Action Items

5 minutes 5 Questions

Action Items are key outcomes from the retrospective meeting. These are tasks or actions which the team agrees on to implement in the following sprint with an aim to enhance their performance. They are based on learnings from the retrospective, which can be about any aspect of the sprint, such as what went well, what could be improved, and any changes that need to be made. Teams take responsibility for these items and put efforts towards their implementation.

Guide to Scrum Retrospectives: Action Items

Action Items are significant in Scrum Retrospectives as they denote tasks that need effort for resolution in future sprints.
The concept of Action Items arises from Scrum Retrospectives, a meeting held at the end of every sprint to inspect the whole process and to adopt measures to improve upon the issues/recurring problems.
Why it is important? Action Items are vital because they aim at improving team efficiency and overall project output by addressing the identified issues.
How it works? During Retrospective meetings, once the team identifies the problems, they brainstorm on possible solutions. These steps to resolution become the Action Items which are assigned to team members for resolution in the next sprints.
Exam Tips: Answering Questions on Action Items
1. Understand the crucial role of Action Items in continuous improvement.
2. Always link the Action Items to specific problems identified.
3. Identify who is responsible for each Action Item.
4. Know how the Action Items are prioritized based on their impact on the team's productivity and the project outcome.
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PSM I - Action Items Example Questions

Test your knowledge of Action Items

Question 1

The Scrum Master notices the development team frequently encountering similar problems causing returning action items. What should the Scrum Master do?

Correct Answer: Organize a session to prioritize and break down the repeated action items into manageable tasks.

The correct answer focuses on a practical and collaborative approach to address and manage repeating issues, which aligns with Scrum principles of self-organization and continuous improvement. The first wrong answer suggests a tactic that could lead to additional meetings without necessarily resolving the root cause of the problems. The second wrong answer diverts significant time from delivering value toward addressing issues, which may not be efficient or feasible. The third wrong answer, while being a structured approach, might add overhead and delay the resolution process due to its complexity and extended documentation, diverging from the agile principle of simplicity.

Question 2

After a challenging sprint, some action items are too complex to be addressed in the next sprint. What should the Scrum Master propose?

Correct Answer: Break down the complex action items into smaller, manageable tasks

In Scrum, when action items are too complex, the best approach is to break these items down into smaller, more manageable tasks that can fit into a sprint. This maintains the momentum of the team and ensures progress. Simply prioritizing complex items without breaking them down can lead to overload and inefficiency. Focusing only on simpler items can result in important issues being ignored, while creating a special task force goes against the Scrum value of the team managing its own work and undermines the cross-functional, self-organizing nature of the team. The goal is to empower the team to address challenges within its framework by adapting their backlog and sprint tasks to meet those challenges.

Question 3

As a Scrum Master, you observe that during the Daily Scrum, the team is frequently bringing up action items that were not addressed in the previous sprint. What would be the best course of action in this situation?

Correct Answer: Facilitate a discussion with the team during the Sprint Retrospective to understand why items are not being addressed and brainstorm solutions.

The best answer is 'Facilitate a discussion with the team during the Sprint Retrospective to understand why items are not being addressed and brainstorm solutions.' This is because the Scrum Master's role is to facilitate and support the team, not to micromanage. They should enable open communication and help the team to solve their own problems. The Sprint Retrospective is the correct forum for this discussion as it is a meeting that happens after each Sprint designed for the team to reflect on the past Sprint and come up with actions to improve. The other options are not ideal; micromanaging would go against the principle of self-organizing teams in Scrum, ignoring the problem would not help in improving the situation, and addressing it directly in the Daily Scrum is not the suitable event for this topic, as this meeting is intended for updating the team on daily progress and not for problem-solving or discussions.

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Other Scrum Retrospectives concepts

Continuous ImprovementFacilitation SkillsFeedback LoopsFive Stages of a RetrospectiveFollow-up on Previous RetrospectiveInspect and AdaptKaizenPsychological SafetyRetrospective TechniquesTeam Collaboration
All Scrum Retrospectives questions · PSM I practice test