We started this Scrum foundation series explaining we see four underlying concepts of the Scrum framework. In the past series of mails we covered the three pillars of Empiricism.
You might have felt that implementing an empirical approach is not easy. And one of the main reasons, if not the main reason, is trust.
Without trust, people will not be transparent enough, leading to blurred results during inspection, and resulting in adaptations that are not the most valuable.
And this is where the Scrum Values come into play.
👉 The more people become proficient in living the Scrum values, the more successful the use of Scrum will be.
When the Scrum Values are embodied by the Scrum Team and the people they work with, the empirical Scrum pillars come to life, building trust.
Reminder: the Scrum Values are Commitment, Focus, Openness, Respect, and Courage.
Let’s take Sprint Planning to start with.
- Commit to achieve the Sprint Planning’s expected outcome: lay out the work to be performed during the Sprint.
- Have the Courage to have a Sprint Backlog only for the first coming days in the Sprint and find out the remainder during the Sprint itself.
- Focus on understanding the Sprint Goal, selecting related Product Backlog Items, and how to implement these through a collaborative effort.
- By having the Openness to put challenges on the table.
- Respect the insights of each Team member to come to an as realistic plan as possible.
These are only one example of how each Scrum Value could be lived during Sprint Planning.
Summary:
The Scrum Values are a guide for the Scrum Team how to behave during Sprint Planning.
The more the team becomes skilled in living the Scrum Values, the better the outcome of your Sprint Planning will be.
Prompt
Together with your Scrum Team, evaluate how the Scrum Values are lived during Sprint Planning.
How do you see that the values of Commitment, Courage, Focus, Openness and Respect are lived? What can you do to make the Scrum Team live these even better during Sprint Planning?
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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