How Structured Facilitation Training Can Save Your Arse and Boost Your Career

How Structured Facilitation Training Can Save Your Arse and Boost Your Career

by | Sep 4, 2018 | Communication Skills, Facilitation Skills, Leadership Skills, Managing Conflict, Meeting Structure, Meeting Support

Structured meetings and workshops positively impact organizations and stakeholders–even permeating cultures. Here are a few straightforward benefits of facilitation training that support structured meetings.

Business wisdom demands the application of knowledge, stuff that is ‘in−formation’ (not static). Compound the dynamism of information with the challenge of organizing a group of people, where nobody is smarter than everybody.  Groups of people fail (or operate at sub-optimal levels) either because they don’t care, don’t have the talent, or don’t know how. Meetings and workshops with structure (aka interactive design❖) have always been stressed by MGRUSH.  Structured facilitation training instructs HOW TO get a group of people to focus on the right question (topicality) at the right time (sequencing).

Structured facilitation training largely teaches you how to think by affecting your greatest power, the power of choice. From choosing which foot to place on the floor first, after rising in the morning, to what to wear when retiring for the evening, each day presents itself with thousands of choices. Without structure, groups are not naturally capable of focusing on the same thing, at the same time. Their choices become confused, chaotic, and sometimes catastrophic. Structured facilitation training is the process of making it easier for people to be more effective in leading groups, teams, meetings, and workshops. It includes three primary components: leadership, facilitation, and methodology.

Facilitation Training

Structured Facilitation Training Explains the Holarchy of Decision-making

Three Aspects of Structured Facilitation Training

The structure provides a method for transforming the abstract (thoughts) into the concrete (products). In elementary school, we learned about the WHY, WHAT, and HOW. In professional group environments, they equate to:

  1. Leadership [Why we are doing something],
  2. Facilitation [What you can do to be more effective], and
  3. Meeting Design [How do you lead a group from the Introduction to the Wrap].

Differences Between Structured Facilitation and “Kum-bah-yah”

The differences between structured and unstructured facilitation training begin with different deliverables. The structured world seeks outputs such as product requirements or priorities resulting from root cause analysis. The unstructured world seeks outcomes such as community awareness or peace in the Middle East.

Structured VS Unstructured Facilitation Training

With structured facilitation, arguments can be resolved by appealing to the objectives within the structural holarchy. The unstructured world depends on building trust and increasing awareness but has no surefire method for driving consensus. The structured world reminds us that all arguments may be resolved by appealing to enterprise objectives. The unstructured world does not necessarily share any common purpose, scope, or objectives to resolve disagreements.

Structured Facilitation Training Includes

Meetings capture a huge investment of time. Unproductive meetings affect P & L, morale, and the potential growth of your biggest asset, your people. As frequent and important as we attend meetings, little (if any) structured training has been provided to help us become better meeting participants, and more importantly, effective meeting leaders. Creating highly effective meetings depends on improving three areas of your behavioral skills, namely:

 

WHY —

Leadership training ensures that we begin with the end in mind. WHY do we meet equates with what DONE looks like? The best facilitators in the world will fail miserably if they don’t know where they are going.  The worst facilitators can still succeed when the deliverable is clear and has an impact on the quality of life of their meeting participants.

WHAT —

Once it has been made clear where we are going, facilitation skills make it easier to know WHAT to do to ensure a successful meeting. Unfortunately, we have developed poor muscle memory over the years. Some behaviors need to be ‘unlearned’ before new behaviors are embraced. The only way to change such behaviors is through practice and immersion. Talking heads (i.e., the instructor’s lips are moving) won’t do it. Only active participation and practice will work at instilling effective and facilitative behaviors. 

HOW —

Even a great facilitator who knows where they are going (i.e., What DONE looks like) still needs help. They need to know HOW they are going to get there. How will they lead a group of people from the meeting Introduction to the Wrap?  While the best methodology or approach (i.e., Agenda) has more than one right answer, there is one wrong answer — if the meeting leader does not know HOW they are going to do it.

Practical Benefits of Structured Facilitation Training

  • Analysis of business requirements:  policies (WHY), rules (WHAT), and procedures (HOW) 
  • Application environments such as AGILE, Design Sprint, DMAIC, JAD, Kaizen, Kanban, Lean, LeSS, RUP, SAFe, SAP, Scrum, SDLC (waterfall), SOA, and XP
  • Business agility, architecture, holistic decision support, product development, process improvement, and program alignment
  • Popular deliverables include gap analysis, planning of all sorts, prioritization with levels of increasing complexity, and team and project charters
  • Project and portfolio management approaches that demand consensus-based prioritization
  • Work products like Daily Stand-ups, Kick-offs, Innovation and Creativity Sessions, Logical Models, Look-backs, Product Backlogs, QFD, Retrospectives, Reviews, Root Cause Analysis, SIPOC, Stand-ups, Use-Cases, and User Stories

Help Yourself to Some Additional Revenue Too

Because innovation drives profit, most people have ignored structure to secure breakthrough ideas. Understand why listening to the voice of the customer makes economic sense.

The poor evaluation of ideas represents the number one cause of failure for newly introduced products. Frequently customers either don’t need the new product (i.e., technology push) or the product does not work as expected. Structured facilitation improves the quality of evaluation and decision-making, ensuring that the best concepts become commercialized.

Focus groups stress qualitative aspects and may not effectively represent the market at large. Offline research tends to be overly quantitative and sterile, frequently subject to close-ended questions/ answers when conditional knowledge may be more important to informed decisions. While one-on-one interviews afford deep probes, they confine the knowledge to what already exists; i.e., they stay “in the box”.

Surveys help track results but lack the ability to provide leading indications of unmet needs and unexplored issues. Web-based discussions drive further but do not support solid decision-making principles. Concept testing provides qualitative feedback but lacks the quantitative rigor needed to support decisions. Conjoint analysis, also known as “Com-Pair” (and other terms), supports decision-making but does not help generate new ideas or options.

Structured Workshops Integrate the Best of All Methods

Structured workshops generate breakthrough ideas, create strategies, and ensure alignment with more customers. Group dynamics stimulate, leading to higher quality ideas and decisions. However, without solid facilitation, dominant personalities may introduce bias. Starting with customer pain points and leveraging the input from other methods mentioned above, a collaborative approach will always generate higher quality decisions than those made in a vacuum or subjected to seen and unseen biases.

Facilitation training prepares you to challenge with reflexive questioning, the “pregnant pause”, and other tips to secure evidence and support. Nobody is smarter than everybody, especially in the hands of a professional facilitator.

[1]Wisdom To Inspire

[2]I’m Still Learning

______

Don’t ruin your career by hosting bad meetings. Sign up for a workshop or send this to someone who should. MGRUSH workshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities daily during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.

