Als ich ungefähr 12 Jahre alt war, schenkte mir mein Onkel ein kleines Büchlein in altdeutscher Schrift, das "Aus dem Schatzkästlein des Rheinischen Hausfreunds" hieß. Das Buch enthielt eine Reihe von amüsanten, interessanten und lehrreichen Geschichten, voller Weisheit und Lebenskenntnis. Dieses Buch habe ich immer noch in meinem Regal stehen. Inzwischen ist es teilweise schon auseinander gefallen, vielleicht fehlen auch ein paar Seiten, aber ich schaue ab und zu mal wieder rein, um mich an den kürzeren und längeren Ausführungen zu erfreuen.

Vor kurzem ist uns aufgefallen, dass in unserer Beratungs- und Schulungspraxis auch immer wieder solche kleinen Geschichten entstehen. Manchmal stellt uns ein Kursteilnehmer eine Frage im oder nach dem Kurs, manchmal stellen wir fest, das bestimmte Probleme und Konstellationen immer wieder auftauchen.

Im Sinne dieses "Schatzkästleins" eröffnen wir heute diese Sektion "Frag DasScrumTeam". Wir möchten Ihnen eine spannende, amüsante und lehrreiche Lektüre bieten, die über die üblichen "Frequently Asked Questions" hinausgeht. Dabei sind wir natürlich auf Ihre Fragen gespannt. Fragen Sie DasScrumTeam - ob Sie die Frage und Antwort veröffentlicht sehen wollen, können Sie auch später noch entscheiden. Unsere Scrum-Trainer und Coaches finden eine Antwort - und führen die Geschichtensammlung fort.

Integrating Business Functions into Scrum

Submitted by Andreas Schliep on 05/12/2015

"I manage a team of business project managers who are responsible for all non-IT aspects of a project. If we move to Scrum, how does marketing / communication / training / legal / compliance / transition and hand-off/etc., etc. to operations align with the Scrum process? Meaning, the software is only a portion of what needs to be accomplished to "launch" something. I am in a very complex business in which the contribution of up to 20 functional is required to "launch" something. All I see is the actual Scrum process but not how it integrates with the other functions to get something to market. Any insight you can provide would be greatly appreciated."

Handling Dependent Tasks across Sprints

Submitted by Andreas Schliep on 12/29/2014

"How can we handle tasks which are related to each other but belong to different Sprints? For an example of a game. Suppose we planned to design a Weapon System in Sprint 2. Like Weapon index, bullet and other weapons settings. After a few Sprints we add a Weapon Upgrade system which may come in Sprint 6. Now when we implement this update system, we need to make changes to weapon system as well. And so we need to code and test the Weapon system again in Sprint 6. How can we handle this kind of situation?"

How can you work according to Scrum as a company and use external staff? What kind of service contracts would be proper in this case?

Submitted by Yuliya Mijuk on 05/22/2014

"I have recently looked intensely into the subject of Scrum. But the intersection "Scrum and the use of external staff" (especially on service contracts) has left a lot of confusion in me. Even after the most detailed research on the internet, I could not obtain accurate and helpful information. Do you have a tip or information for me, how to work as a company with Scrum and external personnel on service contracts successfully, without disregarding the rules? My question concerns first of all the legislation in Germany (such things as authority to issue directives, prohibition to handle the agency staff as your own etc.) "

Was sagt Scrum zu Releases während des Sprints?

Submitted by Yuliya Mijuk on 05/22/2014

"What does Scrum tell about releases during the Sprint? I mean not only one release at the end of the Sprint but regular releases during the Sprint as soon as one of the features from the Sprint Backlog is done."

How to get away from the in-house suppliers in the project?

Submitted by Yuliya Mijuk on 03/27/2014

"I have no Scrum team yet, but I would like to introduce Scrum on a project I’m currently working on. In our company usually a project has a core team of about 5 people and additionally there are up to 20 so called delegates or suppliers, who fulfill some of the tasks during the project. The competencies are therefore distributed over a very large number of people and the Scrum team would therefore be huge. Working with several Scrum teams would not make sense either, since many of the delegates serve as suppliers on a large number of projects simultaneously. To meet the demand of Scrum that cross-functional teams should have all competencies needed to accomplish the work without depending on others not part of the team, one would have to enable the so-called core to trust themselves more respectively to produce more independently and to use the suppliers less...."

To what extent can you combine Scrum, Kanban and Lean Startup for sales pilot projects?

Submitted by Andreas Schliep on 01/13/2014

"To what extent can you combine the various agile methodologies like Scrum, Kanban and Lean Startup for sales pilot projects? I would be delighted if you could give me some helpful tips or comments in this respect. Optionally, also tips for some literature, magazine articles or brochures."

