How do you decide how big your Sprints/Iterations should be or should you even do them at all? To help answer these questions we will draw on methodologies, experiences, models and principles that can help such as Kaizen, Pomodoro Technique, Lean, Scrum and Kanban to name a few.

1. How long should your Sprints be?
LAST Conference Melbourne 2014
Reginald de Silva
11/07/2014

2.  Scrum Guide Definition:
“The heart of Scrum is a Sprint, a time-box of one
month or less during which a “Done”, useable, and
potentially releasable product Increment is
created.”
 What is cadence and time-boxing?
 Why do it?

3. Toyota Production System (TPS)
Key types of waste:
 ‘Muda’ (wastefully activity)
Eliminate waste - Waiting, over-processing, overproduction, unnecessary
transportation, correction etc.
 ‘Mura’ (unevenness)
Remove stress through use of a pull system - “just in time“ inventory of car parts
 ‘Muri’ (overburden)
Eliminate bottlenecks

4. Lean Software Development
Key types of waste:
The Eight Wastes
Manufacturing Software
Development
In-Process Inventory Partially Done Work
Over-Production Extra Features
Extra Processing Relearning
Transportation Handoffs
Motion Task Switching
Waiting Delays
Defects Defects
Unfulfilled Potential Unfulfilled Potential

5. Kaizen (change good)
5-S Principles
 Sort (Seiri)
 Set In Order (Seiton)
 Shine (Seiso)
 Standardise (Seiketsu)
 Sustain (Shitsuke)

6. Kaizen (change good) –
5-S Principles

7.  Parkinsons Law
“work expands so as to fill the time available for its
completion”
 Theory of Constraints (TOC)
 One Piece Flow (OPF)
 Limit Work in Progress (WIP)

8.  Sprints are limited to one calendar month.
 When a Sprint’s horizon is too long the definition of
what is being built may change, complexity may
rise, and risk may increase.
 Sprints also limit risk to one calendar month of
cost.
The Scrum Guide
The Definitive Guide to Scrum:
The Rules of the Game
Developed and sustained by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland
July 2013

9.  A blessing or a curse?
 When suitable?

10.  Why is this most common?
 Prescriptive - SAFe

11.  How to deal with the intensity?!!…
 Time management – be ruthless!

12.  Limits WIP to capacity rather than through time-
boxing
 Allows for large work items as well as small

13. There are five basic steps to implementing the technique:
 Decide on the task to be done
 Set the pomodoro timer to n minutes (traditionally 25)
 Work on the task until the timer rings; record with an ‘x’
 Take a short break (3–5 minutes)
 After four pomodori, take a longer break (15–30 minutes)

14.  Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD)
 Lead time and cycle time

15.  Forecast vs Actual

16.  Burn charts

17.  Reduce the amount of work that is forecast to be done when
planning the next Sprint
 Split User Stories into smaller chunks while ensuring that they
are still potentially shippable
 In extreme cases:
 Cancel the Sprint
 Stop, replan the release and start again

18.  Work on one thing at a time – avoid multi-tasking!
 Definition of Done (DoD) – “Dev Done”is not “Done”!
 Even flow of work – avoid batching and doing final
inspections and reviews too late
 When is automation “Done”?
 Ensure that Stories are sized appropriately and are
“potentially shippable”

20.  The Scrum Guide - The Definitive Guide to Scrum: The Rules of the Game
Developed and sustained by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland July 2013
https://www.scrum.org/Portals/0/Documents/Scrum%20Guides/2013/Scrum-Guide.pdf
 Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to Cash
Mary Poppendieck (Author), Tom Poppendieck (Author)
http://www.amazon.com/Implementing-Lean-Software-Development-Concept/dp/0321437381
 Kanban and Scrum - making the most of both
Henrik Kniberg and Mattias Skarin
http://www.infoq.com/minibooks/kanban-scrum-minibook
 The Pomodoro Technique
Franceso Cirillo
http://caps.ucsd.edu/Downloads/tx_forms/koch/pomodoro_handouts/ThePomodoroTechnique_v1-3.pdf
 Scaled Agile Framework
http://scaledagileframework.com/