Our workshops also provide a superb way to earn up to 40 SEUs from the Scrum Alliance, 40 CDUs from IIBA, 40 Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) based on Federal Acquisition Certification Continuous Professional Learning Requirements using Training and Education activities, 40 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from SAVE International, as well as 4.0 CEUs for other professions. (See workshop and Reference Manual descriptions for details.)

Want a free 10-minute break timer? Sign up for our once-monthly newsletter HERE and receive a free timer along with four other of our favorite facilitation tools.

______

With Bookmarks no longer a feature in WordPress, we need to append the following for your benefit and reference

Do NOT Attempt a Design Sprint Without a Professional Facilitator

Do NOT Attempt a Design Sprint Without a Professional Facilitator

by | Aug 7, 2018 | Decision Making, Meeting Structure, Meeting Tools, Scrum Events

What is a Design Sprint? Created at Google Ventures, a Design Sprint represents a methodology that helps teams complete a five-day workshop for building and testing some problem-solving product or solution (prototype).  A prototype might include a product on a screen, on paper, a service, a physical space, or an object.

Created by Google Venture’s Jake Knapp, along with Braden Kowitz and John Zeratsky, a Design Sprint leads participants from an abstract idea to a workable prototype. The five-day deadline, intensive teamwork, and facilitative focus provide an effective way to generate ideas and evaluate them quickly. The title of their book published in 2016 is “Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days”.  According to the creators, they used Design Sprints on everything from Google Search to Google X.  Not surprisingly, the Design Sprint method relies heavily on methodology led through highly effective, professional facilitation.

Design Sprint Workshop

Design Sprint Agenda

We recently collaborated with Jessica Olsen, CSPF from The Doolittle Institute to build a five-day agenda (the creators never mention the term ‘agenda’ and prefer using a checklist) based on the Design Sprint methodology.  We have liberally modified some of their suggested tools to include MGRUSH tools provided in our Certified Structured Professional Facilitator training.  Note in particular that we have a distaste for voting because it involves winners and losers.  As consensus fighters, we provide decision-making options based on using criteria and structured analysis.

As described by the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, “listen in if you have a big opportunity, challenge, or idea and need perspective, insights, and practical answers.”

Design Sprint Agenda — Day One, MAPPING

Agenda Step

Estimated Time

Notes and Tools

Introduction
15 to 45 minutes
 Duration depends on the number of participants and the length of icebreakers.  Follow the MGRUSH Introductory seven-step introductory sequence, stressing roles:

  1. Introduce yourself: stress neutrality, meeting roles, and workshop impact.
  2. State the workshop purpose and get an agreement.
  3. Confirm the workshop scope and get an agreement.
  4. Show the workshop deliverables and get an agreement.
  5. Cover the administrivia (e.g., safety moment).
  6. Explain the workshop Day Four agenda (preferably through metaphor or analogy).
  7. Share the ground rules.

a)     (Optionally) Have the attendees introduce themselves

b)    Have Decider[1] make some quick rah-rah comments

Long-term Goal
15 to 75 minutes
 Using Breakout Teams, treat much like a vision statement of the prototype being built. Consider using either the Purpose tool or the Temporal Shift tool.

Questions
30 to 60 minutes
 Using Breakout Teams, develop a list of Design Sprint Questions to be answered by the end of the fifth day. Consider using three of the Six Thinking Hat tools, and in this sequence, namely:

  • White Hat (Neutral Objectivity) — Questions about data, facts, figures, information, examples, and other types of evidence
  • Black Hat (Logical Negative) — Questions about risk, problems, obstacles, and likely causes of failure in reaching the vision
  • Red Hat (Emotional View) — Questions about biased views, hunches, “gut”, and feelings

Mapping
30 to 60 minutes
 Using Breakout Teams, build something akin to a process flow diagram.  Consider using the Creativity tool to capture key customer benefits, applications, or other uses. In the words of the authors:

“List customers and key players on the left. Draw the ending, with your completed goal, on the right. Finally, make a flowchart in between showing how customers interact with your product. Keep it simple: five to fifteen steps.” (pg 66) [2]

Expert Views
60 to 120 minutes
 Facilitate expert views from your Design Sprint team and guests from the outside. For about fifteen to thirty minutes each, capture their vision, research, how things work, and previous efforts or considerations. Other team members listen, observe, and write down notes. Consider strengthening your questions with the Perspectives tool.

How Might We (HMWs)
30 to 60 minutes
 Team members convert their notes into opportunity statements (HMWs), akin to Scrum Stories. Use the Purpose tool format. Consider strengthening your questions with the Perspectives tool (pg 75).

Prioritizing
30 to 60 minutes
 First, consolidate with the Categorizing tool or some equivalent approach.  Consider various and appropriate prioritization tools ranging from Perceptual Mapping to the Decision Matrix tool. (NOTE: If using an MGRUSH tool, note that you will separately need to build criteria and apply the prioritized criteria against the HMWs.) For less formal cultures, consider a Scrum method of prioritization such as the Team Circle or even Planning Poker. The creators recommend voting (pg 80).

Updating
30 to 60 minutes
 Given new input from the experts and the HMWs, consolidate into an updated Long-term Goal, updated Questions, and a consolidated map.

Selection and Testing
15 to 30 minutes
 According to the creators, “Circle your most important customer and one target moment on the map. The team can weigh in, but the Decider makes the call.” Test back to Long-term Goal to ensure alignment.

Review, Preview, and Wrap
5 to 15 minutes
 Use the standard MGRUSH four-activity approach, namely:

  1. Review and summarize what the group accomplished.
  2. Review any open items: Assign responsibility and detail how the group can expect to be updated.
  3. Guardian of change: determine what the group agrees to tell their superiors and other stakeholders.
  4. Improvement: Use a quick Plus/ Delta for any quick fixes needed over the next four days.

  Day One Things We Like

  • Remember to take breaks every sixty to ninety minutes 
  • ABC: Always be capturing
  • Take care of humans

 Day One Things We Would Change

  • Ask for permission. Ask the group for permission to facilitate. NOTE: The facilitator does not need to ask to do their job. They will properly confirm roles and impact during the Introductory sequence.
  • Keep asking, “How should I capture that?” NOTE: (With a marker silly.) Rhetorical precision demands that the question confirm WHAT we captured and provide an accurate reflection of the speaker’s intent.
  • Decide and move on. Slow decisions sap energy and threaten the sprint timeline. If the group sinks into a long debate, ask the Decider to make a call. NOTE: Poor quality decisions sap precious resources. Long debates are not available when the method and discussion are structured, especially when the focus of decision-making ought to be on the criteria and not on the options.

 

Design Sprint Agenda — Day Two, SKETCHING

Agenda Step

Estimated Time

Notes and Tools

Introduction
5 to 10 minutes
 Follow the MGRUSH Introductory seven-step introductory sequence, stressing roles:

  1. Reconfirm meeting roles and impact of deliverables.
  2. Review the workshop purpose and get agreement.
  3. Review the workshop scope and get an agreement.
  4. Reconfirm the workshop deliverables and get an agreement.
  5. Cover administrivia (e.g., safety moment).
  6. Explain the workshop Day Four agenda (preferably through metaphor or analogy).
  7. Reconfirm the ground rules.

