So much productivity and value are lost when there isn’t clarity, focus or shared understanding. Let’s learn how to increase visibility within your team and across your organization.
You can’t learn, lead, or change what you can’t see. This truth sounds basic, but I frequently see leaders and organizations harmed because of a lack of visibility.
Here are some symptoms of low levels of transparency
As you can see from the list, transparency matters because it highly correlates with clarity and understanding.
When teams or leaders can’t see or don’t understand what others are doing, they don’t have empathy. And without empathy, things break down pretty quickly, even becoming adversarial within the team or organization.
How does Scrum make things visible?
Scrum addresses the lack of visibility through four strategies.
All work in Scrum resides in one of two backlogs.
The product owner is responsible for keeping the product backlog ordered by priority. This backlog is not a secret and is visible to the whole team and organization. The backlog is the one source of truth regarding what’s prioritized.
Transparency matters because it highly correlates with clarity and understanding.
Teams, stakeholders and leaders can see how future work is prioritized. They can come to the product owner if they have questions or concerns.
The sprint backlog includes everything the team selected during sprint planning to focus on during the sprint. So if it’s not in the sprint backlog, it’s not what we’re doing this week.
There is a two-sided commitment with the sprint backlog.
There isn’t ambiguity about what the team should focus on this week. This clear prioritization gives the team a protected space to complete the critical work.
Scrum helps you know where you are through four of its events.
The sprint begins with the product owner sharing the vision for the new sprint and the development team creating an initial plan to reach that vision. The four fundamental questions of sprint planning are:
As the team works through these questions, a sprint goal is set, work is moved from the product backlog to the sprint backlog, and the team verbalizes their initial plan for the sprint.
The Scrum team is self-organizing, which means they have significant freedom to identify how they will solve the problem and deliver the solution.
All these actions create visibility and shared understanding within the team and are transparent to other stakeholders outside the group.
Sometimes called the daily standup, the daily scrum is a brief 15-minute meeting where the whole team checks in. It’s usually structured around each person answering three simple questions.
This simple rhythm of daily check-ins makes the team aware of everyone’s current reality.
But this meeting isn’t just a status update, and it’s not for people outside the team. It is a time for the team to take that shared understanding and further clarify what they need to do next to complete the work they prioritized at the beginning of the week.
When the sprint ends, the team holds a retrospective to evaluate how they are doing as a team. The focus is on the health and functioning of the group.
Here are some questions I like to use:
The retrospective provides clarity regarding how’s our team doing right now. How often have you been on a team where big or small issues went unaddressed for too long.
Imagine being part of a team that keeps short accounts and honestly works through things together to become the best team they can be.
Backlog refinement is a little more about the future, but it provides clarity about what we currently think about the future ;)
This may sound a little silly, but consider how often two people have different ideas about what will be done next or what it will take to do it?
During backlog refinement, the team reviews product backlog items (PBIs) to ensure there is enough shared understanding that the team can take action when they select the PBI in a future sprint.
The backlog is the one source of truth regarding what’s prioritized.
The needed supporting information and resources are identified and visible within the PBI. The team also uses tools like user stories and acceptance criteria to clarify the goal for the PBI and how they will know if it was successful. They will discuss how much work it will take to complete the PBI and measure it using story points.
What’s planned for the next sprint isn’t static, it can still be changed, but the current plan is clear and visible.
Did you know Scrum applies to more than just developing code?
When you understand the essentials of Scrum and the nuance of how to apply it, you can use it to level up aspects of everyday life.
Have you ever missed a deadline only to discover nobody noticed? When others don’t see a commitment, it fails to be much of a commitment.
People don't do what you expect but what you inspect.
Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.
There are three factors that Scrum’s approach to commitments increases visibility.
As the sprint ends, the Scrum team gathers with stakeholders to review what they produced.
The product owner will facilitate feedback and accept or reject the work done according to the user story, acceptance criteria and the definition of done. If changes are needed, the product owner can add them to the backlog for the following sprint.
The Scrum team collectively owns their commitments.
Not only are the team's commitments visible at the beginning of the sprint via the sprint backlog, but they are also evaluated with transparency at the end of the sprint.
During backlog refinement, the team works to clarify each PBI to ensure there is clarity regarding what they are committing to if they select the work in a future sprint. When a PBI has been refined, there should be no ambiguity about what it will mean to complete and deliver it.
The Scrum team doesn’t have a “leader.” This reality might be one of the hardest for managers to grasp early in the process. The Scrum team is self-organizing, which means they have significant freedom to identify how they will solve the problem and deliver the solution.
When coaching new teams, we work a lot on moving from I or you to we. It’s no longer I need to get this done, or you made a mistake. It becomes we need to find a way to finish, or we need to correct this.
The Scrum team collectively owns their commitments.
Everything is in a constant state of change, which is why transparency isn’t a one-time event. You need to develop a rhythm and cadence to visibility.
The Scrum events help to create that cadence. Let’s take a closer look at the role each play in transparency.
As you can see, the events in Scrum each play a role in creating transparency. When they occur in sync, they build a cadence of visibility where you can help but evaluate and improve. More on that in a minute.
Whether you’re already practicing Scrum or just considering it, here are three actionable steps to level up transparency.
As we saw earlier, each role in Scrum contributes to creating and maintaining transparency. Do you have people to play these key roles?
Individuals can play multiple positions if needed for a season, but ideally, you work toward having individuals dedicated to a role. The one exception is being both the scrum master and product owner simultaneously. I would not recommend that.
So whether your context is wanting to deliver content consistently or getting home projects done, identify who will play these critical roles.