Which certification course should an IT PM choose?

Submitted by Peter Beck on 01/02/2014

"Which certification course should an IT PM choose?"

You should look at where your main responsibilities and personal priorities lie. A Product Owner bears all the responsibility for the product (which functionalities will be delivered) and for the release planning. A ScrumMaster is responsible for the process. The role definitions should help you to make the decision.

Retrospective for distributed teams, here's how

Submitted by Yuliya Mijuk on 12/16/2013

A good friend of mine asked me recently how we would do a retrospective in a geographically dispersed team that has no chance to come together? He asked if we could recommend any tools for a virtual realisation?

Are there any statistics on the use of Scrum in Germany?

Submitted by Andreas Schliep on 11/28/2013

"For my bachelor thesis I am looking for statistics on the use of Scrum in Germany or worldwide. I'm interested in what large companies are already using Scrum and, if such a statistic exists, how many companies work with Scrum in Germany or worldwide?"

How do agility and fixed price fit together?

Submitted by Peter Beck on 11/11/2013

“Customers want security through a fixed price. Therefore often a product backlog is made and the stories are estimated in advance. But am I still agile then? The estimated stories and the resulting fixed price reveal how many man-days I may need at most and also how many stories have to be processed per sprint.”...

Can you use Scrum outside software development?

Submitted by Andreas Schliep on 09/07/2013

"Since Scrum is usually used in the field of IT and software development it would be interesting to know whether this method would also be suitable for a larger construction project?"

Small development teams or single developers work on several products at the same time. How can you do Scrum in such a situation?

Submitted by Peter Beck on 08/22/2013

"My development team consists of 6 people, almost all of them work in different projects. These projects stand for different systems or I would say products. My problem is that the development teams responsible for one product consist of only one or two persons and thus are actually too small, so we could use Scrum usefully...."

What problems await us in a collaboration between Scrum and waterfall teams? What are the antidotes?

Submitted by Andreas Schliep on 08/20/2013

"I work in a relatively conservative company, and often come to the point that in large projects Scrum teams and waterfall teams need to work together. This gives us many problems with coordination, the "change processes" and the cultures..."

How do I become a Scrum Coach?

Consult and develop teams and organizations

Submitted by Andreas Schliep on 06/21/2013

“I want to become an Agile Coach.” “How do I become Scrum Coach?” “What do I need to learn, to take better care of my team, my organization?”

Several people talked about this topic at the recent Scrum Gathering in Las Vegas. We addressed the question during the Scrum Clinic sessions, between talks and even at dinner. How do I become an Agile - Scrum - Coach? The question occured to us as unusual in the first place. Everybody, who works as an internal or external Scrum - Agile - Coach today, started as a career changer from a different profession. While there are several sound coaching trainings available, it is still quite unclear what one needs to accomplish, to become a specialized consultant for the introduction and improvement of agile principles, processes and practices. 

How can we ensure the development of a good software which is able to evolve and change alongside with short delivery times?

Submitted by Andreas Schliep on 05/21/2013

"As you usually work with User Stories in Scrum and the Product Owner is actually not interested on the technical part of the implementation, you would think that the focus of the implementation is always on the Sprint content and the reusability aspekt is often ignored, especially if it means additional work. How do you see that? How can you develop products with a good architecture which is able to evolve and change if you should deliver shippable products or product parts in short periods of time? ..."

Where is the right place for software architecture discussions in Scrum?

Submitted by Peter Beck on 05/21/2013

"Where is the right place for software architecture discussions in Scrum? Maybe in a backlog refinement meeting?"...

Should the Product Owner participate in Planning Poker?

Submitted by Peter Beck on 04/29/2013

"Regarding Planning Poker, in the material you provided to us, it says "Planning Poker works ... mostly because the people who estimate are those who will do the work." That's all I could find in the documentation about the participants and estimators in the planning poker session. The question at hand is if the Product Owner estimates?..."

Scrum team and third-party suppliers, how do they work together in Scrum?

Submitted by Yuliya Mijuk on 03/27/2013

"Can a Scrum team give parts of the increment they have to deliver in order to third-party suppliers? Should in such a case the third party supplier be part of the Scrum team?

Example: A Scrum team should create e a sales presentation. In the first part oft he Sprint the Scrum team would create the first idea of ??the presentation and then in the second part oft he sprint it would work together with an advertising agency, which would work out the first rough draft of the Scrum team and convert it into a graphically professional presentation. The advertising agency would not be part of the Scrum team and could send no one to the Scrum team, as the person in charge of the advertising agency works for several clients respectively. the presentation should anyway be created by several people in different steps (concept developers, copywriters, graphic artists, etc). It’s hardly possible to make all of them part of the SCRUM team."