Collaboration

Collaboration is a key practice to maintaining alignment and removing impediments. Collaboration is necessary within a team between team members, teams with other teams (inside and outside of the ART ¹), and teams and the ART with stakeholders and customers.

Cadence ² of normalized collaboration sessions helps keep calendars uncluttered and minimizes disruption of focus time to get the work done.

Program

Program Increment

The Program Increment 1 (PI) is a medium term timebox between 8-12 weeks. This gives the program roughly a quarterly timeline to plan and deliver initiatives at the Feature level.

PI Planning

At the beginning of the PI, the Agile Release Train takes time to map and commit to the Features that will be completed in the PI during the PI Planning 2 event. This is an important ceremony that cannot be skimped on. All members of the ART and external stakeholders MUST participate to set the ART up for success in value delivery.

ART Sync

During the PI, as the Agile Teams and ART members are executing to create and deliver value, it is important to align on execution and expose impediments that are impacting the ART. The ART Sync 5 is typically attended by Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Technical Leads, and various Program Stakeholders. The ART Sync is not a ceremony. It is a broad label that encompasses two ceremonies, the PO Sync and the Scrum of Scrums 6. These two ceremonies can be scheduled independently, back-to-back, or even simultaneously. However, the value of these two ceremonies is the ability to communicate progress and surface dependencies and risks. This means that outputs and discoveries from one ceremony are communicated to the other.

System Demo

During the PI, as the Agile Teams and ART members are executing to create and deliver value, it is important to show the actual value (working software) to customers and stakeholders in the System Demo 3. This is the time for the customers and stakeholders to view progress and give feedback.

Inspect & Adapt Workshop

At the end of the PI, the ART must take time to reflect on how it executed and how it can improve. The Inspect & Adapt Workshop 4 brings the entire ART together for a retrospective.

Team

Each Agile Team executes within an ART during a PI. The teams operate on their own work items, collaborating with other teams, as needed.

Iteration

Just as the PI is the timebox for the ART, the Sprint 1, or Iteration, is the timebox for the Agile Team. This is a shorter timebox, as several Iterations will occur in a given PI. Generally, an Iteration length is 2 weeks.

Iteration Planning

At the beginning of the Iteration, the team plans the work to be committed to from the Product Backlog. This is the Daily Scrum 2.

Daily Standup

Just as the ART Sync helps the ART align and expose impediments, the Daily Scrum 3, or Daily Standup, helps the team align and expose impediments. This happens on a daily basis, so the team doesn't fall too far out of alignment and impediments don't remain hidden.

Iteration Review

At the end of the Iteration, the team showcases their completed work. This is a review of the current state of the product. The Iteration Review 4 is a time for the customers and stakeholders to witness the completed work and provide feedback. It's important for team members to demo the actual deliverables - working software or documentation for example - so everyone is in sync and the Product Owner and team members can provide more useful feedback. In a virtual team environment, consider walking through each user story and it's associated deliverables via screen share.

Iteration Retrospective

At the end of the Iteration, the team reflects on how they accomplished their work and how they can improve. This is a review of the current state of the agile process. The Retrospective 5 is a time for the team members to provide feedback on what is working well and not working well in the agile process and create action items that the Scrum Master can track and report on during the following Sprint Retrospective. This is to ensure that changes are being made and the desired outcomes are being realized. If they're not, try something new to address the pain points and revisit it during the next Retrospective. Learn to facilitate a retrospective here

References

1 - Scaled Agile Framework - Agile Release Train https://www.scaledagileframework.com/agile-release-train/

2 - Scaled Agile Framework - Principle #7 Apply Cadence, synchronize with cross-domain planning https://www.scaledagileframework.com/apply-cadence-synchronize-with-cross-domain-planning/