Driving Value with Sprint Goals: Humble Plans, Exceptional Results (Addison-Wesley Signature Series (Cohn))

Leverage Sprint Goals to Supercharge Teamwork and Build Winning Products There are many books on Scrum and how to do Scrum the right way. This isn't one of those books. Driving Value with Sprint Goals will teach you how to deliver exceptional value. To build great products, all teams and participants must align behind clear goals that deliver real value (outcomes)--not just more features (output). Sprint Goals are your most powerful tool for achieving this alignment, but many teams avoid, misuse, or struggle with them. Maarten Dalmijn guides you through defining, creating, and executing on Sprint Goals that deliver outstanding value to customers and the business. This concise guide is packed with strategies and concepts for building high-performing teams that accelerate the delivery of value. As you reconsider critical Scrum and product management processes through the lens of the Sprint Goal, you can transform your entire organization from being low-value "feature factories" to delivering high-value outcomes. • Understand how making plans doesn't start with planning but with intent • Use humble planning together with intent to deal with surprises as you discover and learn what's necessary while you do the work • Establish a laser-like focus on driving the outputs that lead to the most valuable outcomes • Learn how to use Sprint Goals throughout the Sprint, at Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective, and for the ongoing work of building high-performing teams • Learn what happens when Sprint Goals are absent or misapplied, and how to avoid those pitfalls Driving Value with Sprint Goals will reshape the way you think about delivering value by offering a fresh and cohesive perspective invaluable to every Product Owner, Product Manager, Scrum Master, Agile Coach, and tech executive. "Maarten masterfully bridges the gap between Scrum and product management. If you want to create products that truly make a difference, you need to read this book." --Pawel Huryn, Author, Product Coach Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Foreword Foreword Introduction Acknowledgments About the Author Part I: Why Goals Matter Chapter 1: Imperfect Plans, Flawed Execution, and Unpredictable Results Dealing with the “Fog of Beforehand” One Step at a Time Facing the Unknown in Software Development Locked in by Four Digits How Excessive Planning and Preparation Can Lead to Defeat What Can We Learn from the German Army? How the Agile Manifesto Covers Common Anti-Patterns for Dealing with Friction Key Takeaways Chapter 2: More Friction, More Surprises The Cynefin Model: Being Aware of Your Situation Clear Domain: No Friction and No Surprises Complicated Domain: Limited Friction and Few Surprises Complex Domain: High Friction and Frequent Surprises Chaotic Domain: Overbearing Friction and a Constant State of Surprise Confusion: Unknown Amount of Friction and Unknown Amount of Surprises Building Software Products Is Often Complex The More Surprises, The More Humble Our Plans Should Be Complex Work Requires Humble Plans The Planning Cycle of Madness: How We Plan Affects Our Ability to Succeed with Our Plans Key Takeaways Chapter 3: Countering Friction by Leading with Intent The Tragedy of Following the Plan and the Resulting Transformation of the Prussian and German Army Auftragstaktik: Obeying Intent Rather Than Blindly Following Orders Closing the Three Gaps by Leading with Intent Turn the Ship Around: Intent-Based Leadership on a Submarine Key Takeaways Chapter 4: Tales of Opposing Goals Why Do Common Goals Matter? Working Together with Opposing Goals Surviving in Roadmap Hell How Do Common Goals Enable Teamwork? Key Takeaways Part I: Overall Takeaways Part II: Sprint Goals Are the Beating Heart of Scrum Chapter 5: A Featherlight Introduction to Scrum Scrum: Sprinting One Step at a Time The Sprint Contains All Scrum Events Rephrasing the Definition of Scrum in Plain Language Scrum Deals with Friction Through Feedback Loops Done Is Just the Beginning Key Takeaways Chapter 6: The Fundamental Role of Sprint Goals in Scrum The Essence of Scrum: Sprint with a Goal Sprint Goals Are the Leitmotif of Scrum Sprint Goals Keep Scrum’s Heart Beating Scrum Team in a Nutshell What Are the