Generally, this word can be used for any Agile Practice but, we will focus on the word by using the Scrum Framework for context. From a Scrum point of view we can understand commitment based planning as something that takes place between sprints.
Planning, for an agile team, is actually a commitment that the Team makes. In Scrum, this commitment is based on a negotiation between the Product
Owner and the rest of the Team, where the Product Owner is speaking for all the Stakeholders that are outside the Team.
For more read commitment-Based planning, and the major issues that arise when doing it.
Commitment-Based planning begins with the Product Owner having a collection of Stories sufficient to fill the Sprint. Typically, you would expect up to two or three Sprint’s worth of stories to be available, with a minimum of 1¼ sprint’s worth. See the chapter on Backlog Grooming (xx) for discussion of getting stories ready for planning.
- At the beginning of planning, the Team discusses the overall goals and priorities, and the PO selects a single story to consider (the highest priority). The Team (including the Product Owner) negotiates the “doneness” Agreement for this single story, and the Team (without undue influence from the Product Owner, or consideration of the Story’s size in SPs) commits to this single story. What they are actually committing to is the “doneness” Agreement, which we typically simply refer to as the story’s Agreement.
- The Team may not be able to commit to a story, or might not even be able to agree on “done.” This makes the story in question an epic, by definition, and the Team must decide what to do. Typical choices include committing to an Analysis Story to figure out what to do about the epic, or extracting a smaller story from the epic to do instead (putting the remainder back on the backlog), or skipping the story altogether and moving to the next one.
- After a Story is committed to, the Team (with the PO in the lead) has the option to reprioritize the Story list, and the Team takes the next one to consider. Once again, the Team comes to the “doneness” Agreement and commits to adding the Story to the list of already-committed-to Stories. This process is repeated until the Sprint is “full” and the Sprint Plan is complete.
Summary:
This process is quite simple, but leads to a number of issues that are tightly intertwined.
A useful contrast is Velocity-Based Planning vs. Commitment-Based planning. Generally, Commitment-Based planning is better than Velocity-Based planning for most agile teams.
Choose:
- The PO says go.
- The Teams says they are ready.
- The SM has determined a time box for the sprint.
- The team and PO agree to a time box
- The PO understands and is prepared to talk about the stories
Comment: There are a number of things you should do before you can even begin planning. The most important thing you can do is make sure that your Product Owner is prepared, and understands what the stories are about. Remember that the Product Owner is a role here, so what we’re actually saying is that someone on the Team knows about each story; that is, each story has its own champion (Story Owner) who represents the Stakeholder’s needs/wants to the Team. This may require that the Product Owner (person) coordinates the
- You get past work experience. And calculate the amount of work the team can handle
- Get estimates from the team and double the number they give you to determine work load.
- Meet with each individual and see how much work they can take on. Build a sprint plan from that information. Then gather everyone, show the sprint plan and kickoff the team sprint.
- Use the PO/SM powers to challenge the team to take big bites. Get as much loaded in the sprint as possible. The PO/SM can form a powerful pincer to overcome resistance.
- This is sprint planning. You commit one story at a time. Make sure the team is committing to sharp definitions of done.
Comment: After a Story is committed to, the Team (with the PO in the lead) has the option to reprioritize the Story list, and the Team takes the next one to consider. Once again, the Team comes to the “doneness” Agreement and commits to adding the Story to the list of already-committed-to Stories. This process is repeated until the Sprint is “full” and the Sprint Plan is complete.
Yes, It’s their process why not?- No, explain to them and work through why the retrospective is so important.
- Maybe, if they are no longer a team then why continue with Scrum?
- Only do retrospectives once a quarter and build up a good list of things to change.
- Yes, the process will take care of itself we don’t need to watch it that closely. After all it’s common sense!
Comment: Of things to watch out for and not allow this is high on my list. It boils down to this rule: If the team is not doing a retrospective then they are not doing scrum. The retrospective is where the team takes formal ownership of their process. In these situations I crack shins, and kick knee caps and generally do what is necessary to ensure they continue doing a retrospective. Without that we often see teams fall into “it’s not my fault” because “x” told me to. In some cases “x” is the process that no-one owns, imagine the process that gets created by someone who decides to own it but, does not do it themselves!.
Retrospective is an external constraint that must be demanded of the team. There are many ways to run a good retrospective, ScrumMaster rise to the challenge and support your team.
- We have consumed all the work we said we would in our sprint planning
- All of the work has been completed.
- Both the team and the product owner agree it should end.
- The amount of time specified for the sprint has run out
Comment: Set a time-box and stick to it. Failing to adhere to the time boxes for your sprint is a bad
habit. Without time-boxes we rapidly loose our sense of predictability and the amount of complexity we tackle in each bite drifts upward. Teams become fragmented and loose cohesion. This is a strong rule but, by no means an absolute. Be smart when you vary your timebox and you really need a disciplined experience well formed team to carry this off.
Owner and the rest of the Team, where the Product Owner is speaking for all the Stakeholders that are outside the Team.
