Agile Project Management For Dummies by Mark C. Layton

Author:Mark C. Layton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2012-04-04T16:00:00+00:00

Figure 9-6: User story verification.

Finally, the product owner should run through some checks to verify that the user story in question meets the definition of done. When a user story meets the definition of done, the product owner updates the task board by moving the user story from the Accept column to the Done column.

While the product owner and the development team are working together to create shippable functionality for the product, the scrum master helps the scrum team to identify and clear roadblocks that appear along the way.

Identifying roadblocks

It’s a major part of the scrum master’s role to manage and help resolve roadblocks that the team identifies. Roadblocks are anything that thwarts a team member from working to full capacity.

While the daily scrum is the best place for the development team to identify roadblocks, the development team may come to the scrum master with issues throughout the day.

Examples of roadblocks could be

Local, tactical issues like

• A manager trying to pull away a team member to work on a “priority” sales report.

• The development team needs additional hardware or software to facilitate progress.

• A development team member doesn’t understand a user story and says the product owner isn’t available to help.

Organizational impediments, such as

• An overall resistance to agile techniques, especially when the company established and maintained prior processes at significant cost.

• Managers might not be in touch with the work on the ground. Technologies, development practices, and project management practices are always progressing.

• External departments may not be familiar with scrum needs and pace of development when using agile techniques.

• The organization can enforce policies that don’t make sense for agile project teams. Centralized tools, budget restrictions, and standardized processes that don’t align with agile processes can all cause issues for agile teams.

The most important trait a scrum master can have is organizational clout. Organizational clout gives the scrum master the ability to have difficult conversations and make the small and large changes necessary for the scrum team to be successful.

Beyond the primary focus of creating shippable functionality, other things happen during the day on an agile project. Many of these tasks fall to the scrum master.

Table 9-1 shows potential roadblocks and the action that the scrum master can take to remove the impediments.

Table 9-1 Common Roadblocks and Solutions

Roadblock

Action

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