Increase the Visibility of the Work and Progress

5 minutes 5 Questions

The Scrum Master’s role is also to ensure that the work and progress are transparent for everyone involved. This visibility is essential for promoting trust and clarity among all stakeholders, including the team, product owner, and other interested parties. Various tools and practices such as keepi…

Guide: Increase the Visibility of Work and Progress

The concept of Increasing the Visibility of Work and Progress is a critical aspect of Agile and Scrum methodology.

It revolves around keeping every team member updated about the status of tasks, work progress, and the overall project. This concept ensures that everyone in the team is on the same page, thereby reducing confusion and promoting efficiency. Transparency in operations is a key component of Scrum, and this concept serves to underline that.

It can be implemented through several practices, such as maintaining a Scrum board, conducting daily stand-ups or scrum meetings, regularly updating information radiators, and more.

Transparency also allows for an early identification of issues, which can then be promptly dealt with. This not only ensures that all team members are well-informed but also empowers them to share insights and provide solutions, fostering a collaborative environment.

In an exam scenario referring to this concept, you may encounter questions asking you to identify ways to increase visibility or elaborate on its significance in Scrum. Here are a few tips:

1. Understand the concept well: Keep the key points in your mind - transparency, team collaboration, early identification of issues. 2. Use examples: For instance, mentioning a Scrum board as a tool to increase visibility can support your answers. 3. Link it to Agile values: Explain how increasing visibility aligns with Agile principles such as individuals and interactions over processes and tools.

It's crucial to read the questions carefully and answer precisely. Avoid adding unnecessary details that aren't asked for, as this may confuse the examiner.

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PSM I - Increase the Visibility of the Work and Progress Example Questions

Test your knowledge of Increase the Visibility of the Work and Progress

Question 1

The Product Owner frequently complains about being unable to track the team's progress. As a Scrum Master, what could be an effective solution?

Implement a strict reporting protocol where each team member documents hourly activities. Create a detailed Gantt chart outlining all the tasks and their expected completion dates. Organize weekly Product Backlog refinement sessions without involving the Development Team to save their time. Introduce a Cumulative Flow Diagram to help visualize work stages and progress over time.

Correct Answer: Introduce a Cumulative Flow Diagram to help visualize work stages and progress over time.

The Cumulative Flow Diagram is a valuable Agile tool that visualizes the progress and flow of work, showing work in various stages of the development process, helping the Product Owner track progress over time. A Gantt chart, being more traditional and not typically used in Agile environments, does not reflect the iterative and flexible nature of Scrum. Organizing Product Backlog refinement sessions without the Development Team contradicts Scrum principles, as it's vital for the team to be involved in backlog management to ensure transparency and shared understanding of the work. Implementing a strict hourly reporting protocol would be contrary to Agile values, focusing too much on micromanagement and potentially hindering the team's productivity and creativity.

Question 2

The development team's progress is not adequately communicated to the stakeholders, and this lack of transparency is hindering strategic decision-making. As a Scrum Master, what is a better way to increase visibility of the team's work and progress?

Enhance the definition of 'Done' to include a mandatory update to the project documentation and stakeholder briefing for every backlog item completed. Implement a Sprint Review meeting at the end of each Sprint, to provide stakeholders with a demonstration of the work completed. Further, adopt the use of an openly accessible Sprint Burndown Chart to track and display progress visibly throughout the Sprint. Organize a mid-sprint check-in meeting with stakeholders to review the work in progress, offering them a chance to provide feedback earlier in the Sprint cycle. Require the Development Team to maintain a detailed progress log that includes daily updates on each task's status, any obstacles encountered, and estimated time to completion. This log should be shared with stakeholders weekly.

Correct Answer: Implement a Sprint Review meeting at the end of each Sprint, to provide stakeholders with a demonstration of the work completed. Further, adopt the use of an openly accessible Sprint Burndown Chart to track and display progress visibly throughout the Sprint.

The correct answer emphasizes the importance of the Sprint Review as a Scrum ceremony designed for this very purpose, along with utilizing a Sprint Burndown Chart for ongoing transparency. The wrong answers suggest other methods to improve transparency which, while related to project communication, do not align with Scrum practices as effectively as the correct answer. The use of detailed progress logs and mandatory updates to documentation, for example, could introduce unnecessary overhead and detract from the team's focus on delivering working software.

Question 3

Transparency to the management team at the end of the sprint has been a concern due to the lack of visual representations of what has been completed. As a Scrum Master, what do you suggest?

Introduce the use of a Sprint Burndown Chart during the Sprint Review meeting to visually report progress Recommend increasing the frequency of Sprint Reviews to bi-weekly sessions for more detailed progress tracking Propose a transition to using a Gantt chart for sprint tracking to accommodate traditional management preferences Suggest implementing a detailed daily status mail from each team member to the management

Correct Answer: Introduce the use of a Sprint Burndown Chart during the Sprint Review meeting to visually report progress

While introducing a Sprint Burndown Chart during the Sprint Review meeting is a direct and agile method to visually present progress and uphold transparency, the other options misalign with Agile principles or Scrum framework practices. Detailed daily status mails could lead to micromanagement and undermine team autonomy. Gantt charts are not typically used within Agile or Scrum due to their prescriptive nature and lack of flexibility. Increasing the frequency of Sprint Reviews contradicts the Scrum Guide, which suggests Sprint Reviews occur at the end of each Sprint, and not more frequently.

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