#effectivemeetings — Public Fediverse posts

FYI: How to Hold Great Board Meetings https://downriverpropertymanagement.com/how-to-hold-great-board-meetings/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #BoardMeetings #CommunityManagement #Leadership #EffectiveMeetings #Transparency

How to Run Effective Meetings | SMB Advisor https://smbadvisor.management/how-to-run-effective-meetings/ #EffectiveMeetings #MeetingProductivity #TeamManagement #LeadershipTips #WorkplaceEfficiency

Next time you have a meeting, use the DARQ method, harvesting;

- Decisions
- Actions (to be done)
- Risks (mentioned)
- Questions (that need to be resolved)

#effectivemeetings

Their item still spent a long time sitting in a queue and it doesn't matter what the queue was.

What other tips would you offer? (Fair warning, I will tell the world).

#EffectiveMeetings I'm slowly looking to every single detail I can find on #ProductBacklogRefinement

A ThreePercentBetter Production In partnership with @bernie and @anil

3/3 Bad Estimate

Their item still spent a long time sitting in a queue and it doesn't matter what the queue was.

What other tips would you offer? (Fair warning, I will tell the world).

#EffectiveMeetings I'm slowly looking to every single detail I can find on #ProductBacklogRefinement

A ThreePercentBetter Production In partnership with @bernie and @anil

3/3 Bad Estimate

Another reason to dislike Ready, it encourages a local optimization. It makes the Scrum Team look good, by improving their cycle time, without necessarily improving things for the client. Example a Definition of Ready holds up a feature for 4+ weeks will requirements are being gathered. Now the Scrum Team looks good when they work on the item their cycle time will be low. However the customer isn't any happier.

2/3 :-) #ProductBacklogRefinement #EffectiveMeetings

Another reason to dislike Ready, it encourages a local optimization. It makes the Scrum Team look good, by improving their cycle time, without necessarily improving things for the client. Example a Definition of Ready holds up a feature for 4+ weeks will requirements are being gathered. Now the Scrum Team looks good when they work on the item their cycle time will be low. However the customer isn't any happier.

2/3 :-) #ProductBacklogRefinement #EffectiveMeetings

#DefinitionOfReady
Under some circumstances a Definition of Ready helps a Scrum (or Kanban Team) ensure their Product Backlog Items are well thought out. This means nothing is consider for Sprint work that would get probably get stuck.

I've already pointed out that ready encourages mini-waterfall/gate system.

1/2 #ProductBacklogRefinement #EffectiveMeetings

#DefinitionOfReady
Under some circumstances a Definition of Ready helps a Scrum (or Kanban Team) ensure their Product Backlog Items are well thought out. This means nothing is consider for Sprint work that would get probably get stuck.

I've already pointed out that ready encourages mini-waterfall/gate system.

1/2 #ProductBacklogRefinement #EffectiveMeetings

Pivot in Public. Nearly a month of writing about #ProductBacklogRefinement I'm seeing little engagement. As a student of #LeanStartup I want to learn from my audience.

Write in candidates are also appreciated.

A ThreePercentBetter production in partnership with @bernie and @anil
#EffectiveMeetings #BuildInPublic #Pivot

Help me understand:

Pivot in Public. Nearly a month of writing about #ProductBacklogRefinement I'm seeing little engagement. As a student of #LeanStartup I want to learn from my audience.

Write in candidates are also appreciated.

A ThreePercentBetter production in partnership with @bernie and @anil
#EffectiveMeetings #BuildInPublic #Pivot

Help me understand:

This set of tips summarized from https://www.shortcut.com/blog/how-to-do-backlog-refinement-less-wrong

What other tips would you offer? (Fair warning, I will tell the world).

#EffectiveMeetings I'm slowly looking to every single detail I can find on #ProductBacklogRefinement

In partnership with @bernie and @anil

- Collaboration should involve hearing from all voices, a good ScrumMaster should be facilitating to give everyone an opportunity to share
- Don’t get too far ahead - 3ish Sprints of well understood work is enough. (Some will argue even less is better)
- You don’t need to detail each and every acceptance criteria in Backlog Refinement

What other tips would you offer? (Fair warning, I will tell the world).