Scrum Artifacts Together with Their Commitments? How Do Product Goals Fit In? How Does Scrum Help with Countering Friction and Dealing with Surprises? Key Takeaways Chapter 7: What Happens When You Don’t Use Sprint Goals? Sprint Loses Its Purpose and the Sprint Backlog Becomes the Goal Following the Plan Becomes More Important Than Meeting the Objective Everything in the Sprint Becomes Equally Important Working Without Sprint Goals Leads to Technical Debt No Control Over What Gets Finished Teams Are Disempowered Without Sprint Goals Key Takeaways Chapter 8: Two Very Different Versions of Scrum Why Do Many People Believe Scrum Isn’t Agile? Anaconda-Style Scrum and Hummingbird-Style Scrum in Practice Key Takeaways Part II Overall Takeaways Part III: Driving Value with Sprint Goals Chapter 9: Creating Sprint Goals What Is a Sprint Goal? Crafting Sprint Goals with the FOCUS Mnemonic Fun: Ensures the Sprint Goal Is Memorable and Will Be Dropped in Conversation Outcome-Oriented: Make Meeting the Objective More Important Than Following the Plan Collaborative: A Product of the Whole Team Ultimate: Why Does What We Want to Achieve Matter? Singular: Encourage Teamwork by Setting a Single Common Objective Key Takeaways Chapter 10: Sprint Goals in Practice at the Scrum Events Why Should You Start Discussing the Sprint Goal at the Sprint Review? Crafting a Sprint Goal During Sprint Planning Why You Shouldn’t Plan Your Sprint at Full Capacity Scenario 1: Planning at Full Capacity Without a Sprint Goal Creating a Sprint Goal Without a Refined Product Backlog The Sprint Goal at the Daily Scrum The Sprint Goal at the Sprint Review The Sprint Goal at the Sprint Retrospective Key Takeaways Chapter 11: More Features, More Value? How Does Our Product Deliver Value? Selling Rocks as Pets The Cookie Store That Was Guaranteed to Fail Value Is Multifaceted and a Matter of Perspective Value Is a Tricky Subject Building a Product Starts with Listening The Three Types of Uncertainty The Cobra Effect: When Exterminating Cobras Causes a Cobra Population Boom Having Outputs Drive the Right Outcomes Meeting Aggressive Timelines Is Often the Biggest Enemy of Delivering Value Focusing on Meeting Specifications Limits You to Beforehand Knowledge Why You Should Stop Obsessing Over Your Velocity All Features Are Innocent of Delivering Value Until Proven Guilty Output Focus: People Don’t Want a Quarter-Inch Drill Key Takeaways Chapter 12: Driving Outcomes with Outputs Having Only Features on Your Product Backlog Is Not Good Enough A Single Metric to Rule Them All? Why Should Your Product Backlog Be Short? Don’t Waste Too Much Time on “A Priori” Prioritization Key Takeaways Chapter 13: Product Vision: A Purposeful Direction for Your Product Dispelling the Mystery of a Product Vision The Lab Mouse Meant for Bigger Things A Block of Wood as a Reminder of Failure The Swiss Aerodynamics Engineer Who Married an Italian Woman Key Takeaways Chapter 14: Product Strategy Strategy Means Striking at Weakness Strategy Is Designing a Way to Deal with a Challenge Key Takeaways Part III Overall Takeaways Part IV: Overcoming Common Sprint Goal Obstacles Chapter 15: Scrum Anti-Patterns That Amplify Friction and Surprises Spikes for Everything: Knowledge Gap Christmas Wish List Backlog: Knowledge Gap Groundhog Day Refinement: Knowledge Gap Eternal Sprint Planning: Knowledge and Alignment Gaps Interruption Planning: Alignment Gap Definition of Ready: Knowledge and Effects Gaps Fixating on Pretty Burn-Down Charts: Knowledge, Alignment, and Effects Gaps Embrace Not Knowing and Act in the Moment Key Takeaways Chapter 16: Dealing with Common Sprint Goal Obstacles Too Many Competing Priorities Impossible to Set a Single Sprint Goal The Sprint Backlog Is the Goal The Sprint Goal as an Afterthought Sprint Goals Tied to the Solution Direction The Product Owner Decides the Sprint Goal Too Many Dependencies on Other Teams The Team Is Scared to Commit to a Sprint Goal Too Much WIP (Work in Progress) Opposing Goals Between Teams Management Love for the Feature Factory OKR-Induced Friction Key Takeaways Chapter 17: From Stakeholder Management to Stakeholder Inclusion Working in a State of Perpetual Displeasure Why Should You Include Your Stakeholders? How Do You Include Your Stakeholders? Dealing with Stakeholders Means Controlling Your Emotions Key