I've used mind maps to do many things, from constructing daily
plans and to-do lists to study and revision to planning a party.
Recently i started to use a mind map to portray a visualisation of
the Sprint Goal.
After a day of sprint planning sometimes the team can sometimes
become immersed in detail and lose sight of the big picture. I like
to conclude the sprint planning by reconvening with the product
owner to collectively declare the sprint goal, bringing the big
picture back into focus. While the sprint goal defined in text can
be concise, it does tend to be a rather dull artifact. And
generating the sprint goal doesn't generate much excitement or
enthusiasm at the end of a long day. Mind mapping is an effective
way of focusing your thoughts to rise above the detail and return
to the big picture. The visual product is a far more interesting
artifact than a statement and it's fun creating it. The conclusion
of sprint planning is a satisfying achievement in itself, but the
fun element of mind mapping as a group seems to recharge everyone
before they go home.
The sprint goal needs to be omnipresent during the sprint. As the
sprint progresses, the team repeatedly assess the remaining work
and evaluate the completed user stories to ensure that, in some
shape or form, the sprint goal is being satisfied. Referring to a
visual representation of the sprint goal rather than reading text
from the planning board or tool, or recalling it from memory is
more effective and more pleasing. Omnipresence is more easy
achieved with a big visible chart so draw the mind map on a
whiteboard.
sprintgoal
Originally uploaded by
sjb140470 .
Saturday, 22 October 2005
Mind mapping the sprint goal for a big visible chart
Posted by Simon Baker - Permalink
2 Comments
So Simon, what would this Goal be in words?
deb
(Deborah Hartmann)
Hi Deb
From memory the goal went something like "Producer can view the play statistics, while live on-air, for the player selected randomly by the telephonist and matched to an existing user profile by telephone number".
I know it reads like a user story (but it's actually 4 weeks of work) and that's a product of my approach to planning:
A vision is produced as part of a charter. This vision is distilled into a release roadmap comprising themes or goals. I like to combine Scrum and Extreme Programming so that a Sprint equates to a 4-week release made up of 4 1-week iterations. Releasing as often as possible is a good thing.
Each sprint goal is evolved over time by working with the product owner. The evolution is as follows: sprint/release themes/goals >> epics >> user stories >> acceptance tests >> code/unit tests.
(See my posts on adaptive planning and Planning with the Horizon of Predictability for more information).