Certified Scrum Master (CSM) - Sustained Agility1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer...

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Eric Tucker CERTIFIED SCRUM TRAINER & AGILE COACH Certified Scrum Master (CSM) A WORKBOOK FOR REFERENCE TO HELP YOU BECOME A GREAT SCRUM MASTER

Transcript of Certified Scrum Master (CSM) - Sustained Agility1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer...

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Eric Tucker CERTIFIED SCRUM TRAINER & AGILE COACH

Certified Scrum Master (CSM) A WORKBOOK FOR REFERENCE TO HELP YOU BECOME A GREAT SCRUM MASTER

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SCRUM ALLIANCE CERTIFICATIONS ....................................................................................................................... 2

SELF-ORGANIZATION ............................................................................................................................................ 3

AGILE OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................................................. 4

THE AGILE MANIFESTO ......................................................................................................................................... 9

PRINCIPLES BEHIND THE AGILE MANIFESTO ....................................................................................................... 10

SCRUM VALUES .................................................................................................................................................. 11

SCRUM OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................................................. 12

SCRUM ROLES .................................................................................................................................................... 15

BUILD YOUR OWN SCRUM ................................................................................................................................. 17

ENGINEERING PRACTICES ................................................................................................................................... 18

DEFINITION OF DONE ......................................................................................................................................... 19

SCRUM ARTIFACTS ............................................................................................................................................. 20

SCRUM EVENTS .................................................................................................................................................. 21

TEACH BACK ....................................................................................................................................................... 23

PRODUCT VISION ............................................................................................................................................... 24

USER STORIES ..................................................................................................................................................... 25

ESTIMATION ....................................................................................................................................................... 26

SIMULATION ...................................................................................................................................................... 27

COACHING .......................................................................................................................................................... 28

POWERFUL QUESTIONS ...................................................................................................................................... 33

FACILITATION ..................................................................................................................................................... 36

MEETING FACILITATION GUIDE ........................................................................................................................... 40

SETTING EXPECTATIONS ..................................................................................................................................... 52

NOTES ................................................................................................................................................................ 53

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Scrum Alliance Certifications

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Self-Organization Self-organization is to Scrum as the heart is to the human body. Without it, Scrum cannot reach its fullest potential. Self-Organization Debrief: Can a team be successful without regular retrospectives?

What did you notice about your speed from round to round?

What did you notice about your quality from round to round?

When did you learn the most, doing up-front planning before round 1, or by doing round 1?

Did you notice team members helping each other? And not keeping information to themselves?

What did you notice about your team dynamics as we moved from round to round?

How did you feel personally in rounds 1, 2 and 3?

Did you feel motivated in rounds 1, 2 and 3?

How did you feel personally in round 4?

Did you feel motivated in round 4? If not, why?

What if I asked you to plan all 4 rounds before starting round 1? Would your estimates have

been anywhere near your actuals? In real life are we asked to estimate big projects up front

even before a team is formed? Does that seem extra silly now?

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Agile Overview

Notes

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Notes

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Notes

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Notes

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Notes

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The Agile Manifesto

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it.

Through this work we have come to value:

over

over

over

over

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

Using the choices below, fill in the blanks above.

Available choices:

• Customer Collaboration

• processes and tools

• following a plan

• Working Software

• comprehensive documentation

• Responding to change

• Individuals and Interactions

• contract negotiation

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Principles Behind the Agile Manifesto

We follow these principles:

1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of

valuable software.

2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness

change for the customer's competitive advantage.

3. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months,

with a preference to the shorter timescale.

4. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.

5. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support

they need and trust them to get the job done.

6. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a

development team is face-to-face conversation.

7. Working software is the primary measure of progress.

8. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users

should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.

10. Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.

11. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.

12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and

adjusts its behavior accordingly.

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Scrum Values

“Successful use of Scrum depends on people becoming more proficient in living these five

values. People personally __________ to achieving the goals of the Scrum Team. The Scrum

Team members have __________ to do the right thing and work on tough problems. Everyone

__________ on the work of the Sprint and the goals of the Scrum Team. The Scrum Team and

its stakeholders agree to be __________ about all the work and the challenges with performing

the work. Scrum Team members __________ each other to be capable, independent people.”