Takeaways Chapter 18: Scaling Scrum Without Frameworks Why Your Development Team Structure Might Be Slowing You Down Fix Your Problems: Do Not Expect That from a Scaling Framework Why Do Scaling Issues Happen? What to Do Instead of Defaulting to a Scaling Framework Key Takeaways Chapter 19: Empowering Teams to Discover Better Ways of Delivering Value Making Music Without Making a Sound It All Starts with Addressing Beliefs Trying Things Out Requires Psychological Safety What Does an Empowered Scrum Team Look Like? How Do You Provide Sufficient Direction and Context? Create a Model for How Your Product Delivers Value Discovery, Delivery, and Validation Scrum Is About Discovering Better Ways of Delivering Value Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Leverage Sprint Goals to Supercharge Teamwork and Build Winning Products There are many books on Scrum and how to do Scrum the right way. This isn't one of those books. Driving Value with Sprint Goals will teach you how to deliver exceptional value. To build great products, all teams and participants must align behind clear goals that deliver real value (outcomes)--not just more features (output). Sprint Goals are your most powerful tool for achieving this alignment, but many teams avoid, misuse, or struggle with them. Maarten Dalmijn guides you through defining, creating, and executing on Sprint Goals that deliver outstanding value to customers and the business. This concise guide is packed with strategies and concepts for building high-performing teams that accelerate the delivery of value. As you reconsider critical Scrum and product management processes through the lens of the Sprint Goal, you can transform your entire organization from being low-value'feature factories'to delivering high-value outcomes. Understand how making plans doesn't start with planning but with intent Use humble planning together with intent to deal with surprises as you discover and learn what's necessary while you do the work Establish a laser-like focus on driving the outputs that lead to the most valuable outcomes Learn how to use Sprint Goals throughout the Sprint, at Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective, and for the ongoing work of building high-performing teams Learn what happens when Sprint Goals are absent or misapplied, and how to avoid those pitfalls Driving Value with Sprint Goals will reshape the way you think about delivering value by offering a fresh and cohesive perspective invaluable to every Product Owner, Product Manager, Scrum Master, Agile Coach, and tech executive.'Maarten masterfully bridges the gap between Scrum and product management. If you want to create products that truly make a difference, you need to read this book.'--Pawel Huryn, Author, Product Coach Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details. Leverage Sprint Goals to Supercharge Teamwork and Build Winning Products There are many books on Scrum and how to do Scrum the right way. This isn't one of those books. Driving Value with Sprint Goals will teach you how to deliver exceptional value. To build great products, all teams and participants must align behind clear goals that deliver real value (outcomes)--not just more features (output). Sprint Goals are your most powerful tool for achieving this alignment, but many teams avoid, misuse, or struggle with them. Maarten Dalmijn guides you through defining, creating, and executing on Sprint Goals that deliver outstanding value to customers and the business. This concise guide is packed with strategies and concepts for building high-performing teams that accelerate the delivery of value. As you reconsider critical Scrum and product management processes through the lens of the Sprint Goal, you can transform your entire organization from being low-value "feature factories" to delivering high-value outcomes. Driving Value with Sprint Goals will reshape the way you think about delivering value by offering a fresh and cohesive perspective invaluable to every Product Owner, Product Manager, Scrum Master, Agile Coach, and tech executive. "Maarten masterfully bridges the gap between Scrum and product management. If you want to create products that truly make a difference, you need to read this book." -- Pawel Huryn , Author, Product Coach Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.