Lightning Demos
2 to 3 hours
 Take turns providing three-minute tours of favorite solutions from other products and domains within the same company. Capture all the ‘big ideas’ preferably using both narrative and sketching. Based on personal favorites, biases, or expertise, decide on afternoon assignments.

Notes
15 to 45 minutes
 For each person, articulate, codify, and confirm (pg 110).

Ideas
15 to 45 minutes
 Have each make some rough doodle sketches (pg 111).

Crazy 8
10 to 15 minutes
 Have each follow the Crazy 8 sketching method (pg 112).

Sketches
30 to 60 minutes
 For each, create a three-panel storyboard showing customers throughout the solution. Keep in mind the following rules:

  • Make it self-explanatory
  • Keep it anonymous
  • Ugly is OK
  • Words matter (rhetorical precision)
  • Give it a catchy title

Review, Preview, and Wrap
5 to 15 minutes
 Use the standard MGRUSH four-activity approach, namely:

  1. Review and summarize what the group accomplished.
  2. Review any open items: Assign responsibility and detail how the group can expect to be updated.
  3. Guardian of change: determine what the group agrees to tell their superiors and other stakeholders.
  4. Improvement: Use a quick Plus/ Delta for any quick fixes needed over the next three days.

 Day Two Things We Like

  • NOTE: Effective facilitation of discussion around the Demos becomes critical.

 Day Two Things We Would Change

  • Referring to a 1959 Yale study on brainstorming as ineffective. NOTE: We’re willing to bet that ideation rules were not imposed and that the analysis component was very weak. Listing is easy, it’s the analyzing that’s tough and it requires structure to break down issues into focal points for facilitated discussion and consensual understanding.

 

Design Sprint Agenda — Day Three, DECIDING

Agenda Step

Estimated Time

Notes and Tools

Introduction
5 to 10 minutes
 Follow the MG RUSH Introductory seven-step introductory sequence, stressing roles:

  1. Reconfirm meeting roles and impact of deliverables.
  2. Review the workshop purpose and get agreement.
  3. Review the workshop scope and get an agreement.
  4. Reconfirm the workshop deliverables and get an agreement.
  5. Cover administrivia (e.g., safety moment).
  6. Explain the workshop Day Four agenda (preferably through metaphor or analogy).
  7. Reconfirm the ground rules.

Prototype Selection
2 to 4 hours
 Consider the creators’ method described below or substitute a more rigorous decision-making tool such as a Perceptual Map a Decision Matrix or both.
Art Museum
Pre-work
 Should be done the night before by affixing sketches on the wall, friendly for touring, like an art museum.
Heat Map
pg 133
 In silence the creators recommend applying dot stickers to the most compelling parts or ideas, one sketch at a time.
Speed Critique
pg 136
 Discuss the compelling parts of each sketch, one sketch at a time, for three minutes. The original sketcher then replies if they feel the group missed something. Capture stand-out ideas and review concerns and questions.
Straw Poll
pg 138
 The creators recommend each team member place one vote on their favorite and support it with their rationale.
Decision
(Supervote)
pg 141
 Creators prefer ‘Note and Vote’ with Decider making the final decision. The advantage of the creators’ method is the combining of elements from multiple sketches, as parts of each sketch, rather than the entire sketch, may be used to build the forthcoming prototype.

Rumble
(Optional)
 Decide if the winning ideas can fit into one prototype, or if conflicting ideas require two or three competing prototypes (a Rumble). Note and Vote instructions on pg 146.

Storyboard
2 to 4 hours
 Build a storyboard to frame the prototype. The creators’ method recommends drawing a large grid, selecting an opening scene, and a flow that might be expected from the customer’s point of view. Illustrations are preferred over narrative comments.

Review, Preview, and Wrap
5 to 15 minutes
 Use the standard MGRUSH four-activity approach, namely:

  1. Review and summarize what the group accomplished.
  2. Review any open items: Assign responsibility and detail how the group can expect to be updated.
  3. Guardian of change: determine what the group agrees to tell their superiors and other stakeholders.
  4. Improvement: Use a quick Plus/ Delta for any quick fixes needed over the next two days.

Day Three Things We Like

  • Illustrations are preferred over narrative comments. NOTE: A picture is worth a thousand words and a sketch (metaphor or analogy) is worth a thousand pictures.

Day Three Things We Would Change

  • NOTE: With the proper method, consensus can be driven but you MUST consider criteria discretely from options.

Design Sprint Agenda — Day Four, PROTOTYPING

Agenda Step

Estimated Time

Notes and Tools

Introduction
5 to 10 minutes
 Follow the MGRUSH Introductory seven-step introductory sequence, stressing roles:

  1. Reconfirm meeting roles and impact of deliverables.
  2. Review the workshop purpose and get agreement.
  3. Review the workshop scope and get an agreement.
  4. Reconfirm the workshop deliverables and get an agreement.
  5. Cover administrivia (eg, safety moment).
  6. Explain the workshop Day Four agenda (preferably through metaphor or analogy).
  7. Reconfirm the ground rules.

Prototyping
4 to 6 hours
 Assign roles: Makers, Stitcher, Writer, Asset Collectors, and Interviewer. Consider breaking the storyboard into smaller scenes and assigning each scene to team members (pg 187).
 
“
 Making (two or more team members)
 
“
 Stitching
 
“
 Writing
 
“
 Asset Collections (two or more team members)
 
“
 Interviewing

Trial Run
30 to 60 minutes
 Identify necessary corrections, ensuring that the Decider and Friday’s Interviewer attend.

Calibrations
30 to 60 minutes
 Make changes, finish the prototype, and finalize the Interviewer guide for Friday.

Review, Preview, and Wrap
5 to 15 minutes
 Use the standard MGRUSH four-activity approach, namely:

  1. Review and summarize what the group accomplished.
  2. Review any open items: Assign responsibility and detail how the group can expect to be updated.
  3. Guardian of change: determine what the group agrees to tell their superiors and other stakeholders.
  4. Improvement: Use a quick Plus/ Delta for any quick fixes needed over the final day.

 Day Four Things We Like

  • Divide and Conquer. NOTE: Assigning discrete roles for building the prototype(s).
  • Suggestions in Kick-Off Slides:
    • If your product is on a screen, try tools like Keynote, PowerPoint, InVision, or Marvel.
    • If it’s on paper, design it with Keynote, PowerPoint, or Word.
    • With a service, use your Sprint Team as an actor.
    • If it’s a physical space, modify an existing space.
    • If it’s an object, modify an existing object, 3D print a prototype, or prototype the marketing.
  • Goldilocks quality. NOTE: Create a prototype with just enough quality to evoke honest reactions from customers (pg 170).

