Rules to Better Scrum

• Getting Started - Do you know the Scrum guide?
• Do you know the 8 Steps to Scrum?
• Scrum Master - Do you schedule the 3 Scrum meetings?
• Do you know what happens at a Sprint Review meeting?
• Do you know what happens at a Sprint Retrospective meeting?
• Do you know what happens at a Sprint Planning meeting?
• Methodology - Do you do Daily Scrums (aka stand-up meetings)?
• Do you get through blockers faster with BREAD Daily Scrums?
• Do you know the 3 commitments in Scrum (Product Goal, Sprint Goal, and Definition of Done)?
• Do you know how to be a good Product Owner?
• Backlog - Do you always work in priority order, unless there’s a good reason not to?
• Backlog - Do you know how to create a Sprint Backlog?
• Backlog - Does your Product Owner know how to maintain the backlog?
• Backlog - Do you keep your PBIs smaller than 2 days' effort?
• Done - Do you go beyond 'Done' and follow a 'Definition of Done'?
• Do you have a Definition of Ready?
• Do you review PBIs and react with 👍 or 👎?
• Estimating - Do you break large tasks into smaller tasks?
• Estimating - Do you know how to size Product Backlog Items (PBIs) effectively?
• Do you estimate “Business Value”?
• Do you have a good technical overview?
• Do you send "Sprint Forecast" and "Sprint Review/Retro" emails to the client?
• Do you record a summary of Sprint Meetings?
• Do you create a Sprint Forecast? (aka The functionality to be developed in the Sprint)
• Do you create a Sprint Review/Retro email?
• Meeting - Do you update your tasks before the Daily Scrum?
• Scrum Meetings - Do you know what to prepare for each meeting?
• Calendar - Do you use a centralized Daily Scrum calendar?
• Tasks - Do you know that every PBI should have an owner?
• Tasks - Do you know to use clear task descriptions?
• Do you understand the implied contract (promises) between Members of the Scrum Team?
• Do you make sure Sprint Reviews are "tick and flick"?
• Done - Do you know to send a 'done' email in Scrum?
• Done - Do you know when to do a “Test Please” in Scrum?
• Done - Do you know how to make sure you deliver a build that’s tested every Sprint
• Do you know how to handle Undone Work (aka V2 for PBIs)?
• Ending a Sprint - Do you know when to remove PBIs from the Sprint?
• Ending a Sprint - Do you know what to do with partially completed PBI?
• Ending a Sprint - Do you know what to do when your Sprint fails?
• Do you know that working in a team is better than on your own? (aka The Ben Darwin rule)
• Do you know how to handle unexpected requests in the middle of a Sprint?
• Do you always know what are you working on?
• Product Owners - Do you know the consequence of disrupting a team?
• Communication - Do you send "Done Videos"?
• Do you know how to record a quick and dirty 'Done Video'?
• Do you use comments with @mentions to track changes in a PBI?
• Scrum – Do you know where to discuss the backlog?
• Do you know which emojis to use in Scrum?
• The Team - Do you encourage multi-skilled teams by leaving your comfort zone?
• Do you work in vertical slices?
• The Team - Do you help your Scrum Master protect and serve The Team?
• The Team - Do you have a Scrum Master outside the Dev Team?
• Planning Meeting - Do you encourage Spikes (aka investigation tasks) when a PBI is inestimable?
• Do you have a war room? (summary)
• The War Room - Does your development room have an electronic task board?
• The War Room - Does your Scrum room have the best Scrum image?
• During a Sprint - Do you know when to create bugs?
• Do you know how DevOps fits in with Scrum?
• Do you use printed 'SSW Story Cards' with your customers in the Spec Review?
• Do you know your agility index?
• Do you know the whole Scrum team is responsible for quality?
• Do you use meaningful PBI titles?
• Do you include a useful description of your changes?
• Do you have a Product Backlog refinement meeting?
• Do you include Acceptance Criteria in your PBIs?
• Do you assign severity levels to PBIs?