - ✔Systematic approach to improving the system without changing observable system behavior Example: improving maintainability, performance, or scalability Spikes - ✔Research activities to reduce risk, understand a functional need, increase estimate reliability, or define a technical approach Technical Spikes - ✔Researching a technical approach or unknown Functional Spikes - ✔Researching how a user might use of interact with the system A Story Point is a singular number that represents: - ✔Volume: how much is there? Complexity: how hard is it? Knowledge: what do we know? Uncertainty: What's not known? SM's role in facilitating estimations - ✔Make sure everyone participates Ensure relative estimates are used Focus the discussion on contested items Keep time spent estimating Stories to a minimum Identify SMEs who need to be present Common anti-patterns for estimations - ✔Pressure by stakeholders to lower estimations Only a few people participate Not using the adjusted Fibonacci scale Normalized estimation technique - ✔For every full-time developer and tester on the team, give the team 8 pts (adjust for part-timers) Subtract 1 point for every team member vacation day and holiday Find a small Story that would take about a half-day to develop and a half-day to test and validate, and call it a 1 Estimate every other Story relative to that one Never look back (don't worry abut recalibrating) PI Planning Briefing Typical Schedule - ✔RTE Facilitates the PI Planning event and kicks off the briefings The executive, Product Manager, System Architect/Development Manager/UX role conduct their briefings to the entire ART The RTE briefly reviews the purpose of the meeting (alignment) and presents the agenda, planning guidance, and planning requirements The executive presents the business context slides PM presents Vision and Feature and Benefits slides System Architect/Dev Manager/UX role presents the Architecture, UX, and Developer manager briefing slides
Management Review and Problem-Solving - ✔At Day 1 end, management meets to make adjustments to scope and objectives based on the day's planning. Common questions during Managers' Review Session - ✔What did we just learn? Where do we need to adjust Vision? Scope? Resources? Where are the bottlenecks? What Features must be de-scoped? What decisions must we make between now and tomorrow to address these issues? Possible changes that result from Manager's Review - ✔Business priorities Adjustment to plan Changes to scope Movement of people ROAM Risks - ✔Resolved - has been addressed; no longer a concern Owned - someone has taken responsibility Accepted - nothing more can be done. If risk occurs, release may be compromised. Mitigated - team has plan to adjust as necessary Confidence Vote - ✔Teams agree to do everything in their power to meet the agreed-to objectives In the event that fact patterns dictate that it is simply not achievable, teams agree to escalate immediately so that corrective action can be taken 1 - no confidence 2 - little confidence 3 - good confidence 4 - high confidence 5 - very high confidence Anyone who puts up a 1/2 is asked to speak. They may have a risk that was not previously considered. Goal is to have everyone at a 3 or above. Encourage everybody to speak up. This helps build further trust Goals to review during a Retrospective Meeting - ✔1. What went well 2. What didn't 3. What we can do better next time Scrum Master's role in team breakout #1 - ✔Ensure team has a draft plan to present Identify as many risks and dependencies as possible for the management review Secure subject matter experts and Program Level stakeholders as needed by the team Facilitate the coordination with other teams for dependencies
Common Anti-Patterns for team breakout #1 - ✔- No plan or partial plan at the end of the timebox. - Too much time is spent analyzing each story - Shared Scrum Masters and Product owners are not available enough - Part-time scrum masters don't have time to plan as part of the team Scrum Master's Role in PI Planning - ✔Maintain the timebox Make sure the team builds a plan they can commit to Ensure that the team is honest in their confidence vote Facilitate the coordination with other teams, but don't do it FOR the team Act as a request buffer for a team that has a lot of dependencies Manage the program board Facilitate the retrospective Common anti-patterns in PI Planning - ✔Pressure is put on the team to overcommit Team under commits due to fear of failure Over-planning ahead of time to make it more efficient loses the essence of PI Planning The plan, rather than the alignment, become the goal Goals - ✔Help align team, determine quality levels, risk mitigation at its core. They provide flexibility Iteration Planning Flow - ✔The team establishes its velocity The team clarifies the Stories The team optionally breaks Stories into tasks The process continues while there is more capacity The team synthesizes (summarizes) Iteration Goals Everyone commits (vote, fist o' five) Iteration Goals - ✔Provide clarity, commitment and management information. Serve 3 purposes: 1. Align team members to a common purpose 2. Align Agile teams to common PI Objectives and manage dependencies 3. Provide continuous management information A common approach is to _____ _______ into _____ during Iteration Planning - ✔split stories ____ tasks Scrum Master's role in Iteration Planning - ✔Maintain timebox Ensure that the team commits to the Iteration Goals Verify that the PO or other managers don't influence the team to overcommit Challenge the team to exceed their previous accomplishments Ensure that improvement items from the retrospective are put into effect Ensure time is allocated for technical debt activities
Common anti-patterns in Iteration Planning - ✔Delving too deep into technical discussions Commitment is unrealistic Velocity and load are exactly the same Scrum Master is more focused on technical hat than facilitator's hat The team under-commits due to fear of failure No time is reserved for support activities