SAFe Scrum Master Study Guide 5.0, Complete Solution 2022/2023

SAFe Scrum Master Study Guide 5.0, Complete Solution 2022/2023 Agile frameworks SAFe Scrum Crystal Kanban eXtreme Programming (XP) Feature-driven development What does a Scrum Master do? - Servant leaders and coaches for an Agile Team. - Help educate team in Scrum, XP, Kanban and SAFe, ensuring the agreed Agile process is being followed. - Help remove impediments and foster an environment for high-performing team dynamics, continuous flow and relentless improvement. - Facilitates team events - Works with RTE to ensure train meets PI objectives - Fosters normalized estimating within the team - Assists the PO in backlog for PI and IP. - Attends scrum of scrum meetings. ART Agile Release Train PO Product Owner Program Increment (PI) Planning A cadence-based, face-to-face event that serves as the heartbeat of the Agile Release Train (ART), aligning all the teams on the ART to a common mission and vision. Innovation and Planning Iteration Occurs every PI and serves multiple purposes. It acts as an estimating buffer for meeting PI objectives, as well as providing dedicated time for innovation, continuing education, and PI planning and Inspect and Adapt (I&A) events. Inspect & Adapt (I&A) A significant event, held at the end of each PI, where the current state of the solution is demonstrated and evaluated by the train. Teams reflect and identify improvement backlog items via a structured, problem-solving workshop Iteration A basic building block of Agile development. Each is a standard, fixed-length timebox, where Agile Teams deliver incremental value in the form of working, tested software and systems. Cycle - Defines, builds, integrates, & test. What is the recommended timebox duration for an Iteration? 2 weeks; however, 1-4 weeks is acceptable, depending on the business context. Who participates in the Inspect & Adapt (I&A) phase? All stakeholders, including: 1. The Agile Teams 2. Release Train Engineer (RTE) 3. System and Solution Architect Engineering 4. Product Management, Business Owners, and others on the Train What results from the I&A phase? Improvement backlog items that go to the Program Backlog for the next PI Planning event 3 parts of I&A PI System Demo Quantitative Measurement Retrospective and Problem-Solving Workshop Purpose of PI System Demo To show all the Features the ART has developed over the course of the PI Leads: PM, PO, System Team Attend: BO, Stakehlders, PM, RTE, SM & Teams PI System Demo Timebox ~1 hr or less What is one primary measurement to be considered in quantitative metrics? Program predictability measure Updated end of inspect & adapt event Retrospective goal To identify whatever issues they would like to address Retrospective objective To identify a few significant problems that the teams can potentially address - What went well, what didn't go well, what can do better next time. PDCA Cycle Plan Do Check Adjust Who facilitates the PI Planning event? Release Train Engineer (RTE) In which iteration does PI Planning take place? Innovation and Planning Iteration __ ________ is essential to SAFe; if you are not doing it, you are not doing SAFe. PI Planning Business Benefits of PI Planning - Establishing face-to-face communication across all team members and stakeholders - Building the social network the ART depends on aligning development to business goals with the business context, vision, and team project PI objectives - Identifying dependencies and fostering cross-team and cross-ART collaboration - Providing the opportunity for "just the right amount of architecture and Lean User Experience (UX) guidance) - Matching demand to capacity, eliminating excess WIP - Fast decision-making PI Planning Inputs Business context Roadmap and vision Top 10 features of the Program Backlog NFRs (Non-functional Requirements) PI Planning Outputs Committed PI objectives (A set of SMART objectives that are created by each team with the business value assigned by the Business Owners) Program board (this highlights the new feature delivery dates, feature dependencies among teams and with other ARTs, and relevant milestones) Plan is the goal 3 Areas of Preparation for a Successful PI Planning Organizational Readiness Content Readiness Facility Readiness Organizational Readiness Strategic alignment and teams trains setup Content Readiness Management and development preparedness Facility Readiness The actual space and logistics for the event Organizational Readiness Considerations Planning scope and context - is the scope (product, system or technology domain) of the planning process understood? Do we know which teams need to plan together? Business alignment - is there reasonable agreement on priorities among Business Owners Agile teams - Do we have Agile teams? Are there dedicated developer and test resources and an identified Scrum Master and Product Owner for the team? Content Readiness Considerations Executive briefing - a briefing that defines the current business context Product vision briefing(s) - briefing(s) prepared by Product Management including the top 10 features in the product backlog Architecture vision briefing - a presentation made by the CTO, Enterprise Architect, or System Architect to communicate new enablers, features, and Nonfunctional Requirements (NFRs) Facility Readiness Considerations Facility - this room must be roomy enough for all attendees, with breakout rooms if necessary Facilities/tech support - these people need to be identified in advance and reachable during setup and testing, and the event itself Communication channels - for distributed planing meetings, primary and secondary audio, video, and presentation channels must be available Stretch Objectives Goals built into the plan (e.g., stories that have been defined and included for those objectives), but are not committed to by the team because of too many unknowns or risks. These are NOT extra things to do in case there is time. Instead, they increase the reliability of the plan and give management an early warning of goals that the ART may not be able to deliver Time & capacity to do it, we plan for it, but are not committed to it PI Planning Day 1 Agenda Business context Product/solution vision Architecture vision and development practices Planning context and lunch Team breakouts #1 Draft plan review Management review and problem-solving Business context A senior executive/line-of-business owner describes the current state of the business and presents a perspective on how well existing solutions are addressing current customer needs Product solution/vision Product management presents the current program vision (typically represented by the next top 10 upcoming features) and highlights any changes from the previous PI Planning meeting as well as any forthcoming Milestones. Architecture vision and development practices System Architect/Engineering presents the architecture vision. Also, a senior development manager may introduce Agile-supportive changes to development practices such as test automation, DevOps, Continuous Integration, and Continuous Deployment, which are being