Confessions of a sprint 0

How do we start sprinting effectively? Many Scrum practitioners are familiar with the journey of sprinting and continuous improvement. How we start a new team delivering quality software every iteration is something less recognised.

Here I'll share the lessons learned arranging my first Sprint 0.

I’ll explain how I used this technique to reset an existing team, and what elements to include to help teams eject themselves from the starting blocks of sprint 1 and race to the finish line.

This session is targeted at the following participants:

1. Agile enthusiasts keen to understand what Sprint 0 actually is, and how it fits with sprinting without contravening the manifesto value of responding to change over following a plan.
2. Scrum Masters and Product Owners looking to kick off a new squad, who are unsure how a Sprint 0 can help them build a collective starting point for the team.
3. Any member of a Scrum team who has heard of a Sprint 0, but is unsure what it entails or why it could be useful.
4. Agile Coaches, Product Owners & Scrum Masters looking to reset an existing squad following dynamic changes, who are unsure how a Sprint 0 can help them restart sprinting effectively.

Participant takeaways:

1. An overview of the definition of Sprint 0, their use in agile transformations and the relationship and differences between other sprint types such as delivery and design sprints.
2. Providing possible reasons for wishing to hold and participate in a Sprint 0, comparing those against the speaker’s initial assumptions. Initially I assumed Sprint 0 was an activity for a brand new project, but in this case it provided useful for resetting a struggling team.
3. Advice on what elements are relevant to include within a Sprint 0, based on what elements I both included and missed in this scenario. 
4. Sharing of experiences of running Sprint 0 sessions remotely, and the challenges of juggling existing team commitments and schedules complicated by distributed teams and remote working during the pandemic.
5. Presentation of some key mistakes made during this journey as a set of confessionals to help others partaking in Sprint 0 activities 

This session will be:

• Delivered: Live
• Recorded: Yes

Themes: Scrum, Sprint 0,  Agile Learning, Scrum Mastery