I’ve provided suggested questions to ask at crucial moments like sprint planning, the daily scrum and the retrospective. You can use them as-is. No need to adapt. But if you want to nuance them a little or add a question, the key is to decide, “these are the questions we’re committing to asking at these times.”
When will this happen? If you want to see an increase in transparency, you must make time for it.
I recommend starting with 1-week sprints because most people's lives already orient around a weekly cadence. So a weekly schedule would look something like this.
Choose your times, create a calendar event, and invite your team.
Now that you’ve taken steps to increase visibility, it’s time to evaluate what you see. From there, you’ll decide what needs to change.
This process repeats as you and your team grow in focus and effectiveness.
Scrum is a framework for organizing a team around the work of solving problems. Scrum makes the work more visible, so we can better evaluate and adapt.
These three pillars of Scrum are essential to an effective team.
Continue to explore these pillars of Scrum or check out everyday scrum if your want a deeper dive into how to practice Scrum in your everyday life.
Scrum is founded on three essential pillars, and each leads the team to ask a critical question.
Learn how to apply the three pillars of Scrum and then explore the most common terms in a Scrum glossary.
There are five values critical to the practice of Scrum: commitment, courage, focus, openness, and respect.
Learn how to align Scrum values with your organization and then explore the most common terms in a Scrum glossary.
The sprint goal encapsulates the product owner’s vision into a concrete statement for the development team to measure the sprint against. The sprint goal provides a theme for the sprint’s work helping the team see how all the parts come together.
Learn more about the role of the sprint goal in scrum and explore the essential Scrum glossary.
Scrum is founded on three essential pillars leading teams to ask the following questions:
Further explore the definition of scrum. Then browse the most common terms in a Scrum glossary and learn what is Scrum.
This is because Scrum’s simplicity makes learning easy, but Scrum truly changes how you work, and that adjustment can be difficult. It changes power dynamics and expectations within the team and between the team and the rest of the organization.
You can explore further is Scrum hard to learn, along with the pros and cons of Scrum. Then browse the most common terms in a Scrum glossary and learn what is Scrum.
Scrum was initially used as a term related to project management in 1986 by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka in their paper “New New Product Development Game” In the Harvard Business Review. The first recorded Scrum project came a little later in 1993 from Jeff Sutherland.
You can learn more about Scrum’s backstory. Then browse the most common terms in a Scrum glossary and learn what is Scrum.
Learning Scrum for the first time can be overwhelming. There are a lot of new terms and concepts in Scrum. I’ve listed the most common terms in a Scrum glossary.
It forces clarity and prioritization, which provides the focus necessary for teams to be effective. Scrum embraces complexity and change by keeping many things simple and iteratively evaluating and adapting.
You can learn more about why to use Scrum and three challenges Scrum solves. Then browse the most common terms in a Scrum glossary and learn what is Scrum.
Scrum isn’t always the best option for teams. Scrum can fail when there is a substantial mismatch between organizational culture and the Scrum values. It also depends on the nature of the work you do. If you work if very linear, predictable and tightly defined, you may not experience many benefits Scrum provides.
Find out more about aligning your organizational values with Scrum or how Scrum might fit in your context. Then browse the most common terms in a Scrum glossary and learn what is Scrum.
Scrum functions at its best when you have a dedicated team focused on developing a singular product. Its agility shines when there are time constraints combined with uncertainty.
Explore the pros and cons of Scrum along with expectations vs. realities with Scrum. Then browse the most common terms in a Scrum glossary and learn what is Scrum.
Important factors include your team size and the type of work you do. Kanban is very process-oriented, so you should consider how defined, static, or long your process is?
You can explore Scrum and other agile approaches. Then browse the most common terms in a Scrum glossary and learn what is Scrum.
Scrum forces clarity and prioritization, which are critical to organizational effectiveness. It provides a competitive edge by allowing teams to adapt as the market or priorities change. Teams operate more effectively because Scrum combines empowerment of the team members with alignment to top priorities.
Learn more about scrum’s impact on organizational culture. Then browse the most common terms in a Scrum glossary and learn what is Scrum.
Scrum is more of a framework than a methodology, and it helps teams adhere to Agile principles and get stuff done. Scrum provides basic rules but doesn’t prescribe how to do the work. It provides principles, values, rules, and some core structure but still leaves a lot undefined.
Learn more about scrum as a framework. Then browse the most common terms in a Scrum glossary and learn what is Scrum.
When people say “agile,” they usually refer to it as a mindset. Scrum is a framework for how to organize people and work in an agile way. If you’re practicing Scrum, you’re working in an Agile way.
Learn more about the relationship between scrum and agile. Then browse the most common terms in a Scrum glossary and learn what is Scrum.
Scrum events have a clear purpose and agenda but are still very interactive. Facilitation of scrum events is at its best when everyone is engaged, asking or responding to questions. All events are timeboxed, so the facilitator must ensure the team is always moving toward the goal.
Learn more about team member's responsibilities during scrum events. Then browse the most common terms in a Scrum glossary and learn what is Scrum.
Three strategies for increasing participation in scrum meetings are
Learn more about everyone’s roles and responsibilities during the scrum events. Then browse the most common terms in a Scrum glossary and learn what is Scrum.
Scrum cultivates shared ownership for all the events, but each still has a facilitator.
Learn more about everyone’s roles and responsibilities during the scrum events. Then explore the most common terms in a Scrum glossary and learn what is Scrum.
The scrum master primarily facilitates two scrum events:
The scrum master can help facilitate other meetings while a new team is beginning to learn scrum.
Learn more about roles during scrum events. Then browse the most common terms in a Scrum glossary and learn what is Scrum.
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