 Day Four Things We Would Change

  • NOTE: Day Four is a solid, collaborative, and productive day—well constructed.

 

Design Sprint Agenda — Day Five, TESTING

Agenda Step

Estimated Time

Notes and Tools

Introduction
1 to 2 hours
 Create two rooms, one for interviews and one for observation. Position hardware and set up a video stream to the observers’ room (pg 202).

Five Interviews
4 to 6 hours
 Following Interviewing protocols for prototyping
(pg 212).  Team members capture notes, issues, successes, and problems.

Notes
Concurrent
 Gather notes on a pre-built grid using a row for each prototype or section of a prototype and a column for each customer being interviewed (pg 219).

Patterns
30 to 60 minutes
 Observe, discuss, and capture using the Notes above (pg 222).

Back to the Future
30 to 60 minutes
 Review Sprint Questions from Day One. Decide which patterns are most important moving forward. Also, review Long-term Goals from Monday to fortify the next steps. Stress the opportunity from both the successes and the failures.

Next Steps
30 to 60 minutes
 Agree on an action plan going forward and consider applying some type of Roles and Responsibilities Matrix such as a RASI chart using the MG RUSH method for budget, timing, and resource estimations. Allow for the possibility of additional Sprints (on the same topic), albeit likely briefer than five days (See Kick-off slide #45).

Review, Preview, and Wrap
5 to 15 minutes
 Use the standard MGRUSH four-activity approach, namely:

  1. Review and summarize what the group accomplished.
  2. Review any open items: Assign responsibility and detail how the group can expect to be updated.
  3. Guardian of change: determine what the group agrees to tell their superiors and other stakeholders.
  4. Improvement: Use a more substantial Evaluation Form to obtain feedback on overall performance.

 

Day Five Things We Like

  • Incredible capacity of structured, group activities.

Day Five Things We Would Change

  • Voting: Need we say more?

 

[1] ‘Decider’ is one of three primary roles in a Design Sprint, the other primary roles include ‘Facilitator’, ‘Interviewer’, and ‘Sprint Team.

[2] Refers to the page number in the creators’ book, “Sprint – How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days”.  Additionally, the MG RUSH style encourages using fewer periods (full stops) than in American English.

______

Don’t ruin your career by hosting bad meetings. Sign up for a workshop or send this to someone who should. MGRUSH workshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities daily during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.

Our workshops also provide a superb way to earn up to 40 SEUs from the Scrum Alliance, 40 CDUs from IIBA, 40 Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) based on Federal Acquisition Certification Continuous Professional Learning Requirements using Training and Education activities, 40 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from SAVE International, as well as 4.0 CEUs for other professions. (See workshop and Reference Manual descriptions for details.)

Want a free 10-minute break timer? Sign up for our once-monthly newsletter HERE and receive a free timer along with four other of our favorite facilitation tools.

______

With Bookmarks no longer a feature in WordPress, we need to append the following for your benefit and reference

Agile vs Waterfall? Don’t Risk Failure By Using the Wrong One

Agile vs Waterfall? Don’t Risk Failure By Using the Wrong One

by | Jun 5, 2018 | Meeting Agendas, Meeting Structure, Meeting Support, Scrum Events

A professional facilitator handles several types of assignments, from planning to design. However, most facilitators must also provide a method for securing the deliverable. Although a different role, the ‘methodologist’ responsibilities make up the most important part of preparing for many meetings.

How will you lead the group successfully with meeting design from the Introduction through the Wrap? You will find more than one right answer. Therefore, when weighing Agile vs. Waterfall benefits, consider how the Stacey Matrix arrays projects from the simple through the chaotic.

An Adapted Stacey Matrix: Agile vs Waterfall

Agile vs Waterfall, Stacey Matrix

Agile vs Waterfall — Stacey Matrix

Stacey’s original two dimensions included Agreement (among stakeholders) and Certainty (about cause and effect relationships within the project). Hence Agilists made Stacey’s matrix popular by substituting Requirements for Agreement and Technology for Certainty. Therefore, Requirements capture WHAT solution must be built and Technology unveils HOW to provide the solution. Consequently, the primary dimensions range from the clear or known, to the vague or unknown. The quantity of people involved gives a softer, yet third dimension that also directly increases the complexity. Therefore, the balance of this article discusses the five primary zones or areas delineated on the matrix. They include:

  1. The Simple
  2. Politically Complicated
  3. Technically Complicated
  4. Zone of Complexity
  5. The Chaotic

Five Zones Overview: Agile vs. Waterfall

The Waterfall mindset demands substantial, up-front planning. Agile frameworks launch quicker, with a much narrower scope during each increment (or Sprint when using Scrum). When the cause and effects are clear and mastered, Waterfall optimizes resources and returns on investment. However, as the customer’s scenario constantly changes, Agile permits adaptation and quick adjustment. Waterfall works especially well with large construction projects and broad-scoped hardware installations. Hence, Agile may be better suited for software products, where the market demands constant and frequent change. When tasks are clearly defined, the waterfall optimizes the sequencing and resource allocation. Therefore, results ought to be consistent, predictable, and repeatable. As tasks require frequent collaboration and adjustments, Agile lends a sense of quick response and flexibility not associated with Waterfall. The following table compares the attributes of the five zones. Most models apply identical content to the Complicated Zones. We split the zone into two because the challenges of each demand a different method. When the lack of clarity derives from stakeholders, plan carefully before proceeding (Waterfall). When uncertainty derives from the technology or software, consider the Agile approach, and prepare to change along the way. A brief discussion follows about each.

Zones     Attributes

Simple

Politically Complicated

Technically Complicated

Complex

Chaotic

Positioning

 Telling: Rational decision-making and control, orderly, traditional project management, and organizational development Selling: Political decision-making and control; compromise, negotiation, persuasion, coalition building, relationship building Consulting: Judgmental decision-making, ideological control, intuition, learning organizations, systems thinking Co-creation: Collaborative ideation, visioning, iterative improvement, knowledge management, creativity, innovation Disintegration or massive avoidance

Focus or Control

 Monitoring, Standards, Guidance. Evidence-based Negotiation Strategic or Adaptive Planning Learning, Creativity, Trial and Error, Empirical Disorder and chaos until novel patterns emerge.

Planning Type

 Operational or Predictive Planning Strategic or Adaptive Planning Strategic or Scenario Planning Adaptive or Scenario Planning Rapid action and improvising skills

Cause & Effect

 Relationships between cause and effect are evident. Apply best practices and use defined process controls. Cause and effect can be understood by analyzing or investigating the system and its mechanisms. Apply good practices. Cause and effect can be understood by analyzing or investigating the system and its mechanisms. Apply good practices. The relationship between cause and effect can only be perceived in retrospect, but not in advance. Inspect and Adapt. No clear relationships between cause and effect even if inspected.  The approach is to Act, Sense, and Respond and we can discover novel practices.

