Topic #3 Burn-down Patterns

User Story: As a Scrum Master or Member of an Agile team I want to understand burn-down patterns So that I can identify, analyze, and make the appropriate adjustments.

Burn-down Pattern #1 If the team is making steady progress If the team is able to devote most of its time to feature work (the members are not multi-tasking with non-feature tasks) Then the team simply has more work to do than can fit in an iteration Although the temptation is to increase the iteration length or the team size, a better solution is to plan for less work during an iteration (recognize that the team’s capacity is smaller than originally thought) Too much work … Incomplete User Stories: Today!

Burn-down Pattern #2 Multi-tasking … Incomplete User Stories: Today! If the team is making steady progress If the team has been able to complete prior iterations with the same amount of work Then the team’s capacity has decreased for this iteration, indicating that the team’s efforts are being diluted with non-feature tasks The solution is to identify the issues then have the Scrum Master work with the Product Owner to remove them

Burn-down Pattern #3 Early Learning … Incomplete User Stories: If the team starts the iteration by regressing but then quickly starts making good progress The cause is very likely that the team learned then applied that learning If it appears that the team will not complete all tasks within the iteration, then the Scrum Master should talk with the Product Owner about the possibility that some tasks will need to be deferred to the next iteration Today!

Burn-down Pattern #4 Unresolved obstacles … Incomplete User Stories: Today! If the team is making steady progress then flattens out The cause is unresolved obstacles The only solution is for the team to identify the obstacles then have the Scrum Master work with the Product Owner to remove them If the obstacles cannot be removed, then the iteration may need to be cancelled

Burn-down Pattern #5 Scope Creep … Incomplete User Stories: Today! If the team is making steady progress, then regresses The cause is likely scope creep – new tasks are being added to the iteration Because any changes to an iteration are forbidden, this is a major violation of the Agile ethos The solution is for the Scrum Master to enforce the process and work with the Product Owner to prevent this from happening in future iterations (which may require both education and involvement of upper management)

Ponder: Take 15 minutes to reflect on the following questions and statements What additional steps can be taken in response to each of the five burn- down patterns displayed in the previous slides? Brainstorm some answers, then discuss what, if anything, a team can do to prevent these patterns from occurring. (The previous slides already discuss what to do in response to these patterns.) What burn-down patterns are most likely to occur for newly formed teams? What burn-down patterns are most likely to occur for teams that are new to Agile?

Take a Quiz Click on the following link to take a quiz on burn-down patterns Burn-down Patterns Quiz