What can the team do?

Peter is a new Product Owner for a Scrum Team working on a new Product. Peter made a Release plan for 6 months considering a velocity of 35 Story Points per Sprint. After the first 4 Sprints, the observed velocity is only 15 points and the developers tell the Scrum Master that it is impossible to meet the deadlines of such a Release plan.

What can the team do?
A . Extend the working hours to increase the velocity.
B. Make transparent to Peter that the projected completion date is not correct. Work with Peter to re-do the Release plan based on the new velocity and validate the release plan with the Developers.
C. Add more Developers to make increase the velocity to 35 points per Sprint.
D. Ask the Scrum Master to coach the Developers to estimate better.

View Answer

Answer: B

Explanation:

Adding more Developers could just be out of budget. Velocity is an extremely simple, powerful method for accurately measuring the rate at which scrum development teams consistently deliver business value. It is an indication of the average amount of Product Backlog turned into an Increment of product during a Sprint by a Scrum Team, tracked by the Development Team for use within the Scrum Team. Thus, to calculate the velocity of your agile team, simply add up the estimates of the features, user stories, requirements or backlog items successfully delivered in an iteration.

It should the team:

– Predicting how much scope can be delivered by a specific date.

– Predicting a date for a fixed amount of scope to be delivered.

– Understanding our limits while defining the amount of scope we will commit for a sprint. Transparency between the Stakeholder and the Scrum Team is very important. Scrum is founded on empiricism and lean thinking. Empiricism asserts that knowledge comes from experience and making decisions based on what is observed. Lean thinking reduces waste and focuses on the essentials. Therefore, it is best to see how the new information affects the release plan and update it so that the Product Owner can consult with stakeholders with realistic data and determine the next steps.