(excerpt borrowed from the Scrum Guide)

Available choices:

• courage

• elegance

• commit

• judge

• presume

• detail

• respect

• command

• open

• focuses

The Stacey Diagram

Scrum is best suited for _________________ projects.

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Scrum Overview

Notes

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Notes

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The 3 pillars necessary for Empirical Process Control (and therefore scrum) are:

1.

2.

3. The 3 artifacts in scrum are:

1.

2.

3. The 5 values of scrum are:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

The 3 roles in scrum are:

1.

2.

3.

The 5 events (also known as “inspect & adapt points”) are:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

The 1 activity in scrum is:

1. A sprint is a _____ - _____ of one

___________ or less.

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Scrum Roles

Notes

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The Scrum Master The Product Owner

1. 1.

2. 2.

3. 3.

4. 4.

5. 5.

6. 6.

7. 7.

The Development Team

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

What about the Project Manager?

What about me?

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Build Your Own Scrum

Notes

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Engineering Practices

Engineering Concept Short Definition

Pair Programming

Code Refactoring

Technical Debt

Test Driven Development

Continuous Integration

Continuous Delivery

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Definition of Done A sample definition of done taken from an actual scrum team is below. The items below are by no means required for the team you serve. But they are a good guideline/starting point.

Test/Action Quality Check

Write code components Code meets coding and naming standards and checked into repository

Create/update unit tests Unit tests pass 100% - zero defects

Conduct code review All issues addressed

Create wireframes and UI UI meets standards

Update design document Document reviewed

Create/update automated acceptance test

Acceptance tests pass 100% - zero defects

Perform code coverage test Code coverage is same or better %

Run integration tests Integration test pass 100% - zero defects

Run performance tests Same or better performance

Update user guide Updates reviewed and checked in

Update online context help Updates reviewed and checked in

Product Owner Accepted PBI demonstrated for PO, acceptance criteria met

Update build scripts Builds completing without error

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Scrum Artifacts

The Product Backlog

Owner:

Items in it are called?

How often can order change?

Who collaborates on items in it?

When do items get added?

PBIs can be updated at any time by the?

The Product Backlog lists all:

The Sprint Backlog

Owner:

How often can the order change?

Who decides to add/remove tasks during a sprint?

Who decides when to add/remove PBIs during a sprint?

The Increment

What is it?

The Increment must be:

The Increment must meet the team’s:

The Increment is a step toward:

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Scrum Events The Sprint

Purpose:

Duration:

Inputs:

Outputs:

Sprint Planning

Purpose:

Duration:

Attendees:

When:

Inputs:

Outputs:

Daily Scrum

Purpose:

Duration:

Attendees:

When:

Inputs:

Outputs:

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Sprint Review Purpose:

Duration:

Attendees:

When:

Inputs:

Outputs:

Sprint Retrospective

Purpose:

Duration:

Attendees:

When:

Inputs:

Outputs:

Notes

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Teach Back The best way to learn is to teach. And the best way to help your company

succeed with Agile and Scrum adoption is for YOU to educate them. The teach

back will give you practice at two key skills:

1. Teaching others what you’ve learned

2. Conveying the value of doing thing differently than they are used to doing them

Fill out the details about your experience below:

For the Teach Back my partner was:

What I taught:

What I learned:

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Product Vision

For: (target customer)

Who needs: (statement of need or opportunity)

The: (product name)

Is a: (type of product)

That: (key benefit, reason to buy)

Unlike: (primary competitive alternative)

Our Product: (statement of primary differentiation)

Notes

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User Stories

What is a User Story? ________________________________________

What are the 3 C’s of a User Story?

Front of Card Back of Card

Backlog Refinement

When does it happen? How long does it last? What’s the purpose? Who is in charge?