Example

 Drilling for oil in the Permian Basin. Improving air quality or building an oil pipeline through North America. Sending a payload to Mars or beyond the edge of our known solar system. Raising a child. Every child is unique resulting in unpredictable outcomes. “Running of the Bulls” (event held in Spain), or the turbulence in the tip vortex from an airplane wing

Comments

 A ‘right’ answer exists, best practices and detailed recipes, fact-based, traditional management Frequent disagreement about the value and purpose of the project More than one right answer possible, fact-based, coordination of expertise, reliance on techno-rationale Empirical methods focused on the identification, selection, and development of increments High turbulence, no patterns, tension, need to create stability, experience may hinder progress

1. The Simple Zone: Agile vs. Waterfall

When the final result or “DONE” of a project resonates with everyone, especially large projects, Waterfall stays an obvious choice. Relying on fact-based and evidence-based decisions, projects will advance in an orderly fashion, generating few surprises. You have all worked with recipes in the kitchen before. Not only are the activities clear and sequenced, but the results are repeatable as well. Best practices serve as the benchmark for both guiding tasks and comparing results.

2. Politically Complicated Zone: Agile vs. Waterfall

As requirements become less clear, or even conflicting, waterfall may remain the best choice. How many project dollars have you seen wasted because people could not agree on the purpose or value of the project? Agile affords productivity while people are negotiating, but you risk working on the wrong stuff without the coalition building encouraged by Waterfall. Always remember –  WHY before WHAT before HOW.

3. Technically Complicated Zone: Agile vs. Waterfall

As the value of adaptive thinking increases, such as embracing innovative technology for the first time, the Agile mindset may be favored. When cause and effect must be analyzed or investigated, the Agile mindset becomes preferred. Knowing that more than one right answer exists, a clear and frequent feedback loop with stakeholders helps optimize decisions. Consequently, as Development Teams advance and grow, they become learning organizations, capable of increasing productivity and innovation.

4. Zone of Complexity: Agile vs. Waterfall

The empirical process control method demands Agile as conditions become increasingly complex. As contrasted with a fully defined process control (Waterfall), empirical methods demand transparency, frequent inspection, and adaptation. Therefore, Agile frameworks promote all three aspects or “legs.” Scrum, in particular, requires inspections at the conclusion of each Sprint. Teams receive immediate and prompt feedback to help modify later Sprints, without much delay. Do not forget to look at Agile, a mindset, as “Being” while Scrum, a framework, represents “Doing”. Hence, an empirical process depends on experimentation and continuous improvement to optimize the performance of project teams.

5. The Chaotic Zone: Agile vs. Waterfall

Most recommend Kanban as an Agile approach to deal with chaos. With Kanban, there are no Sprints. Therefore teams, using WIP (Work in Progress), continually deliver and update their product backlog. Hence, as output increases, novel patterns may emerge to help projects migrate from the chaotic to the complex. In chaotic conditions, experience may be useless. However, experimentation may be invaluable. Therefore Act, Sense, and Respond – serve as one way out of chaotic conditions.

The Facilitator: Agile vs. Waterfall

In conclusion, what does it all mean to facilitators? Since most of us are called upon for the best method to conduct meetings, planning, negotiations, decision-making, etc., the methodological impact trumps the facilitator’s learnings. Hence, you begin to see where helping to manage the political uncertainty becomes paramount for many projects to succeed. You can also sense that ‘removing impediments’ becomes quite like ‘making it easy.’ In the Waterfall world when meetings evidence highly productive participants and output, our role shifts to that of scribe or documenter. However, with Agile, the role shifts to that of a referee, trying to clear a path so that Development Teams can do what they do best—build a new product. In both situations, when we have done our jobs well, it is time to get out of the way and be of service. Related Articles: http://www.designisdead.com/blog/making-sense-of-agile

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Don’t ruin your career by hosting bad meetings. Sign up for a workshop or send this to someone who should. MGRUSH workshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities daily during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.

Our workshops also provide a superb way to earn up to 40 SEUs from the Scrum Alliance, 40 CDUs from IIBA, 40 Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) based on Federal Acquisition Certification Continuous Professional Learning Requirements using Training and Education activities, 40 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from SAVE International, as well as 4.0 CEUs for other professions. (See workshop and Reference Manual descriptions for details.)

Want a free 10-minute break timer? Sign up for our once-monthly newsletter HERE and receive a free timer along with four other of our favorite facilitation tools.

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Scope Creep Kills Projects – It Begins in Poorly Facilitated Meetings

Scope Creep Kills Projects – It Begins in Poorly Facilitated Meetings

by | May 10, 2018 | Communication Skills, Facilitation Skills, Leadership Skills, Managing Conflict, Meeting Support

Have you ever heard someone say in a meeting “I don’t know why we’re doing this project in the first place?” Odds are, the meeting is being held to advance the project, not re-validate it. The person asking the question has now imposed their agenda on the group. They have forced scope creep [1].

Whenever meeting participants ask questions, they have shifted from the role of subject matter expert to the role of meeting designer. They have forced scope creep. By diverting attention to ‘their’ question, the group follows ‘their’ agenda. Consequently, they risk not having enough time to complete the meeting deliverable.

Getting Groups to Focus Prevents Scope Creep

scope creep

Prevent Scope Creep

The hardest task to accomplish when leading a group of people is to get them to focus. Participants’ minds drift, twist, and become partially selective. When the right group of people assembles, they can accomplish any task at hand if the leader gets them focused. Yet they continue to drift, discuss, and argue about issues that are not within the scope of the meeting. They impose their own scope creep.

Expert facilitation saves an incredible amount of time and money. For one, a well-prepared facilitator knows the scope of the meeting and puts it in writing. As a result, they do not allow someone to discuss topics that are not in scope. This includes re-justifying the project. When people argue about the validity or purpose of a project, the discussion is usually NOT within the meeting scope. Yet only a conscious facilitator can police scope creep carefully.

Remember these two secrets to prevent scope creep in meetings.

First, the session leader or facilitator needs to make the meeting scope clear when the meeting begins, as well as secure agreement from the participants about the meeting scope. Frequently, meeting scope limits include geography, duration, or situation—capturing only PART OF the project scope.

Secondly, the facilitator needs to know the precise question the group should be addressing. When the facilitator does not know the question, ANY answer is appropriate. Most meeting facilitators should focus on context before meetings rather than content, by knowing the right questions and the proper sequence to ask them. They cannot afford to ask a DUMB question (i.e., Dull, Ubiquitous, Myopic, and Broad).

Scope Creep in Meetings is Costly

While it’s a well-known fact that scope creep kills projects, scope creep also dramatically impacts the quality of meetings. Based on our research with a Fortune 100 company, more than 50 meetings are required to complete an ‘average’ project. The average is computed as greater than USD$250,000 in value but less than $1.0 million in total cost invested[2]. Much, if not most, of the budget is actually consumed by the labor value during meetings, and most budgets do not reflect the costs of the customer’s time.  And that’s where scope creep begins.

