Scrum Taskboard - can tasks change?

Question

The company I work with is currently hoping to move from a traditional waterfall to Scrum for development. We are in the process of slowly adopting the practices that we can, without full advancement (we still have a lot to learn before we can completely move around!).

One of the things that we want to implement now, before making a full switch, is the taskbar. We all feel that this is a great tool that can help develop and help these business users break away from “what you are doing.” and "how does this happen?" questions and meetings.

So, with all that said, one thing that I was wondering about is, can tasks on the taskbar change? I know you don’t want to change stories, but what about the tasks in the story? What to do if a new task has arisen or the old task has ceased to be valid? Whether they can be added and / or removed from the middle of the sprint (although we do not use sprints, more like short development cycles).

Thanks!

Answer 1

I know you don’t want to change stories, but what about the tasks in the story? What to do if a new task has arisen or the old task has ceased to be valid? Can they be added and / or removed from the middle of the sprint (...).

Yes, they can. During an iteration, a team usually gathers knowledge and better understands what needs to be done or not. As a result, the team may find that the task does not really matter, that this lag element requires more work than expected, that the initial assessment is incorrect. In such cases, you definitely want to update your Sprint Backlog and Burndown Chart in order to stay true and keep what should be visible: you really want to know if the iteration continues if you can take another element, etc.

So yes, do not hesitate to update, delete, add tasks , as soon as you find that you need to do this. And the sooner the better.

In our team, we use a taskbar inspired by Scrum and XP from tranches from Henrik Kniberg, and we have a special place for “unplanned items”, as shown below:

We like this approach because it easily detects that unplanned objects kill the iteration. And we also “look at” such tasks during a retrospective to see how we can improve our planning meeting, our grades, ways of breaking things up, etc.

Answer 2

Team captures user history, not Tasks

This is not a problem when some tasks change as you run into problems or have better implementation ideas.

In fact, it is very rare that a sprint ends with each task 100% “predicted” with accuracy at a sprint planning meeting.

Answer 3

They can and must change. The board should be updated at least daily.

But Pascal answered this already - I want to make one more point: from the experience of “trying to accept” Agile through small changes will not work. Scrum is a complete structure - I mean that in Scrum (I would say nothing is said) there is very little that can be discarded without harming the process and not encouraging dysfunction or, at least, not allowing dysfunction to continue ( wrote about it ). Walking slowly may be the only way to go in some companies / circumstances, but this has the risk that protracted dysfunctions will explode the change / improvement process before it can achieve its goal and bring benefits.

Answer 4

I already like Pascal, and Andy answers so as not to repeat.

A useful alternative is to create a Kanban Council. Henrik Kniberg also has a good “book” about it, available here: http://blog.crisp.se/henrikkniberg/2009/04/03/1238795520000.html

This allows you to organize your work and be confident in the flexibility of thinking. As Andy said, Scrum is an All-in, if not, you will find that "it does not work."

Answer 5

Why not? Leave space for the team to complete the job as we would like.

Stories are a “contract” between the client, the product owner and the team, so it’s good not to change, add, delete stories without telling them. But tasks are only for the team.

The team must be able to track the efforts as they need to make them visible.

Doubtful is the change of hours that the team made to complete in the sprint, but a good scrum master and an experienced team are able to independently organize this.