My last blog talked about how to show management how Scrum helps the organization overall. Now, let's delve deeper into one of its core activities and examine how its transparency can vividly demonstrate value to your organization.
Among the five Scrum events, the Sprint Retrospective stands out as a pivotal opportunity for showcasing self-management. According to the Scrum Guide, its purpose is clear: "to plan ways to increase quality and effectiveness." Harnessing transparency during retrospectives can effectively highlight these enhancements.
For instance, during a Retrospective, your team may identify a desire to enhance code quality. To initiate this endeavor, the team decides to leverage code coverage as a metric for measuring unit testing proficiency. They opt to integrate SonarQube, a tool renowned for its ability to assess various aspects of code quality, starting with code coverage. As a result, the team adds an action item to incorporate SonarQube reporting into their continuous delivery pipeline in the upcoming Sprint Backlog.
During Sprint Planning, the team crafts a comprehensive plan to implement this initiative alongside other Product Backlog Items (PBIs) aligned with the Sprint Goal. Successfully executing this plan, the team achieves the sprint goal while fulfilling their action item from the Retrospective. In the subsequent Sprint Review, the team showcases the improvement in code coverage alongside the sprint goal. Stakeholders witness this progress firsthand, bringing transparency to the enhancement. Subsequent reviews continue to highlight improvements in code coverage, reinforcing the organization's commitment to quality.
This straightforward example vividly demonstrates how Sprint Retrospectives contribute tangible value to the organization. It also underscores the importance of disseminating these improvements throughout the organization, fostering a culture of continuous enhancement.