Expert Facilitation Can Reduce the Amount of Total Meeting Time by Half

Most meetings stay partially focused and on topic. They do not spend an entire hour talking about Monday Night Football. Participants typically offer up some good content. The problem is, that the meeting ends when the time is over, not when the meeting deliverable is complete and robust.  Therefore, the deliverable of many meetings becomes the most despicable deliverable of all — another meeting.

Meeting leaders cannot control the scope if they are not fully aware of the scope of the project, the meeting, the agenda steps, and the questions the group needs to answer. While each scope is related, they remain discrete, and differences must be clear in the mind of the leader. However, when the meeting leader cannot articulate the scope, participants can freely talk about whatever comes to mind. Sound familiar?

While some contend that all too often participants get too ‘deep in the weeds’, we discovered that conversation in the opposite direction wastes more time. People talking about projects, programs, business unit objectives, and enterprise performance — all topics typically ‘out of scope’ for their specific meeting deliverable.

Scope Creep is the Opposite of Detailed Answers and Requirements

Unprofessional facilitators permit such discussion when they do not refine their questions. They typically ask broad questions when, in fact, they need detailed answers. They ask for the deliverable rather than aggregating the components that add up to create the deliverable.

Here’s an example:

Let’s say your group’s deliverable is a marketing plan. An untrained facilitator might begin by asking “What does the marketing plan look like?” Imagine the number of ways this question could be answered. Such broad, open-ended questions leave meetings wide open to scope creep. Rather, a professional facilitator would know, or have done her research beforehand, and understand that a marketing plan is a function of segmentation, targeting, positioning, media, message, etc., and thus a better question would be “What is the primary target audience for the product you’re trying to market?” A question is specific enough to produce specific, measurable answers.

In addition, if the question were “What are our top three market segments?” (another good, precise question) a trained facilitator would not allow one or two people to divert the group into a discussion over social media outlets, as such content (while relevant at some other point in the process) would be out of the scope of the question at hand. (For more on how to handle open issues click HERE.)

In the aggregate . . .

By systematically addressing a series of questions, answers fold together to create the meeting deliverable.

As soon as participants start arguing over issues unrelated to the details required to support the specified deliverable (ie a specific marketing plan for a specific product) they are imposing scope creep, and putting the team at risk of failing to deliver in the amount of time allowable. The facilitator must stop the discussions unrelated directly to the deliverable.

Quite simply, to prevent scope creep in meetings, the facilitator needs to know the scope of the specific question being asked. If they don’t, people can talk about whatever they want.

scope creep

Understanding Scope Creep and Precision of the Question During Your Meeting

The Consciousness of the Holarchy Helps Prevent Scope Creep

The holarchy chart illustrates the narrowing of the scope, from the enterprise through the question being discussed in a meeting. The facilitator must provide precise questions that support the completion of agenda steps and the completion of the meeting deliverable. When the facilitator does not know the right question to ask, all hell breaks loose, and rightfully so, scope creeps . . .  Do not let it happen to you. Also, see our discussion specifically on the Holarchy for further explanation. And remember, consciousness comes before competence.

[1]The Project Management Institute’s PMBOK® Guide describes scope creep as “adding features and functionality (project scope) without addressing the effects on time, costs, and resources, or without customer approval” (PMI, 2008, p 440).

[2]Size definitions are never the same for all organizations, but nearly all define “moderate” as projects with a minimum threshold between $50,000 and $1,000,000 total investment.

______

Don’t ruin your career by hosting bad meetings. Sign up for a workshop or send this to someone who should. MGRUSH workshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities daily during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.

Our workshops also provide a superb way to earn up to 40 SEUs from the Scrum Alliance, 40 CDUs from IIBA, 40 Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) based on Federal Acquisition Certification Continuous Professional Learning Requirements using Training and Education activities, 40 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from SAVE International, as well as 4.0 CEUs for other professions. (See workshop and Reference Manual descriptions for details.)

Want a free 10-minute break timer? Sign up for our once-monthly newsletter HERE and receive a free timer along with four other of our favorite facilitation tools.

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Don’t Ruin Your Scrum Sprints — Facilitate Scrum Events Using These Agendas

Don’t Ruin Your Scrum Sprints — Facilitate Scrum Events Using These Agendas

by | Feb 6, 2018 | Meeting Agendas, Meeting Tools, Scrum Events

The Agile mindset demands frequent, and continuing, interaction among its stakeholders. Perhaps more so with Scrum, than other frameworks. From Daily Scrum activities to Sprint Retrospective events held every one to four weeks, Scrum facilitation yields an unspeakable value for Sprints. First, an update from its creators.

Scrum Guide Update, November 2020

Definition Enhancements Including Reference to Lean Thinking

Scrum is a lightweight framework that helps people, teams and organizations generate value through adaptive solutions for complex problems.

The Scrum framework is purposefully incomplete, only defining the parts required to implement Scrum theory. Scrum is built upon the collective intelligence of the people using it. Rather than provide people with detailed instructions, the rules of Scrum guide their relationships and interactions…Various processes, techniques, and methods can be employed within the framework. 

Scrum is founded on empiricism and lean thinking. Empiricism asserts that knowledge comes from experience and making decisions based on what is observed. Lean thinking reduces waste and focuses on the essentials.

Changing “Roles” to “Accountabilities”

The entire Scrum Team is accountable for creating a valuable, useful Increment every Sprint. Scrum defines three specific accountabilities within the Scrum Team: the Developers, the Product Owner, and the Scrum Master.

Changing “Development Team” to “Developers”

The specific skills needed by the Developers are often broad and will vary with the domain of work.

Changing “self-organizing” to “self-managing”

Scrum Teams are cross-functional, meaning the members have all the skills necessary to create value for each Sprint. They are also self-managing, meaning they internally decide who does what, when, and how.

Additionally

WHY was added to Sprint Planning, the three questions have been removed from the Daily Scrum (and replaced with an “actionable plan”), and they changed the term “shippable” to “useable. Artifacts now stress commitments and the phrase “product goal” now equates to the product backlog.

Scrum Facilitation Framework

Unlike waterfall mindsets, Scrum Development Teams stick together for a while. Theoretically, if forever, they may be called tribes who never disband. As teams transition from product to product, each containing multiple Sprints, new stakeholders may appear. While the Scrum Product Owner® (SPO) remains largely responsible for the relationship between the stakeholders and the Scrum Development Team, the SPO also encourages direct communications, rather than isolating or protecting either group.

Interviewing and asking questions drive the ordering of product features. Therefore, the SPO remains vigilant about developing optimal questions, sequencing them, and listening to responses. Some of the product features contained within an Ordered Product Backlog[1] derive from interviews, rather than formal Scrum facilitation events, meetings, or ceremonies.