advanced in the upcoming PI Planning context & lunch The RTE presents the planning process and expected outcomes of the meeting Team Breakouts #1 Teams estimate their capacity (velocity) for each Iteration and identify the backlog items they will likely need to realize the features. Each team creates their team plan, visible to all, iteration by iteration Draft plan review Tightly timeboxed; teams present key planning outputs, including draft objectives, potential risks and dependencies. Business Owners, Product Management and other teams and stakeholders review and provide input Management review and problem-solving During this, management may negotiate scope changes and resolve other problems by agreeing to various planning adjustments. The RTE facilitates and keeps the primary stakeholders together for as long as necessary to make the decisions needed to reach achievable objectives PI Planning Day 2 Agenda Planning Adjustments Team breakouts #2 Final Plan Review and Lunch Program Risks Confidence vote Plan rework Planning retrospective and moving forward Planning Adjustments The 2nd day of PI planning, the meeting begins with managers describing any changes to planning scope and resources Team breakouts #2 Teams continue planning based on their agenda from the previous day, making the appropriate adjustments. They finalize their objectives for the PI, to which the Business Owners assign business value Final Plan Review and Lunch 1. Changes to capacity and load. 2. Final PI Objectives with business value. 3. Program risks and impediments. 4. Q& A Sessions. - Collected in front of room. Reviewed by team. Business Owners asked to accept plan. If yes, plan/prog risk sheets next. If no, plans stay, teams cont. to work after review. Program risks During planning, teams have identified program-level risks and impediments that could impact their ability to meet their objectives. These are resolved in a broader management context in front of the whole train. One by one, the risks are addressed with honesty and transparency, and then categorized into one of the following categories: - Resolved: the teams agree that the issue is no longer a concern - Owned: someone on the train takes ownership of the item since it cannot be resolved at the meeting - Accepted: some risks are just facts or potential problems that must be understood and accepted - Mitigated: teams can identify a plan to reduce the impact of an item Confidence vote Once program risks have been addressed, teams vote on their confidence in meeting their program PI objectives. Each team conducts a fist of five vote. If the average is 3 fingers or above, then management should accept the commitment. If it's less than 3, the team reworks the plan. Any person voting 2 fingers or fewer should be given an opportunity to voice their concern. This might add to the list of risks, require some replanning or simply be informative. Plan rework This is done until a high confidence level can be reached. This is one occasion where alignment and commitment are valued more highly than adhering to a timebox. Planning retrospective and moving forward Finally, the RTE leads this for the PI Planning event to capture what went well, what didn't, and what can be done better next time. 3 pillars of scrum 1. Transparency 2. Inspection 3. Adaption How are the 5 Whys used? To identify a root cause(s) of a problem) When does the Plan-Do-Check-Adjust cycle occur in Scrum? At all formal Scrum events Which type of enabler does a System Architect review during a System Demo? Enabler portfolio epics Enabler Stories Support the activities needed to extend the Architectural Runway to provide future business functionality. These include exploration, infrastructure, compliance, and architecture development. They are captured in the various backlogs and occur at all levels of the Framework Spikes A type of exploration Enabler Story in SAFe. Defined initially in Extreme Programming (XP), they represent activities such as research, design, investigation, exploration, and prototyping. Their purpose is to gain the knowledge necessary to reduce the risk of a technical approach, better understand a requirement, or increase the reliability of a story estimate. Functional Spikes They are used to analyze overall solution behavior and determine: How to break it down How to organize the work Where risk and complexity exist How to use insights to influence implementation decisions Technical Spikes They are used to research various approaches in the solution domain. For example: Determine a build vs buy decision Evaluate the potential performance or load impact or a new user story Evaluate specific technical implementation approaches Develop confidence about the desired solution path What is the name of the iteration where all team members determine how much of the team's backlog they can commit to delivering during an upcoming iteration? Backlog Refinement How often should a system demo occur? Every Iteration (2 weeks) Which activity is the Scrum Master's Responsibility? Coaching the Agile Team How many team members make up an Agile Team? 5-9 members ScrumXP A lightweight process for self-organizing and self-managing cross-functional teams of five to nine people. To continuously value, _______ uses the Scrum framework for project management and XP-derived software engineering practices. Team Kanban Is a Lean method that helps teams facilitate the flow of value by visualizing workflow, establishing Work in Progress (WIP) limits, measuring throughput, and continuously improving their processes. Who has content authority for the Team Backlog? Product Owner Who is responsible for defining stories and prioritizing the backlog? Product Owner What are the 3 purposes of a Scrum Master? Remove impediments Facilitates Team events Fosters an environment for high-performing teams Team PI Objectives Are a summarized description of the specific business and technical goals that an Agile team intends to achieve in the upcoming PI. Often map to features but not always. Exploration Enablers These support research, prototyping, and other activities needed to develop an understanding of Customer needs, including the exploration of prospective Solutions and evaluating alternatives. Architectural enablers These are created to build the Architectural Runway, which allows smoother and faster development Infrastructure enablers These are created to build, enhance, and automate the development, testing, and deployment environments. They facilitate faster development, higher-quality testing, and a faster Continuous Delivery Pipeline Compliance enablers These facilitate managing specific compliance activities, including Verification and Validation (V&V), documentation and signoffs, and regulatory submissions and approvals Agile development is... incremental ____________ over processes and tools Individuals and interactions Working software over... comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over... contract negotiation _____________ over following a plan Responding to change Agile Manifesto Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation