What is a Sprint Retrospective? A Sprint Retrospective is a regularly scheduled event where members of a Scrum Team reflect on their way of working, as part of the inspect and adapt process, in a spirit of continuous improvement. Some Agile practitioners consider the Sprint Retrospective to be the most important of the five Scrum...Read More

What is a Sprint Review? There is a meeting that occurs at the end of a Sprint, in Scrum, where one or more Scrum Teams provide insight to stakeholders into work that they completed during the Sprint. For software teams, it’s preferred for most of the time, and the conversation, to be devoted to a...Read More

What is Backlog Refinement? Many Agile teams have conversations where they seek to explore high-priority work items in their Product Backlog, such that they’re ready to be worked on with little to no additional conversation. Scrum teams often refer to this kind of conversation as Backlog Refinement or Backlog Grooming, where their short-term goal is...Read More

What is Sprint Planning? In Scrum, a meeting that initiates an iteration (Sprint), where members of the Scrum Team collaborate to agree on outcome(s) for that Sprint, and select work items that help achieve the outcome(s). What’s the Benefit? The primary benefits of Sprint Planning are that it helps ensure members of the team all...Read More

What is a Daily Scrum? In Scrum, teams have a short meeting, not to exceed 15 minutes, on a daily basis,  where they seek to share knowledge, identify areas where help might be needed or can be given, surface dependencies or risks, and agree on next steps to address anything that might be impeding the...Read More

What is Impact Mapping? Impact Mapping is a visual technique which helps teams apply design thinking techniques, focusing the conversation on the desired impacts (and associated outcomes), with user goals top of mind. What’s the Benefit? The benefits of doing Impact Mapping include: Focusing the conversation on delivering business value Visually depicting important elements of...Read More

What is a Pyramid Backlog? A Pyramid Backlog is a visual prioritization tool that helps force hard decisions on the most important things to work on, at the Product Backlog level. What’s the Benefit? Teams often expend a significant amount of effort on prioritization; the pyramid backlog technique can reduce the amount of time needed...Read More