When You Facilitate Scrum Events — Here Are The Core Scrum Facilitation Skills

Facilitative skills fortify the Scrum Master® and SPO including:

Likewise, the entire Scrum Team (including the Scrum Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Scrum Development Team), operates more independently when using core facilitation skills. Arguably, we all remain more effective in embracing a servant-leader approach, even in our private lives.

How to Facilitate Scrum Events and Activities Requiring Scrum Facilitation[2]

Scrum Facilitation

Scrum Facilitation

Scrum Facilitation — Sprint Null[3]

Product Release

The launch of the Scrum team is typically driven when building a new product (software, hardware, or service). Throughout the following, as the words Product Backlog are used, they could refer to an intangible product or service. (Additionally, when certain words are capitalized, it’s because they are capitalized in the Scrum Guide or because they refer to an MGRUSH tool.)

Some refer to a product release project as an epic, a big chunk of work. An epic breaks into multiple themes, or features. Each theme or feature constitutes requirements or stories. Detailed story ‘slices’ may be called user stories or requirements.

The Scrum Guide does not use the terms ‘epic,’ ‘theme,’ ‘feature,’ or ‘story,’ and we strive to avoid relying on these terms as well. Since Mike Cohn, Kenneth Rubin, and others have used these or similar terms, we rely on you to adapt the Scrum framework and our ‘plain vanilla’ facilitation to guide you.

To launch into a series of Sprints, we need to establish the product vision (or goal) and some of the objectives and reasons for justifying investment. The product vision establishes a baseline for moving forward.

Project charters could resemble anything from over thirty pages to a Six Sigma® charter that fits on a single page. We remain methodologically agnostic but suggest that all frameworks have one thing in common, a statement of purpose.

Purpose of the Organization

First, we need to understand the reason for the existence of the sponsoring group, the customer, or the primary stakeholder. While components like mission, values, measures, etc., may be found, you can also substitute our Purpose Tool to build a quick and consensual understanding of the general intent of the organization driving the product.

Purpose of the Product

Next, at a minimum, we need to establish the purpose of the product (frequently referred to as a project). Again, while teams may build an opportunity statement, situation analysis, etc., we can roll up the primary reasons for any product with the Purpose Tool. 

In addition to frequent one-on-one and one-on-few sessions, along with ongoing Backlog Refinement, the Scrum framework requires four formal Scrum events for inspection and adaptation during each Sprint. They include:

  1. Sprint Planning
  2. Daily Scrum

    • Development work (including Product Backlog Refinement) technically an activity, not an event—typically more than one Refinement activity per Sprint

  1. Sprint Review
  2. Sprint Retrospective

As a coach, impediment remover, and generally serving as a neutral party, the Scrum Master remains well suited for facilitating Sprint Planning and Sprint Reviews. Occasionally, an outside Scrum Master facilitates the Sprint Retrospective so that the participating Scrum Master may contribute as a participant.

Suggested Scrum Event Durations per Sprint (maximum)

Based on a maximum four-week Sprint, the table shows the maximum allocated time for each Scrum facilitation event or activity:

A Scrum Master should project up to eight hours of Scrum facilitation per week. Allowing a standard ratio of 2:1 for thorough preparation, a Scrum Master could be directly involved in Scrum facilitation sixty percent of their time.

While many Scrum Certification programs explain the event details, few provide extra training on the facilitation skills required. While many, if not most, of our blogs provide insight into the servant skills of facilitators, our online and in-person training yields greater insight. Next, you will find helpful Scrum facilitation event agendas, inputs required, and comments about the facilitation challenges required to lead them effectively.

Sprint Duration

Sprint Duration

Scrum Facilitation — SPRINT PLANNING

Purpose

The entire Scrum Team conducts Sprint Planning to determine WHAT can get done over the next Sprint and HOW they will do it (high-level). Strictly time-boxed to eight hours duration for a four-week sprint and sized down according to the length of shorter sprints. The purpose is to identify WHAT will get done over the next Sprint and an approximation of HOW (high-level tasking) it will be completed. Specifically, Sprint Planning answers: 

  • What Increments can be delivered during the upcoming Sprint? 
  • How will the work be completed? 

Required Inputs

  • Product Backlog items (ordered by SPO)[4]
  • Pre-identified potentially shippable product Increment (PSPI)[5]
  • Development Team capacity (during the Sprint)
  • Metrics, especially velocity 
  • Identified Sprint Retrospective action (Kaizen)
  • Draft of Sprint goal from prior Sprint Review and current Sprint goal of the SPO

Deliverable

The Sprint Goal and the Sprint Backlog that upon customer acceptance will yield the Sprint Increment, updated Product Backlog with Kaizen. Optionally, an updated Product Vision and Scope.

Sprint Planning Agenda and How to Facilitate[6]

Sprint Planning Agenda

Sprint Planning Agenda

Scrum Facilitation — PRINCIPLES OF A DAILY SCRUM

Purpose

There are good meetings and there are long meetings but there are not many good, long meetings. The Scrum framework encourages the Developers to conduct a Daily Scrum (frequently a stand-up meeting). Other stakeholders (in addition to the Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Developers), may observe and occasionally, the Scrum Master may be invited in as a facilitator.

Strictly time-boxed to fifteen minutes duration, the Daily Scrum may also be referred to as a roll call (usually morning) or a daily huddle. To amplify team cadence, conduct the Daily Scrum in the same place and time every day.

The purpose allows for inspection and adaptation that helps synchronize the Developer’s plan and activities over the next 24 hours as well as identify impediments for which the team requires outside support.

“Every day, the Developers should understand how it intends to work together as a self-organizing team to accomplish the Sprint Goal and create the anticipated Increment by the end of the Sprint.” 

Required Inputs

  • Sprint Goal
  • Sprint Backlog
  • Burn-down chart
  • Impediment list

Three Questions Was Changed with Scrum Guide 2000

Because Kanban boards display what has been completed, the 3-questions approach has been modified to focus on impediments or blockers that may be getting in the way  

“The Scrum Master ensures that the Developers have the meeting, but the Developers are responsible for conducting the Daily Scrum. The Scrum Master teaches the Developers to keep the Daily Scrum within the 15-minute time-box. The Daily Scrum is an internal meeting for the Developers. If others are present, the Scrum Master ensures that they do not disrupt the meeting.”  

Pre-2020 Three-Question Approach

Approximating the format of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, modify three questions to meet your needs:

1. What did I do yesterday that helped the Development Team meet the Sprint Goal? (or, What did I accomplish yesterday)?

2. Next, what will I do today to help the Development Team meet the Sprint Goal? (or, What will I accomplish today)?

3. Finally, what impediments prevent me or the Development Team from meeting the Sprint Goal? (or, What obstacles are impeding my ability to get done)?

Motivational Version

1. What did you do to change the world yesterday?
(or, What did you accomplish since the last Daily Scrum)?

2. How are you going to crush it today?
(or, What are you working on until the next Daily Scrum)?

3. How you are going to blast through any obstacles unfortunate enough to be standing in your way?
(or, What’s getting in your way, keeping you from doing your job)?

