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CSP-SM Post-Class Assignment 6

Assignment 6 – Playbooks

A major focus of class was combining a commitment to Scrum fundamentals with exercises to help you share your knowledge with others. One of the biggest tools that a professional must possess is the ability to design effective meeting agendas. When sending out a "meeting invite" you are asking a group of people for their most valuable thing: their time. How will their time be spent? What will they do? These are legitimate questions that need to be addressed through the design of an effective meeting agenda.

By using the logic model from your coursework, this assignment will have you build a set of "playbooks" in the form of meeting agendas to help you facilitate the launch of a new Scrum Team. Please note, this is NOT an agenda for a training class that you may already have. Instead, this should mirror the "playbook" exercises you did on the last day of class.

After you complete each playbook, you will schedule a one-on-one meeting with someone who could receive that meeting invitation to in the future. You will use a set of questions to interview that person, focusing on getting feedback on the meeting that you designed. While it will be tempting to dive into some of the specifics of your context, for this assignment keep the discussions focused on the questions you have been provided.

NOTE: Please review the concepts of Topics / Desired Outcomes / Process from your course material before proceeding on this assignment.

As an example of what each playbook should look like, here is the "Job Description" sample we reviewed in class:

Sample playbook – Job Description Exercise

Room: Conference Room DaVinci

Potential Attendees: Kristen, Mark, Anne, Scott, Jeff, Stacey

Required Materials: scratch paper, pens, easel pads, markers, blue tape

Topic #1: Job Description Elements – Aligning two participants

Desired outcome: Draft Job description for a Scrum Master is created by two participants

Process: 30 minutes

· Setup – 5 minutes: Participants put away devices, spread out into groups of four each with their own packet of handouts (provided) and writing instruments.

· Solo Round – 5 minutes: Participants have time on their own to complete one handout, filling in the necessary fields including Job Title, Summary, Responsibilities, etc.

· Pair Share – 5 minutes: Pairs of participants share their handouts with one another and identify common elements of their respective job descriptions.

· Pair Creation – 10 minutes: The pair from the previous step uses a blank handout to combine their common items into a new version of the job description.

· Pair Share – 5 minutes: The pairs reflect on what they just created and identify things they could improve upon if they had to do this exercise again.

Topic #2: Job Description Elements – Aligning the group

Desired outcome: A revised job description for a Scrum Master is created from the common elements of different job descriptions

Process: 45 - 60 minutes

· Quad Share – 5 minutes: Two pairs of participants compare their job descriptions created in the previous activity, identifying the common elements of both.

· Group Creation – 10 minutes: The two pairs from the previous step use a blank handout to create a new version of the Job Description using the identified common elements.

· Group Sharing – 15 to 30 minutes: Each ‘quad’ of participants shares their job descriptions with the rest of the participants. Common elements are identified across these quad-created job descriptions. Note: timeboxing each group to five minutes will allow each group to share.

· Open discussion – 15 minutes: Participants share their insights and thoughts with one another about the role of a Scrum Master in their organization, focusing on the common elements identified.

Things to note from this sample: there are some logistics included, like the room, attendees, and what equipment and materials are needed. Additionally, note that for each topic there is a very clear desired outcome. This "pairing" of topic and outcome needs to be apparent to give an idea of a starting and ending point for each topic.

For the "process", this is the activity or set of activities that the group will go through. It needs to be clear that some thought has been put into these activities, so you must include the timing to show your thinking. Just stating "Open discussion - 60 minutes" will not suffice.

Below are the seven (7) playbooks that you must complete. You must then show each playbook SEPARATELY to a potential attendee for each meeting. You do NOT need to facilitate the meeting that you have designed. Instead, you will perform a short interview of the potential attendee, filling out the questions that were provided to focus on the design of the meeting itself.

Playbook #1: Product Vision

Something that describes the future your product will help create, the reason that the team needs to do the work. This meeting is to get to a "shared understanding" of what the future could look like, and alignment on who the customer is who would be using what the team creates.

Potential topics for this discussion include:

· How the product will change the user's world

· What problem the product solves / what benefit the product delivers

· Whose lives are impacted by the creation of the product

· Reason for the team and its work to exist

· Overarching impact that the team wants to make a reality

You must choose TWO topics, either from this list or two of your choosing that would support this playbook. Use those topics to create a playbook based on the Topic / Desired Outcome / Process logic model.

Playbook – Product Vision

Room/Logistics:

Potential Attendees:

Required Materials:

Topic #1:

Desired outcome: (description of desired outcome for this topic)

Process: (include total timing)

· (timing and description for each activity)

Topic #2:

Desired outcome:

Process:

Feedback Questions

Use these questions to interview a potential attendee for this meeting that you have designed. Show them the playbook as you showed your classmates during class. Each response should be 2 to 4 sentences, and you should try to sit with a different person for EACH PLAYBOOK!

1. Does the agenda fit the logic model described in the homework (topic / desired outcome pairs, plus the activity and timing needed to get from Point “A” to Point “B”)?

2. Does each Topic have a corresponding Desired Outcome? Do they appear to be ‘paired’?

3. Is there enough time for the planned activities? Too much? Not enough?

4. Would a potential attendee of this meeting know how their valuable time would be spent?

5. Would another facilitator be able to use this playbook to run this meeting?

Playbook #2: Team Mission

Something that describes your team's unique contribution toward achieving the product vision. Iif the product vision clarifies 'why', the team mission clarifies 'what' the work is.

Potential topics for this discussion include:

· The product's customers

· The team's actions and outcomes

· What the product or service the team will deliver

· The differentiating attributes of the product or service

· The value of the product to the customer

Playbook – Team Mission

Room/Logistics:

Potential Attendees:

Required Materials:

Topic #1:

Desired outcome: (description of desired outcome for this topic)

Process: (include total timing)

· (timing and description for each activity)

Topic #2:

Desired outcome:

Process:

Feedback Questions

1. Does the agenda fit the logic model described in the homework (topic / desired outcome pairs, plus the activity and timing needed to get from Point “A” to Point “B”)?

2. Does each Topic have a corresponding Desired Outcome? Do they appear to be ‘paired’?

3. Is there enough time for the planned activities? Too much? Not enough?

4. Would a potential attendee of this meeting know how their valuable time would be spent?

5. Would another facilitator be able to use this playbook to run this meeting?

Playbook #3: Set of Mission Tests

Not "acceptance tests" or anything technically related, these tests specify the indicators of progress toward successful mission achievement and identify the critical indicators of progress. These can help show how progress is being made in a qualitative and quantitative fashion.

Potential topics for this discussion are internal and external progress tests:

· Internal progress tests - what the team will gain or learn as a result of the work. Examples could be:

· downward trends for production defects

· job satisfaction increases

· reduced turnover costs

· External progress tests - focus beyond the boundaries of team authority and responsibility. Examples could be:

· instances of the product in use

· customer satisfaction

· cost savings

You must choose FOUR topics (two internal, two external), either from this list or four of your choosing that would support this playbook. Use those topics to create a playbook based on the Topic / Desired Outcome / Process logic model.

Playbook – Set of Mission Tests

Room/Logistics:

Potential Attendees:

Required Materials:

Topic #1:

Desired outcome: (description of desired outcome for this topic)

Process: (include total timing)

· (timing and description for each activity)

Topic #2:

Desired outcome:

Process:

Topic #3:

Desired outcome:

Process:

Topic #4:

Desired outcome:

Process:

Feedback Questions

1. Does the agenda fit the logic model described in the homework (topic / desired outcome pairs, plus the activity and timing needed to get from Point “A” to Point “B”)?

2. Does each Topic have a corresponding Desired Outcome? Do they appear to be ‘paired’?

3. Is there enough time for the planned activities? Too much? Not enough?

4. Would a potential attendee of this meeting know how their valuable time would be spent?

5. Would another facilitator be able to use this playbook to run this meeting?

Playbook #4: Shared Simple Rules

These are values that represent the team's beliefs and ideas about what matters regarding the work at hand. The entire team's values represent a synthesis of all the team members’ definition of authenticity and integrity. This shared explicit understanding of the team's values helps to clarify what is most important and deepens the team's connection to its purpose. These simple rules represent what matters most to your core team. They reflect the shared ethical and moral boundaries that affect their work.

NOTE - these should NOT be one-word answers like "honesty", which is too abstract. Potential topics for this discussion can be approached as questions to get to this shared understanding. Here are some questions to help identify simple rules:

· What do we do that serves us well for building team coherence?

· What do we do to create a positive work environment for our team?

· If Martians landed in our workspace, what would they notice about our behavior towards one another and others outside the team?

· What would any who interacts regularly with us, but is not a part of our team, say our rules are?

· How do we want to operate with one another around here that we don't already do?

· How do we want to treat our coworkers, our community, our customers, our vendors?

You'll need to write these down, so here are some guidelines:

· Establish rules that describe the -simplest things- we could do to keep, or create, the team culture that we want

· Make these rules generalizable and scalable

· Keep the list SHORT (five, plus or minus two)

· Start each rule with an action verb

· State each rule in the positive

· Be sure to craft a rule for each of:

1. the team's identity as a group (containers)

2. the diversities and differences among us (differences) and

3. how team members interact with one another (exchanges)

You must choose TWO questions / topics, either from this list or two of your choosing that would support this playbook. Use those topics to create a playbook based on the Topic / Desired Outcome / Process logic model.

Playbook – Shared Simple Rules

Room/Logistics:

Potential Attendees:

Required Materials:

Topic #1:

Desired outcome: (description of desired outcome for this topic)

Process: (include total timing)

· (timing and description for each activity)

Topic #2:

Desired outcome:

Process:

Feedback Questions

1. Does the agenda fit the logic model described in the homework (topic / desired outcome pairs, plus the activity and timing needed to get from Point “A” to Point “B”)?

2. Does each Topic have a corresponding Desired Outcome? Do they appear to be ‘paired’?

3. Is there enough time for the planned activities? Too much? Not enough?

4. Would a potential attendee of this meeting know how their valuable time would be spent?

5. Would another facilitator be able to use this playbook to run this meeting?

Playbook #5: Core Team Membership

Identifying who is actually on the Scrum team is key for success. Team members should get to know the strengths, capabilities, and commitments of one another. They often talk about how they can contribute to the group, and what they want to gain from working on the purpose.

Potential topics for this discussion include:

· Identification of skills needed to create a useful increment, including technical, non-technical, and interpersonal skills

· Identification of desired capability levels (a lot of a particular skill, or just a little) needed to create a useful increment

Playbook – Core Team Membership

Room/Logistics:

Potential Attendees:

Required Materials:

Topic #1:

Desired outcome: (description of desired outcome for this topic)

Process: (include total timing)

· (timing and description for each activity)

Topic #2:

Desired outcome:

Process:

Feedback Questions

1. Does the agenda fit the logic model described in the homework (topic / desired outcome pairs, plus the activity and timing needed to get from Point “A” to Point “B”)?

2. Does each Topic have a corresponding Desired Outcome? Do they appear to be ‘paired’?

3. Is there enough time for the planned activities? Too much? Not enough?

4. Would a potential attendee of this meeting know how their valuable time would be spent?

5. Would another facilitator be able to use this playbook to run this meeting?

Playbook #6: Working Agreements

Working Agreements are a set of operational guidelines that help a team achieve their mission. These powerful social contracts enable the team to clarify mutual expectations. Teams should create three to seven explicit agreements, phrased as a completion of this sentence: “We work together best when…” These agreements should have an aspirational quality. Don’t spend time creating agreements for practices that the team regularly exhibits. NOTE: These are authored by the team collectively rather than GIVEN to them to “agree” to. Be sure to avoid this dangerous anti-pattern.

