Communicate with physical scrum task board
User Story
As a <Scrum Team>
We want to <have an physical information radiator - scrum task board>
So that <all information and communication is around it>
and <anyone can observe the progress>
What is the scrum task board used for?
Many of the scrum events are around the task board - sprint planning meeting, daily scrum, and product backlog refinement. The task board also provide inputs to other events like retrospective - what went well this sprint, and for sprint review - demonstrate what was done and communicate any challenges faced.
How is the scrum task board used for to achieve this goals?
At high-level scrum task board can be divided into two areas - sprint progress area and product backlog area.
Sprint progress area
Sprint progress area is primary area where all activities during the sprint happens. The area is divided into 4 columns - Stories, To Do, In Progress, Done. There is one row for each story.
Columns
Stories column contains the list of story index card arranged in order of priority. To-Do column contains break-down of the tasks for completing the story. The tasks should be of 1 Day or smaller. During the stand-up team member pick the task to be worked and moves it to ‘In Progress’. You can annotate the task with initials with the member working on the task. Any previous day’s task that are completed are moved to ‘Done’. For any reason if the task in progress cannot be moved to ‘Done’ should be annotated for example ‘B’ for blocked.
Some of the teams have BAU (business as usual) responsibility, having a separate column for tracking the new issues raised. This helps to visualize the activities. Use annotations to depict the status of the work. The column can be further broken into sections - open, triage (under investigation), closed.
Rows
Stories are arranged in order of business value and priority with one row per story. The top row is the story with highest priority. It is the one story that needs to be done for the sprint to be successful. For everyone in the team the goal is to ensure this story succeeds. After the first story it is the next story in the priority of business value and so on. This way the team knows and are focussed on the team goal. The idea is not that everyone in the teams works on the top priority story. But make conscious decision on working or helping with the team’s top priority.
It is good idea to have a one row on the top for the unplanned tasks. These are tasks which were not planned for the sprint need attention during the sprint. This could some urgent fixes that needs to be done or an bug found part of previous sprint deliverable. All the activities of the team need to visible and be tracked. This provides team with insight into what areas need attention and help team improve the process. At times the team might require to work on unplanned story. This row is not for unplanned stories. In such cases, the product owner moves another story out of the sprint.
Visualization
Write the stories on index cards and task using Post-it notes. Annotations can be used to indicate developer, number of days, urgent, nice to have. Use different colour pens to depict various annotations. You can also use small size post-it notes for temporary annotations for e.g. waiting for inputs. Use red sticky dotes on stories which are unlikely to be completed in the sprint. The goal is to communicate the progress and impedance. Care should be taken that the card does not become so busy that it is difficult to read.
Use sharpies for writing and annotations. Write in capital letters. Keep the description short. Idea is to be able to easily and legible to read what is on the board from a distance of 2 meters.
Team can be creative and build their own techniques to visualize the information.
Updating the board
As the team conducts the daily stand-up around the board, team member providing the update should move the previous task from ‘In-Progress’ to ‘Done’. If the task cannot be progressed to done, the member updates the task with annotation to indicate. For items blocked move the item to the edge of the ‘In Progress’. He/she then picks the tasks he/she is going to work on and move it to ‘In Progress’. Team member should first address the team and then move the task. Tasks should be only moved during the stand-up as this provides visual communication to rest of the team.
Product backlog area
Product backlog area is where the product backlog items (PBI) are arranged in their priority order. PBI items at the top have enough details for team to start working on the item in the next sprint. As you go down the order the details on the PBI is reduced to just a headline. It is helpful to have all the product backlog items on the board. There is however constraint based on physical limitations of the size of the board. A technique to manage the PBI is to group the items under epics.
By putting the PBI on the board gives the team the opportunity to frequently refine the product backlog. They can add more information to the item or revise the estimate as they learn from working on the current item. Team members can provide feedback to the product owner as he or she is (re)prioritising the items. This physical interaction with items engages the team and are better prepared for the work when it comes to execution.
In conclusion, scrum task board should be one-stop for all communication for the team. And having physical task board gives the best clue where all communication should happen. The board should be part of the process radiating information and providing subtle clues for improvement.
Shopping list: Board, index cards, large and small Post-it notes, Sharpies, sticky dots.
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Originally published on LinkedIn.