4.2 Sprints

Using sprints: short timeframe (ideally 2-4 weeks) of work packages (Plan, Do, Check, Act)

• Each Sprint is a commitment for the Agile team to fulfil top priority backlog items negotiated by the team and the Product Owner – negotiation done on the Sprint planning meeting, committed stories are added to the Sprint backlog

At the end of each sprints:

• Work portion (Product Increment) shipped – handed over to the Product owner. A to-be-assessed, standalone piece of working software, checked by the Product Owner

  • Not necessarily pushed to end user

  • Not necessarily a “full set of functionality”; e.g. in a game, main menu is delivered after Sprint 1 but the game is not playable (yet in current Sprint) when clicking on Start.

• “Retrospective meetings” to check for flaws and enhance processes; the basis for continuous improvement

Major rule of Sprints

• No work (stories) can be added, removed or changed throughout a Sprint (hard to meet in real life projects)

  • If necessary the Team can collaborate with the PO to trade some stories to an other, but this results in a “recommitment”