Scrum is founded on empirical process control, and transparency is one of the three pillars.
Each of the Scrum Roles exist to also raise transparency to the other Scrum Team members and the product's stakeholders. If you feel that there is a lack of transparency for any aspect of your initiative, check who is best placed to bring the needed clarity.
Note: transparency is way more than bringing “visibility”. It is about reaching ”a common understanding”.
Let’s take the Developers.
Bring common understanding about what?
- What are the completed Product Backlog Items? “Done” means what with regard to the quality level?
Your Developers should be perfectly able to explain what it means when they say they are Done. For example the types of tests and validations they did, who has approved their work in case it needed to be someone outside the Scrum Team (I had legal in some instances), which documentation is available (I would expect user and service manuals in quite some cases), which standards are adhered to, etc.
- What process improvement will we address during this Sprint? Which ones have we addressed? How did these adaptations impact our work?
- What work remains for the Done Increment and the Sprint goal? This is something to be answered during the Sprint itself so that the Developers are able to see how they are progressing. And what is the likelihood of achieving this goal by the end of the Sprint?
- What are the impediments on their road towards the Sprint Goal and the Done Increment, and what help do they need to remove these?
- ...
Bring common understanding to whom?
To the entire Scrum Team and the stakeholders
Summary:
Your Developers are expected to bring a common understanding about the current state of their work towards the Sprint Goal and the Done Increment, about their ways of working, and about their impediments.
Prompt: With your entire team, have a conversation about what additional transparency would help you to improve. And see where the Developers can support this.
Prompt:
Have a conversation with your team about
- What does Transparency mean to you and your team?
- And how can the Developers raise Transparency? How can you improve on this?
I hope you find value in these short posts and if you are looking for more clarifications, feel free to take contact.
If you want to take a deeper dive into the core concepts we are covering in this blog series, then surely check out our Professional Scrum MasterY workshop. We have some scheduled in the coming period.
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