My lightening talk from Agileee 2011, Kiev about "Definition of READY". Presentation shows why it is important to have stories READY for a sprint and how to get stories ready.

1. Definition of READY
Avoid Processing Crap.
Agile Eastern Europe 2011, Kiev,
September 2011
Felix Rüssel

2. Creating Value & Problem in Sprints
How Value is created Usual Problems in Sprints
 Understand WHY & WHAT  No clear description, criteria,
goals
 Have a clue HOW to do  Not possble to test/evaluate if
 It CAN be done (READY!) goal has been met
 Missing Dates
 It is being DONE (suprise!surpise!)
 It is really DONE
 And it is required  Risks unknown
 Dependencies: Teams, external
 So it creates Value stakeholders, technical
constrains, …
 Owner (business sponsor)
unknown

3. READY & DONE on the Scrum Board
Sprint Backlog
READY
DONE
Committed
Sprint Acceptance
Planning
Development Reviewed Testing (PO) Release

4. READY & DONE
impediment
READY
DONE
Incre
PBL DoR SBL IBL DoD ment

5. READY as Quality Gate
 READY as pre-condition for „Hyperproductivity“
 Jeff Sutherland
 Responsible: Product Owner
 May delegate work to make stories READY
 Team: Might refuse not READY stories during
Planning
 Scrum Master enforces rules
 Helps PO to increase the rate of READY stories
 Scrum Master interfers when non-READY stories are discussed in a
wild manner.

6. Product Backlog
Current Sprint
(Stories, Tasks)
READY
(Stories)
Preparing
(Epics -> Stories)
NEW
(Ideas, Epics, Themes)

7. How it becomes READY
Story
Template
Add Details
Sprint Backlog
READY
Committed
Discuss! Discuss! Discuss! Sprint
Planning
Story
Epic
Story
Story Story
Story
Story
Story
Details Details
Details
Details, Details, Details
Acceptance Tests

8. Results & Rate of Adoption
 Impact of READY on effort /  Definition of Ready / READY State
variance  Discussion started on conferences:
Beginning 2009
 Adoption rate still very low
Results of a small research
Mailinglist „scrumdevelopment“
 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scrumd
evelopment, August 2011
 „definition of done“: 1001
 „definition of ready“: 6
 „ready state“: 14
Source:
http://agile2009.org/files/session_pdfs/Going%20from%20Goo
d%20to%20Great%20with%20Scrum%20Session.PDF

9. WHO?
Felix Rüssel
 Consultant for agile, project management and virtual
teams
 www.agile-rescue.com
 Nearshore Scrum Teams
 www.agile-nearshoring.com
 Agile methods since 2004
 German Blog (~2008): www.armerkater.de