Don't Go Breaking My Sprint or Heart

I often say “I love my job”, “I love Product Management,” or “I love this product.” Professing love may seem like a stretch, but the emotional investment in your professional journey is undeniable. I browse LinkedIn and see old teams working on cool advancements and feel a ping of jealousy similar to seeing an ex on Facebook taking a trip to Spain. Your relationship with your company is akin to a romantic partnership, with shared loyalty, growth, and mutual benefits. However, just like any relationship, there can be heartbreak, especially when your Agile practices face resistance from coworkers, the organization, or customers. In particular, it can feel like heartbreak when requests come in and break your sprint.? In this blog, we'll explore three actionable tips to prevent requests from breaking your sprint and keep your sprints intact. Shout out to Jyotiprakash Bhuian for inspiring the topic for this week’s article by asking about how to prevent sprint scope from being broken

3 Strategies to Keep Your Sprint Intact

1. Everything Has A Cost

While Agile methodologies facilitate quick adaptation to new requests, they are not without consequences. Drawing inspiration from the OODA loop used by US pilots, Agile ceremonies, like Scrum, follow a similar loop of Elaboration/Review/Demo, Refinement, Planning, and Standup. Stakeholders often overlook the time spent in the "Orient" and "Decide" phases. To prevent scope changes from breaking your sprint, categorize requests based on urgency and impact. Only allow high-impact, urgent requests to disrupt your sprint, while medium and low-priority tasks can be addressed more strategically.

2. Send Out a Sprint Commitment

After sprint planning, send a clear list of goals to your team. This act of formalizing commitments through email fosters psychological accountability. It provides clarity on what the team aims to accomplish during the sprint. Use the results during retrospectives to refine your planning and commitments for future sprints. While this commitment doesn't have to include specific completion times, it should outline clear goals for the team.

3. Include an Interrupt

If your team frequently faces disruptive requests, consider introducing an "Interrupt" role. This developer focuses on tasks that don't have strict deadlines, such as backlog items, optimizations, spikes, or addressing technical debt. This role acts as a defensive strategy, much like a safety position in American Football defense, preventing requests from breaking the sprint. While some argue that a stable team shouldn't need an Interrupt, real-world software development can be unpredictable. In cases like product launches, having an Interrupt can provide short-term defense against consistent disruptions.

Conclusion

In both love and Agile, maintaining budgets, honoring commitments, and staying flexible is key to success. By understanding the costs associated with scope changes, setting clear sprint commitments, and strategically incorporating an Interrupt, your team can effectively prevent heartbreak and ensure the success of your Agile sprints. After all, a successful sprint is not only good for your product but might just keep your partner's heart from breaking too (bonus!). I am curious to hear your thoughts! How do you ensure smooth sailing in your development sprints? ????

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