Outputs

  • Socialized plans over the next 24 hours
  • Impediments and blockers identified

Comments

Standing, rather than sitting, ensures that meetings remain brief and discourages wasted time.

The Daily Scrum does not provide the time and place to solve problems. Rather, the Daily Scrum makes the team aware of its current status. If further discussion is needed, a longer meeting with appropriate parties can be arranged or conducted after the Daily Scrum with only the necessary participants. Topics that require additional discussion should always be deferred until every team member has reported.

Remember to have members focus on WHAT they are doing. Discussions about WHY they are doing it should be deferred to a planning meeting. Discussions about HOW they are doing it should be deferred to a design meeting or technical discussion.

Take an MGRUSH Certified Structured Facilitation class to learn WHAT the difference is and HOW to explain it.

Scrum Facilitation — PRODUCT BACKLOG REFINEMENT(S)

Purpose

Product Backlog refinement occurs as necessary and fortifies the product Increment expected over the concurrent Sprint. The Scrum Development Team meets independently. Others may observe or be invited for input. The Scrum Master stands alert to help remove identified impediments. On occasion, they may be asked to facilitate.

Deliverable

Updated Sprint Backlog and story tasking, along with potential impediments to be noted.

Considerations

Sprint Refinement

Sprint Refinement

 

How to Facilitate Scrum Events

Kanban Supports Scrum Events

Scrum Facilitation — SPRINT REVIEW

Purpose

The Sprint Review provides an inspection and adaptation checkpoint for the potentially shippable product Increment built over the prior Sprint and includes the Scrum Team and stakeholders. Because stakeholders attend, consider a dry-run rehearsal before the formal session begins. Strictly time-boxed to four hours duration for a four-week sprint and sized down according to the length of shorter sprints.

Required Inputs

Some of the information that should be brought in or visually displayed include:

  • Potentially shippable product Increments (PSPI)
  • Ordered Sprint Product Backlog
  • Metrics such as Velocity and Burn Down chart
  • Sprint Goal
  • Release plan including product and/ or release scope and vision (goal) and technical road map (as applicable)

Deliverable

An updated Product Backlog (and optionally updated Product scope and vision).

How to Facilitate

The next table shows you HOW TO facilitate a Sprint Review. There is more than one right answer and more than one right tool per step. 

However, there is a wrong answer too. That is if you don’t know how you are going to facilitate the session before it begins. Make sure as the session leader, you know what “DONE” looks like.

Sprint Review

Sprint Review

Scrum Team Tools

Some other tools that a Scrum Team might consider based on the suggestions and experience of the Scrum Master include:

Scrum Facilitation — SPRINT RETROSPECTIVE

Purpose

Here the Scrum Team inspects and adapts to impediments around the team’s efforts and results over the prior Sprint. Also, planning robust Sprint Retrospective activities helps the team get better while preventing boredom. Strictly time-boxed to three hours duration for a four-week sprint and sized downward according to the length of shorter sprints.

Arguably the most important meeting of all, intended to ensure continuous improvement, experts recommend three hours of preparation for a ninety-minute Sprint Retrospective.

Required Inputs

  • Last Sprint Retrospective action
  • Metrics (especially burn-up and burn-down velocities)
  • Definition of DONE (for each Increment or theme)
  • Process standards and practices (i.e., internal framework)
  • Impediment list

Deliverable

An improvement plan with an identified focus on one action to improve over the next Sprint (Kaizen).

How to Facilitate

The next table shows you HOW TO facilitate a Sprint Retrospective. Keep in mind there is more than one right answer and more than one right tool per step.

However, there is a wrong answer too. That is if you don’t know how you are going to facilitate the session before it begins. Make sure as the session leader, you know what “DONE” looks like.

Sprint Retrospective

Sprint Retrospective

Other Creative Tools

  1. Amazon Review
  2. Five Why’s or Quick RCA (Root Cause Analysis)
  3. Lean Coffee
  4. Mad/ Glad/ Sad (Stop/ Start/ Continue)
  5. Participant Prioritization (using various tools over the life-cycle of the project)
  6. Post-it Note Affinity Diagram
  7. Remember the Future (Temporal Shift)
  8. Starfish
  9. Speedboat/ Sailboat
  10. Three Words

Scrum Facilitation in Conclusion

Finally, please remember that the Voting Method of prioritization does not generate higher quality decisions, only a bigger number. Consider some of the optional tools offered by MGRUSH as solid options for both prioritizing and conducting many of the activities found during your Scrum Sprint events.

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[1] The Scrum Guide was modified in 2011 and 2020. The Product Backlog became “ordered,” instead of “prioritized,” providing flexibility to the Product Owner to optimize value in his or her unique circumstances.

[2] ©2017 Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland. Offered for license under the Attribution Share-Alike license of Creative Commons, accessible at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode and also described in summary form at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. By utilizing this Scrum Guide, you acknowledge and agree that you have read and agree to be bound by the terms of the Attribution Share-Alike license of Creative Commons. 

[3] For empirical reasons to avoid the expression “Sprint 0 (zero)” see: Why using Sprint 0 is a cardinal sin for all Scrum Masters

[4] Depending on the level of resolution or specificity, items could be broad (epic), moderate (theme), narrow (story), or ready (story slice) …

[5] An increment is a body of inspectable, done work that supports empiricism at the end of the Sprint. The increment is a step toward a vision or goal. The increment must be in useable condition regardless of whether the Product Owner decides to release it.

[6] For a nice primer and overview of “How to Run An Agile Sprint Planning Meeting” see “How To Run A Sprint Planning Meeting Like A Boss (+ Meeting Agenda)” by Alexa Huston of the Digital Project Manager.

[7] PTO reflects Paid Time Off or other planned or surprise reasons for absences.

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Don’t ruin your career by hosting bad meetings. Sign up for a workshop or send this to someone who should. MGRUSH workshops focus on meeting design and practice. Each person practices tools, methods, and activities daily during the week. Therefore, while some call this immersion, we call it the road to building high-value facilitation skills.

Our workshops also provide a superb way to earn up to 40 SEUs from the Scrum Alliance, 40 CDUs from IIBA, 40 Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) based on Federal Acquisition Certification Continuous Professional Learning Requirements using Training and Education activities, 40 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from SAVE International, as well as 4.0 CEUs for other professions. (See workshop and Reference Manual descriptions for details.)

Want a free 10-minute break timer? Sign up for our once-monthly newsletter HERE and receive a free timer along with four other of our favorite facilitation tools.

Go to the Facilitation Training Store to access proven, in-house resources, including fully annotated agendas, break timers, and templates. Finally, take a few seconds to buy us a cup of coffee and please SHARE with others.

In conclusion, we dare you to embrace the will, wisdom, and activities that amplify a facilitative leader. #facilitationtraining #MEETING DESIGN

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