As a __________________

I want _________________

So that ________________

I know this story is done when…

o Acceptance Criteria 1

o Acceptance Criteria 2

o Acceptance Criteria 3

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Estimation

Notes

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Simulation

You will have 2 sprints to build the product you created in your product vision. The sprint structure will be as follows: Sprint Planning (5 minutes)

� Part 1: 1. Dev team decides “what” stories to bring into the sprint 2. PO clarifies any questions 3. PO and dev team together create sprint goal

� Part 2: 1. Dev team figures out “how” to build each story and creates necessary

development tasks Build Your Product (10 minutes)

� Development Team members build the product, Product Owners do not. � Product Owners have 2 jobs during this timebox:

1. Answer any questions the Development Team has about the stories on which they are working.

2. Accept or reject completed stories based on acceptance criteria. Sprint Review (3 minutes)

� Provide available metrics � Demonstrate the Product Increment to your customer

Backlog Refinement (5 minutes)

� If any changes are needed in your product backlog, this is the time to make them. Retrospective (2 minutes)

� How can your team improve itself for the next sprint? We will run 2 sprints.

What were your takeaways?

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Coaching

Notes

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Notes

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Notes

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Notes

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Notes

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Powerful Questions

Powerful questions are provocative queries that put a halt to evasion and confusion. By asking

the powerful question, the coach invites the client to clarity, action, and discovery at a whole

new level. As you can see from the following examples, these generally are open-ended

questions that create greater possibility for expanded learning and fresh perspective.

Quick Reference

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More Examples of Situational Powerful Questions

Anticipation

• What is possible? • What if it works out exactly as you want it

to? • What is the dream? • What is exciting to you about this? • What is the urge? • What does your intuition tell you?

Assessment

• What do you make of it? • What do you think is best? • How does it look to you? • How do you feel about it? • What resonates for you?

Clarification

• What do you mean? • What does it feel like? • What is the part that is not yet clear? • What more can you tell me? • What do you want?

Elaboration

• What more can you tell me? • What else? • What other ideas/thoughts/feelings do you

have about it? Evaluation

• What is the opportunity here? What is the challenge?

• How does this fit with your plans/way of life/values?

• What do you think that means? • What is your assessment?

Example

• What is an example? • For instance? • Like what? • Such as? • What would it look like?

Exploration

• What is here that you want to explore? • What part of the situation have you not yet

explored? • What other angles can you think of? • What is just one more possibility? • What are your other options?

For Instance

• If you could do it over again, what would you do differently?

• If it had been you, what would you have done?

• How else could a person handle this? • If you could do anything you wanted, what

would you do? Fun as Perspective

• What does fun mean to you? • What was humorous about the situation? • How can you make this more fun? • How do you want it to be? • If you were to teach people how to have

fun, what would you say? History

• What caused it? • What led up to it? • What have you tried so far? • What do you make of it all?

Implementation

• What is the action plan? • What will you have to do to get the job

done? • What support do you need to accomplish it? • What will you do? • When will you do it?

Integration

• What will you take away from this? • How do you explain this to yourself? • What was the lesson? • How can you make sure you remember

what you have learned? • How would you pull all this together?

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Learning • If your life depended on taking action, what

would you do? • If you had free choice in the matter, what

would you do? • If the same thing came up again, what would

you do? • If we could wipe the slate clean, what would

you do? • If you had it to do over again, what would you

do? Options

• What are the possibilities? • If you had your choice, what would you do? • What are possible solutions? • What will happen if you do, and what will

happen if you don’t? • What options can you create?

Outcomes

• What do you want? • What is your desired outcome? • If you got it, what would you have? • How will you know you have reached it? • What would it look like?

Perspective

• When you are ninety-five years old, what will you want to say about your life?

• What will you think about this five years from now?

• How does this relate to your life purpose? • In the bigger scheme of things, how

important is this? • So what?

Planning

• What do you plan to do about it? • What is your game plan? • What kind of plan do you need to create? • How do you suppose you could improve the

situation? • Now what?

Predictions

• How do you suppose it will all work out? • What will that get you? • Where will this lead? • What are the chances of success? • What is your prediction?