3/4 #EffectiveMeetings #ProductBacklogRefinement

- Everyone has a different definition of ready. (Hint I warned that Ready has some risks)
- Product Backlog is being refined 6+ Sprints out - too much detail too far ahead team members feel their time is being wasted.

The Cure (cue 80’s music)
- PO preps before refinement - they deeply understand what they want worked on, they know who needs to be there and as others have suggested they might even tell people in advance what will be worked on

2/4 #EffectiveMeetings #ProductBacklogRefinement

I love the title Less Wrong Backlog Refinement. This article pleasantly surprised me. This is a tool vendor site (it’s goal is to be a better than JIRA Scrum/Kanban tool), most tools vendors do not understand Scrum.

They open with Anti-Patterns:
- Meeting is used to assign work
- Team Member My opinion doesn’t matter, often because the PO is telling, not listening
- PO is Micromanaging or it’s opposite absent
- PO is unprepared

1/4 #EffectiveMeetings #ProductBacklogRefinement

I love the title Less Wrong Backlog Refinement. This article pleasantly surprised me. This is a tool vendor site (it’s goal is to be a better than JIRA Scrum/Kanban tool), most tools vendors do not understand Scrum.

They open with Anti-Patterns:
- Meeting is used to assign work
- Team Member My opinion doesn’t matter, often because the PO is telling, not listening
- PO is Micromanaging or it’s opposite absent
- PO is unprepared

1/4 #EffectiveMeetings #ProductBacklogRefinement

Excellent. If it becomes cumbersome, making it difficult for the PO, maybe it’s too much.

FWIW I’m not linking to the article because I realize that most the rest of the article is just summarizing other sources already mentioned.

What other tips would you offer? (Fair warning, I will tell the world).

#EffectiveMeetings I'm slowly looking to every single detail I can find on #ProductBacklogRefinement

In partnership with @bernie and @anil

I’ve seen Definition of Ready go off the rails when it becomes a long list and returns us to waterfall style gate system: Product Backlog -> Definition of Ready -> Sprint Backlog -> In Progress -> Definition of Done. The two “Definitions” one formally part of Scrum, one informal become the traditional phase gates.

If your Definition of Ready is short and to the point, it maybe helping clarify the work.

2/3 🙂 #EffectiveMeetings #ProductBacklogRefinement

An article I read tells a story of team struggling during their Sprint suffering from mini waterfalls because their Product Backlog Items were ill defined. (A sad oft heard tale). So they set about curing the problem. Just be aware that the cure, Definition of Ready, can become part of the problem at a later date. In this case the Definition of Ready: Clear, Small and Testable; feels like a restatement of INVEST (which the author also mentions).

1/3? #EffectiveMeetings #ProductBacklogRefinement

If there was any single blog in this series (aside from my own :-) that I might suggest you follow it is The Liberators. Too bad Medium makes it impossible to get an RSS feed.

What other tips would you offer? (Fair warning, if I agree I will tell the world).

#EffectiveMeetings I'm slowly looking to every single detail I can find on #ProductBacklogRefinement. Needless to say most of them had no useful tips. In partnership with @bernie and @anil

4/4

If there was any single blog in this series (aside from my own :-) that I might suggest you follow it is The Liberators. Too bad Medium makes it impossible to get an RSS feed.

What other tips would you offer? (Fair warning, if I agree I will tell the world).

#EffectiveMeetings I'm slowly looking to every single detail I can find on #ProductBacklogRefinement. Needless to say most of them had no useful tips. In partnership with @bernie and @anil

4/4

- Pair Refinement, pairing not just good for programming, now pairing makes refinement better. Seriously sometimes working in a smaller group for a short period makes better than working in a large group
- Prep work, share items to be refined prior to the meeting

As usual the article has more depth. https://medium.com/the-liberators/how-product-backlog-refinement-can-prevent-or-fix-zombie-scrum-5ba52a42e23d

3/4 #EffectiveMeetings

- Pair Refinement, pairing not just good for programming, now pairing makes refinement better. Seriously sometimes working in a smaller group for a short period makes better than working in a large group
- Prep work, share items to be refined prior to the meeting

As usual the article has more depth. https://medium.com/the-liberators/how-product-backlog-refinement-can-prevent-or-fix-zombie-scrum-5ba52a42e23d

