Scrum at Scale: CIPSA Sprint Backlog Vs. Team Sprint Backlog

In one of the recent articles, I wrote the following (summarized):

“A CIPSA Sprint Backlog is a collection of individual Team Sprint Backlogs. The individual teams sprint towards the individual Team Sprint Goals and execute the work items. Simultaneously, the entire CIPSA (Scrum) Team is also sprinting, but towards the CIPSA Sprint Goal!”

You can read the complete article here.

It has detailed explanations with videos, which you should watch to have more clarity. Most important of all, it’s shown with MS Project Agile software in a hands-on manner. The CIPSA Framework is the only framework in the world which demonstrates scaling in a practical, hands-on manner. The upcoming CIPSA certification will be based on this framework. 

CIPSA Team Sprinting Vs Individual Team Sprinting

If you look at the headline of this subsection, I’ve differentiated between the sprinting of the CIPSA Team and Individual Scrum Teams.

Sprinting is done to execute the work items, i.e., tasks in the backlogs. The line items in the CIPSA Sprint Backlog are taken from the Product Backlog. In the CIPSA Sprint Backlog, the items are not broken down into individual tasks. That happens in the Team Sprint Backlog. This distinction is important to understand and it’s depicted in the figure below.   

CIPSA Sprint Backlog Vs. Team Sprint Backlog

Now, let’s see the differences between the CIPSA Sprint Backlog and the Team Sprint Backlog. 

Difference # 1: CIPSA Sprint Backlog comes from the Product Backlog. On the other hand, the Team Sprint Backlog comes from the CIPSA Sprint Backlog.

Difference # 2: CIPSA Sprint Backlog will have the product backlog items. The Team Sprint Backlog will have task line items.

Difference # 3: The “what to do” in the upcoming Sprint is informed by the CIPSA Sprint Backlog, whereas the “how to do” in the upcoming Sprint is informed with the Team Sprint backlog.

Difference # 4: The CIPSA meta-events such as CIPSA Sprint Planning, CIPSA Daily Scrum, CIPSA Sprint Review and CIPSA Sprint Retrospective will be part of the CIPSA Sprint Backlog. 

The Scrum Events such as Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, and Sprint Retrospective will be part of the Team Sprint Backlog.

Difference # 5: The CIPSA Sprint Goal is part of the CIPSA Sprint Backlog, but the Team Sprint Goal will be part of the Team Sprint Backlog. For a Sprint, there is one CIPSA Sprint Goal, but there can be multiple Team Sprint Goals depending on the number of Scrum Teams.

The differences are noted in the below table.

To know more about the roles (accountabilities), artifacts and events/meta-events, you can download the CIPSA Framework Guide. When you go through it, you can find out more differences on your own!

How about the similarities?

The following can be listed:

• Sprint Number: The Team Sprint Backlogs will be with respect to the same Sprint number, e.g., Sprint 7. All individual Scrum Teams will also be sprinting in Sprint 7. The CIPSA Sprint Backlog will also be with respect to the same Sprint number, i.e., Sprint 7. The entire CIPSA Team will also be sprinting in Sprint 7.
• Timeboxing: All the (meta) events of CIPSA Scrum Framework, like the events at the individual Team Scrum framework, will be timeboxed.

Video Explanation: CIPSA Sprint Backlog Vs Team Sprint Backlog

The video below [duration: 05m:56s], explains the diferences between the CIPSA Sprint Backlog and Team Sprint Backlog.  

I believe you’ve gone through the CIPSA Guide. Can you think of any other differences and/or similarities?

Concluding Remarks

I always believed simple things are easy to remember, implement and use. Complex ones get more and more complex and you finally give-up.

CIPSA is a very simple and easy to follow framework, unlike other scaled agile frameworks which come with a lot of theories. It’s also practical and hands-on. 

I hope this article gives you more clarity with respect to the differences between the CIPSA Sprint Backlog and Team Sprint Backlog.

References

[1] Introducing Practical Scaled Agile Framework with CIPSA Certification, by Satya Narayan Dash

[2] New Practical Scaled Agile Framework – The CIPSA Framework Guide, by Satya Narayan Dash and ManagementYogi.com

[3] Scrum at Scale: Managing Multiple Teams and Boards with MS Project Agile, by Satya Narayan Dash, first published by MPUG.com

ManagementYogi’s Hybrid-Agile (CHAMP) Certification: Retrospective Boards in Hybrid-Scrum Projects (2)

In the first part of this article, we saw the following:

• A Retro Board and Out Current Scenario
• Creation of the “isRetro” custom field
• Creation of Retro Board Filter
• Creation of the Retro Board 

In this post, we will visualize the retrospective work items in the boards, associate them with the Sprints as well as manage the retrospective work items. 