Some of the benefits of working agreements are:

· An explicit set of agreements provide clarity and prevents confusion and conflict

· Working Agreements help new team members learn how to participate constructively

· They help to establish a shared understanding through discussing and documenting how the team functions

· In meetings, explicit working agreements help team members stay accountable to each other

· When recruiting new team members, these agreements can help behavioral interviewing questions

Potential topics for these agreements to focus on include:

· Moving forward – how teams check for alignment or agreement on a topic or issue

· Meetings – how teams approach discussions involving two or more people

· Decisions – how teams gather ideas, gain alignment, evaluate ideas, and collectively decide

· Feedback – how teams ask for, provide, and receive feedback from others

· Time – how teams treat asking for, or providing time to each other

· Learning – how a team identifies mistakes, “fails fast”, or increases their knowledge

· Follow-through – how a team keeps their agreements or lets each other know when they cannot

· Collective ownership – how a team asks for help, works together, and other ‘pairing’ activities

· Knowledge transfer – how information is shared in addition to collaboration activities

· Continuous improvement – how a team identifies areas to improve plus making them a reality

· Estimating – how a team makes rough approximations / guesses about their work items

· E-Manners – how a team uses electronics and technology respectful to each other

An example of a working agreement for the “E-Manners” topic could look like this: “We work best as a team when all electronic devices including laptops and cell phones are kept off the table and out of sight. This allows us to focus on one another and be completely present for the team, because our time is valuable.”

You must choose THREE topics (working agreements to author), either from this list or two of your choosing that would support this playbook. Use those topics to create a playbook based on the Topic / Desired Outcome / Process logic model.

Playbook – Working Agreements

Room/Logistics:

Potential Attendees:

Required Materials:

Topic #1:

Desired outcome: (description of desired outcome for this topic)

Process: (include total timing)

· (timing and description for each activity)

Topic #2:

Desired outcome:

Process:

Topic #3:

Desired outcome:

Process:

Feedback Questions

1. Does the agenda fit the logic model described in the homework (topic / desired outcome pairs, plus the activity and timing needed to get from Point “A” to Point “B”)?

2. Does each Topic have a corresponding Desired Outcome? Do they appear to be ‘paired’?

3. Is there enough time for the planned activities? Too much? Not enough?

4. Would a potential attendee of this meeting know how their valuable time would be spent?

5. Would another facilitator be able to use this playbook to run this meeting?

Playbook #7: Context

A team needs to have a shared understanding of how their mission fits into the larger organization. This helps a team make better decisions by taking the whole system into account. When teams have a clear idea of how they fit into the 'big picture', decisions can be made at the team level to be in alignment with the overall system.

Potential topics for this discussion include:

· Visualizing team boundaries and interactions with stakeholders

· Organizational commitment to providing resources (non-human tangible and intangible parts of the team) for the ongoing work

· Anticipated opportunities for risk and benefits and analysis of this information

Playbook – Context

Room/Logistics:

Potential Attendees:

Required Materials:

Topic #1:

Desired outcome: (description of desired outcome for this topic)

Process: (include total timing)

· (timing and description for each activity)

Topic #2:

Desired outcome:

Process:

Feedback Questions

1. Does the agenda fit the logic model described in the homework (topic / desired outcome pairs, plus the activity and timing needed to get from Point “A” to Point “B”)?

2. Does each Topic have a corresponding Desired Outcome? Do they appear to be ‘paired’?

3. Is there enough time for the planned activities? Too much? Not enough?

4. Would a potential attendee of this meeting know how their valuable time would be spent?

5. Would another facilitator be able to use this playbook to run this meeting?