3/4 #EffectiveMeetings

- Pick a the two largest items destined for the next Sprint and split them into at least 6 items. Whoa for many that will be hard work.
- Bring the bottom ten PBIs to the next Sprint Review meeting and offer to drop them. This is a hell of incentive to get stakeholders to attend Sprint Review.
- Trying Running after DS, when the team is already spent time away from task work, this works well in teams that resent refinement feeling it interrupts the flow of work

2/4 #EffectiveMeetings

- Pick a the two largest items destined for the next Sprint and split them into at least 6 items. Whoa for many that will be hard work.
- Bring the bottom ten PBIs to the next Sprint Review meeting and offer to drop them. This is a hell of incentive to get stakeholders to attend Sprint Review.
- Trying Running after DS, when the team is already spent time away from task work, this works well in teams that resent refinement feeling it interrupts the flow of work

2/4 #EffectiveMeetings

Backlog Refinement can prevent Zombie Scrum - I love the phrase Zombie Scrum. It conjures to mind teams using the practices of Scrum and getting limited benefit. They ran a workshop with their subscribers to find what was helping them with #ProductBacklogRefinement

The tips:
- Vote on which item(s) in the PB are least clear
- Invite Stakeholders to the refinement session - in particular stakeholders who have PBIs that are near the top of the Product Backlog

1/4 #EffectiveMeetings

Backlog Refinement can prevent Zombie Scrum - I love the phrase Zombie Scrum. It conjures to mind teams using the practices of Scrum and getting limited benefit. They ran a workshop with their subscribers to find what was helping them with #ProductBacklogRefinement

The tips:
- Vote on which item(s) in the PB are least clear
- Invite Stakeholders to the refinement session - in particular stakeholders who have PBIs that are near the top of the Product Backlog

1/4 #EffectiveMeetings

For me the deeper thought is if you hit violate the limits often or feel the urge to re-estimate in Sprint Planning, it’s probably a sign. Consider a deeper discussion in a Retrospective. (consider NoEstimates).

Not linking to the original post b/c I’m not trying to pick a fight with the author. I might differ with some suggestions not the person.

#EffectiveMeetings I'm slowly looking to every single detail I can find on #ProductBacklogRefinement. In partnership with @bernie and @anil

...
If the tradeoff is an extra 1-2 mins vs risking losing a team member’s voice, I will add the time.

Finally, there is a suggestion that estimation can happen in Refinement (yes) -> Sprint Planning (seems late) -> Start of work on the PBI (just ugh).

The win they cut down on the time spent in Backlog Refinement and mostly good. I like the idea. Timeboxes often help.

#EffectiveMeetings #ProductBacklogRefinement

3/5 - a bad guess

...
Halt. Cue the irony. Planning poker was invented to solve the very problem the author was having. Fast forward 20 yrs and the problem pops back up. I think it’s a hydra.
-
Most planning poker rounds, whether Story Point, T-Shirt sizing or gummy bears should resolve themselves after 3 rounds. The majority rules adopted by the author increases the likelihood that outliers and/or quieter team members will feel silenced.

#EffectiveMeetings #ProductBacklogRefinement

2/5 - a bad guess

4-minute refinement rounds?

Refinement was taking so long even after two time slots in a Sprint, the team still wasn’t ready for the next Sprint. The author’s change was to limit refinement on any item to four mins.
1st min - PO gives a quick recap
2nd min - Team questions
3rd min - Planning Poker round to find outliers, who explain thinking
4th min - Planning Poker again majority rules.

#EffectiveMeetings #ProductBacklogRefinement

1/5 - a bad guess

We’ve shared over 20 articles on effective backlog refinement over the past two weeks. Key question:

Are there gem articles from individuals (seriously we promote small people not corp SEO teams) that we missed?

#EffectiveMeetings I reviewed 168 sources on #ProductBacklogRefinement so you wouldn't need to. Needless to say most of them had no useful tips. In partnership with @bernie and @anil

We’ve shared over 20 articles on effective backlog refinement over the past two weeks. Key question:

Are there gem articles from individuals (seriously we promote small people not corp SEO teams) that we missed?