Towards the end, we have certain key points to note followed with concluding remarks.

[Part - 1]

Visualizing the Items in the Board

From your current view, switch to the Retro Board. This can be done by going to View tab > Task Views group and then selecting the Retro Board from the custom section. 

This will result in the display of the newly created Retro Board view.

As shown in the above Retro Board view, all the retro items are part of the Backlog column.

• There are other columns such as TODO, DOING and DONE. 
• I’ve customized the existing columns by renaming them.
• % Complete values are also customized. 

Do note that there is no Sheet view related to Retro Board view because we have not created one. As you proceed and use the board, we won’t be needing a sheet view. Hence, this corresponding view need not be created. 

Associate Improvement Items with Sprints

Next, we are going to associate the work items with the upcoming Sprint. This will happen during the Sprint Planning Meeting for Sprint 2. Do note that at this stage, Sprint 1 complete with all its work items. The Sprint Planning Board view at this stage will look as follows.

As you can see in the above figure, all Sprint 1 are completed. Next, as you take the retrospective items for Sprint 2 and associate them with Sprint 2, you will have the following view in the Gantt Chart.  

So, let’s see these items in the Retro Board view, too. But before that, one more twist! We have to customize the Cards to know the Sprints or which Sprint they belong to. This can be done by going to Task Board Tools > Format tab > View group > Format command. It’ll launch the Customize Task Board Cards dialog box as shown below. 

As shown, Sprint is now added as one of the fields, so that we clearly know which items are taken for in which Sprint. 

With the above customization, the Retro Board will now come as shown as below.  

Customizing the cards provides you with a better visualization as you manage and track the items. 

As shown above, now the cards are customized for each retro work item, and they show:

• ID, Names, Durations, Start and Finish dates.
• It also shows the Sprint names.

Manage Retro Work Items 

To manage, you have to simply drag and drop the work items, move them across the workflow states as it happens for other works items in the Hybrid-Scrum project. When a work item reaches the DONE state, then you’ll find a tick mark towards the top right corner of the card. This is shown below.

If you have come this far, then you can quickly create a Retro Board, populate the work items, associate them with the Sprints and track them to completion. 

This can be seen as well in the Hybrid-Scrum project with all the elements, which is shown below.

As you can see in the above figure, for our Hybrid-Scrum project, Sprint 1 is complete and Sprint 2 is currently under execution. For Sprint 2, you are not only completing the feature related work items, but also completing retrospective items. 

Key Points to Note

As we reach the end of this article, here certain key points to note about Retro Board and associated items:

• It can be used in Lean-Agile (Scrum or Kanban), or Hybrid-Agile projects. Hence, don’t have to create a separate project. The created retro board is integrated in.
• Retrospective items are also part of your (Product) Backlog. This we saw in the earlier parts of this article. 
• Your team should take a few items, at most 2 for the next iteration or Sprint. When taken they will be part of the Sprint Backlog. Ensure that they are tracked and completed.
• The retrospective items can be seen in the Current Sprint Board view because they are associated with respective Sprints.
• The retro items can be considered as part of the Burndown Charts and Burnup Charts.  

Demonstration

A demonstration for the Retro Board is shown in the below video [duration: 04m:14s]. 

Conclusion

As the saying goes, simple things are always easy to remember compared to complex things. I believe this is the simplest way to track the retro items in a separate board. 

It also a good idea to track the items in a separate board because the retrospective items are usually neglected by Lean-Agile teams as feature completion fever takes over considering the small iteration duration. However, as I noted in the beginning, retrospective is the most important ceremony among all and to honor it, you need to take and execute the retro work items. 

[Part - 1]

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This article was first published by MPUG.com on 5th March, 2024. This is a refined version.

References

[1] Online Course: ACP Live Lessons – Guaranteed Pass or Your Full Money Back, by Satya Narayan Dash

[2] Certification Course: Certified Hybrid-Agile Master Professional (CHAMP), by Satya Narayan Dash

[3] Scrum and Microsoft Project: Agile Project Management Training, by MPUG.com

[4] Online Course: Mastering MS Project Agile, by Satya Narayan Dash

ManagementYogi’s Hybrid-Agile (CHAMP) Certification: Retrospective Boards in Hybrid-Scrum Projects (1)

Retrospective is an important event in Agile. In fact, I’d say the most important one. This is a meeting where the team finds out what they could have done better and what the improvement items are. Not only that, they will also have an execution plan to take up the improvement items.

At this point, it’s important to note that retrospectives and lessons learned meetings are not same! Retrospective also differs from intraspectives. While lessons learning meetings are conducted to identify and share the lessons learned in a project, phase or iteration to improve, retrospectives, on the other hand, are recurring events in Lean-Agile to explore the work done and improve based on the results. For for Scrum, it is at the end of the Sprint, whereas for Kanban, it’s can be based on cadence. Nevertheless, one can say retrospective is a form of lessons learned meetings.

[Part - 2]

A Retrospective Board

The quickest way to take the retrospective items and implement them is by using the Retrospective Boards. The simplest ones are with the following columns in the board:

• Stop doing, Start doing, Keep doing (or simply StoStaKee)
• Stop, Start, Stay (or SSS, Triple S)
• Same as, More of, Less of (or SAMOLO)

The above concepts are taken from ACP Live Lessons - Guranteed Pass. Let’s take the first one of StoStaKee. A sample board can be shown as below. 

For this article, our focus is on the items which we want to do or execute the improvement items, which are in the “Start Doing” column. 

These items will be taken into our Hybrid-Agile plan, put into the Retrospective Board and be executed. I’d strongly recommend that you check this article of Hybrid-Scrum management, before going deeper into this article.  

Current Scenario: Our Hybrid-Scrum Project

We will take the plan from our earlier Hybrid-Scrum project, where we have multiple Sprints planned along with the predictive/waterfall elements. One of the Sprints is complete and at the end of the Sprint quite a few retrospective items were decided to be taken-up. This is shown in the below figure. 

As shown in the multi-Sprints Scrum Development phase, we have completed Sprint 1. In the next Sprint’s (Sprint 2) planning meeting, the retrospective items that can be executed will be taken-up and planned for.   

Next, let’s proceed with our creation of the Retrospective Board with MS Project Agile software tool. The board will have the retro work items. We will have the following steps.

Create isRetro Custom Field

As shown, first you have to create the isRetro custom field. It’s a Boolean Field.

 

You don’t have to change the:

• Custom attributes
• Calculation for assignment rows
• Values to display

Just keep it simple, though further customization can be done.

Create a Retro Board Filter

Next, we will use the Retro Board Filter, a new custom filter. This can be created by going to View tab > Data group > Filter option > More Filter dialog box. In the opened-up box click on the “New…” command to create a new filter. 

As shown below, the new filter created is Retro Board filter. 

The above filter has the following parameters:

• Show on Board is “Yes” or enabled.
• Summary (Tasks) is “No” or disabled.
• %Work Complete is 100%, i.e., incomplete work items will be shown.
• Active is “Yes”, i.e., only Active tasks will be shown.
• isRetro custom field is enabled for this filter. We have created this custom field before.

Create the Retro Board

Next, we will create the Retro Board, which will internally have the Retro Board filter that we just created. 

To create such a board, go to View tab > Task Views group > Task Board drop down > More Views… command. This will open-up the More Views dialog box, where you can create a new Retro Board using the “New…” command. 

As shown below, we have the Retro Board view available with the Retro Board Filter applied. Don’t forget to apply this filter.  

Ensure to enable the “Show in menu” option, which helps in showing the Board when you quickly need it.

Add the Retrospective Items

As and when retrospectives happen in your Hybrid-Scrum project, you can add the improvement work items into the task items and hence the board. For this purpose, I’ll have another summary task and put all my retrospective items under that summary task.

Now, you may be wondering why not keep these items as parts of the Sprint? You can! But it’s not very effective. Also, you really don’t know which items will be taken in which Sprint. Do you? Rather, the items will be prioritized and then taken. 

As shown below I’ve a summary task Retrospective Items, under which I’ve a number of retrospective work items.  

Also, as you can see in the above figure:

• No Sprint has been associated with the Retro work items.
• The Show on Board field has been enabled.
• The duration is not decided for the work items.

We can’t decide on the work items’ duration as that will happen during the upcoming Sprint’s planning meeting. Also, it’s a good idea and practice not to take more than 3 items for the upcoming Sprint. As I’ve seen, effectively, a Scrum Team can complete at most one or two items for an upcoming short Sprint of 2-week duration. 

Next, we are going to visualize these work items in the newly created Retro Board.

The concluding part of this article is available here.

[Part - 2]

References

[1] Online Course: ACP Live Lessons – Guaranteed Pass or Your Full Money Back, by Satya Narayan Dash

[2] Certification Course: Certified Hybrid-Agile Master Professional (CHAMP), by Satya Narayan Dash

[3] Scrum and Microsoft Project: Agile Project Management Training, by MPUG.com

[4] Online Course: Mastering MS Project Agile, by Satya Narayan Dash