#EffectiveMeetings I reviewed 168 sources on #ProductBacklogRefinement so you wouldn't need to. Needless to say most of them had no useful tips. In partnership with @bernie and @anil

#EffectiveMeetings I'm slowly looking to every single detail I can find on #ProductBacklogRefinement. Needless to say most of them had no useful tips. In partnership with @bernie and @anil

At the end of round 2 items that haven’t moved have a good enough estimate. Items that only moved one step, likely also have a good enough estimate. Hand these to the PO.

Barry often continues for a 3rd round. On the other hand if the number of items that don’t have estimates is just handful I might run a traditional game of planning poker.

What other tips would you offer? (Fair warning, if I agree I will tell the world).

#EffectiveMeetings #ProductBacklogRefinement

4/5 - estimate 😢

Round 1: All team members grab a handful stories and start placing them at the estimate that makes the most sense. Use a ‘?’ for items that are ill understood. At the end of round 1, all the stories/PBIs should be place. This round is silent.

Round 2: Team members examine the where all the items are placed, if you think an item is the wrong location, move it. Make note it was moved and what the original estimate was.

#EffectiveMeetings #ProductBacklogRefinement

3/4 - estimate still ✅

We’re using to get a *rough* sense of the size of the Product Backlog and to see which items need deeper discussions right away.

On a floor/wall/mural/miro create buckets labelled with the familiar 1,2,3,5,8,13,20 sequence or XS,S,M,L,XL or what ever sequence works for you. Add ‘?’ category as well.

#EffectiveMeetings #ProductBacklogRefinement

2/4 - estimate still good

We’re using to get a *rough* sense of the size of the Product Backlog and to see which items need deeper discussions right away.

On a floor/wall/mural/miro create buckets labelled with the familiar 1,2,3,5,8,13,20 sequence or XS,S,M,L,XL or what ever sequence works for you. Add ‘?’ category as well.

#EffectiveMeetings #ProductBacklogRefinement

2/4 - estimate still good

Magic Estimation - I first learned about this approach from people at Rally (remember them). I’ve heard Bucketing, Wall Estimation, Affinity Mapping: https://medium.com/the-liberators/magic-estimation-5165df2be245 — Barry calls it Magic.

Context - use when you have a larger volume of PBIs to rapidly sort through: 1 1/2 -> 4 mths worth. This is focused on speed over precision. (Hint no estimation technique is precise)

#EffectiveMeetings #ProductBacklogRefinement

1/4 - I'm optimistic about this estimate.

Magic Estimation - I first learned about this approach from people at Rally (remember them). I’ve heard Bucketing, Wall Estimation, Affinity Mapping: https://medium.com/the-liberators/magic-estimation-5165df2be245 — Barry calls it Magic.

Context - use when you have a larger volume of PBIs to rapidly sort through: 1 1/2 -> 4 mths worth. This is focused on speed over precision. (Hint no estimation technique is precise)

#EffectiveMeetings #ProductBacklogRefinement

1/4 - I'm optimistic about this estimate.

Mise en place of Great Scrum Teams, Christiaan Verwijs - outlines 5 strategies on making refinement better: https://medium.com/the-liberators/refinement-the-mise-en-place-of-great-scrum-teams-78d7556a7952 - my favorite: Start with the end, if this item were finished and shown in Sprint Review what would the end user see?

#EffectiveMeetings I reviewed 168 sources on #ProductBacklogRefinement so you wouldn't need to. Needless to say most of them had no useful tips. In partnership with @bernie and @anil

Multi-team Product Backlog Refinement - Nils Bernert shows how teams using #LeSS make it work: https://www.infoq.com/presentations/less-workshop-backlog-refinement/

#EffectiveMeetings I reviewed 168 sources on #ProductBacklogRefinement so you wouldn't need to. Needless to say most of them had no useful tips. In partnership with @bernie and @anil

#SilentRefinement 4/8
…The author discourages this, saying prefer reading/writing over talking.

For any silent meeting to work you need a tool that allows you to see other people’s comments/edits in realtime. Hint not JIRA. Mural, Miro, Google docs etc are designed for this.

## My Response
Silent Meetings have been used for estimation for years (ex Bucket, Affinity est) and in some cases for prioritization. I would totally agree its good in this context.

#EffectiveMeetings #BacklogRefinement

For Backlog Refinement the author proposes taking the Product Backlog and making it the Table Read. Each Story would have a: Title, Story Description, Additional Info and Acceptance Criteria.

## Refinement Process
Arto proposes using silent refinement for the whole refinement process.

You need a tool that allows people to see each others comments and questions. If the comment/question is too difficult to write people revert to spoken word.

#EffectiveMeetings #BacklogRefinement

3/8

We (re)write the User Story in response to this conversation. Does silence work as well?

Arto is adapting the Silent Meeting. From Amazon see: https://medium.com/swlh/the-silent-meeting-manifesto-v1-189e9e3487eb

## Table Read
In the Amazon version of the process, there is 4-6 page narrative document, shared meeting start. It outlines the idea that is to be discussed. It is assumed that participants don’t have time to read before a meeting starts, so they start by reading the document.

#EffectiveMeetings #BacklogRefinement

2/8

# Silent Backlog Refinement Meetings - A Dream or Nightmare?
Reading Trumps listening, it engages quiet people and non-native speakers. Reading avoids domination by people who speak easily.

Rereading: Arto Kiiskinen's article https://www.eficode.com/blog/silent-backlog-refinement-meetings-a-more-effective-agile-meeting - I'm troubled. In traditional Product Backlog Refinement, I've found the back and forth discussion around what a customer needs to be the key value.

#EffectiveMeetings #BacklogRefinement

Thread 1/8

Kent McDonald offers a Kanban Board to visualize your current understanding of the state of the product backlog. https://insideproduct.co/discovery-board/ Pros: I love visualiziations and it helps the team see context and where they need to put effort. Con: any Kanban board with multiple columns can take an organic process and make it seem linear.

#EffectiveMeetings I reviewed 168 sources on #ProductBacklogRefinement so you wouldn't need to. Most of them had no useful tips. In partnership with @bernie and @anil

Backlog Refinement - some tips to make it better:
- Vote on which item(s) in the PB are least clear
- Trying Running after DS, when the team is already interrupted
- Prep work, share items to be refined prior to the meeting https://medium.com/the-liberators/how-product-backlog-refinement-can-prevent-or-fix-zombie-scrum-5ba52a42e23d

#EffectiveMeetings I reviewed 168 sources on #ProductBacklogRefinement so you wouldn't need to. Needless to say most of them had no useful tips. In partnership with @bernie and @anil 

Basic and Good Reminder - Why isn't #BacklogRefinement not just part of sprint planning? and Why isn't refinement something the product owner does on their own? from Joel Bancroft-Connors again https://resources.scrumalliance.org/Article/product-backlog-refinement

#EffectiveMeetings I reviewed 168 sources on #ProductBacklogRefinement so you wouldn't need to. Needless to say most of them had no useful tips. In partnership with @bernie and @anil 

Backlog refinement, became a groan, so the team changed to 4 minute discussion | LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/executing-effective-backlog-refinement-meeting-james-noble/ - arguably about estimation more than refinement, still a good idea

#EffectiveMeetings I reviewed 168 sources on #ProductBacklogRefinement so you wouldn't need to. Needless to say most of them had no useful tips. In partnership with @bernie and @anil 

Silent backlog refinement meetings: a more effective Agile meeting https://www.eficode.com/blog/silent-backlog-refinement-meetings-a-more-effective-agile-meeting - this will count as one of the stranger refinement tips.

#EffectiveMeetings I reviewed 168 sources on #ProductBacklogRefinement so you wouldn't need to. Needless to say most of them had no useful tips. Thanks to DevonAgent for helping me find a massive number of sources fast.

@mcnulla agreed, not all problems are solved with a better event. Some require bigger improvements

#EffectiveMeetings

@mlevison
You might want to talk with @ASegar on #EffectiveMeetings

For the next month, I will be exploring effective meetings. I hear from far too many Scrum, Kanban, teams that the hard part isn’t the mechanics it’s getting people engaged in meetings. Engagement doesn’t come from Star War’s themed retrospective.

I’m curious as to what pain you have suffered? What you have tried? What has failed?

In the spirit of WorkOutLoud #WOL and #LeanStartup I will working in public

Help me figure out what pain you would like solved. Follow #EffectiveMeetings for more.