Resources

• What resources do you need to help you decide?

• What do you know about it now? • How do you suppose you can find out more

about it? • What kind of picture do you have right now? • What resources are available to you?

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Facilitation

Notes

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Notes

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Notes

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Notes

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Meeting Facilitation Guide Facilitation Best Practices

Maintain an Informal, Relaxed and Comfortable Style

Purpose:

The effective facilitator has a conversational manner of speaking, a comfortable voice, an easy

smile and relaxed physical presence. An informal and accessible style encourages participation,

free flow of ideas, risk-taking and responsibility by the group members. By contrast, a rigid,

authoritative, unsmiling and uptight manner does not encourage easy participation and often

engenders confrontational opposition.

Facilitator Comments:

• "Thanks for your thoughts”

• “I understand what you are saying about….”

• “I’m sure we all appreciate the pressures you are under to…”

• “That’s helpful. Do you have anything else to add?

Facilitator Techniques:

• Smile.

• Look at the person who is speaking or to whom you are speaking.

• Open your hands and arms as often as possible.

• Do not fold arms across your chest.

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Reads and Responds to Nonverbal Behavior

Purpose:

Since we know that the verbal component of a conversation carries only 35% of the meaning, it

is important to have some mastery of the nonverbal communication. The purpose of this

behavior is to be able to recognize the cues that people are sending you and use that

information to facilitate the discussion. It is important to keep in mind that nonverbal cues can

be misinterpreted; therefore, the best way to respond is to ask a question.

Facilitator Comments & Questions:

• “You look like you have a question about this.”

• “Do I sense that you disagree with what was just said?”

• “Does your experience tell you something else about this problem?”

• “Something seems to be on your mind. What is it?”

• “It seems to me that you are having trouble seeing how this could work in your area.

What are your concerns?”

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Attempts to Involve All Participants

Purpose:

Although the purpose may seem obvious, it is not involvement for involvement’s sake. We want

involvement because 1) more ideas lead to better ideas, 2) more ideas help us to anticipate

problems and develop coping strategies, and finally, 3) involvement is the key to alignment to

decisions and commitment to action. When people have had an opportunity to influence a

decision, they are more likely to support it.

Facilitator Comments & Questions:

• “How do the rest of you feel about this proposal?”

• “We haven’t heard from the folks in the ____________ department. How do you react

to this suggestion?”

• “We have heard how the people in _____ feel about it; now let’s hear from the people

in other departments.”

• “Would someone else care to comment on this?”

• “Does anyone else have a reaction to this insight/proposal/suggestion?”

• “We realize that you feel very strongly about this. Can we hear from some other folks?”

• “What other points of view are there?”

• “Would someone else tell us how this approach could work in their area?”

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Keeps the Discussion on Target

Purpose:

Once again, the purpose may be obvious. However, keeping the discussion on target helps you

do two things: (1) manage the time, and (2) get to your desired outcome. Since people have

limited time for meetings, you have to ensure that the discussion does not drag on and that it

stays focused on the goal of the meeting. When the discussion wanders, it is up to you to use

your facilitation skills to bring it back.

Facilitator Comments & Questions:

• “Where are we in relation to ________?”

• “We seem to be off our original area of concern. Do you want to continue or get back to

our topic?”

• “Why are we discussing this topic right now?”

• “It looks like we have drifted off of the agenda.”

• “Let get refocused on ____”

• “What has that got to do with ___?”

• “I’m confused. Where are we in relation to this agenda item?”

• “Does anyone object to us returning to the discussion of ________?”

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Deals Effectively with Objections and Disagreements

Purpose:

Your role here is to get the objections and other negative feelings out and handled in a

constructive manner. You want to make sure that the meeting does not turn into a gripe

session. It’s important that the discussion have some balance between the advantages and

disadvantages. In addition, after some discussion of problems, you want to move the group to

solutions including how the obstacles and objections can be overcome. A key to success is to

help the group keep focused on the goal of the meeting or the decision that needs to be agreed

upon.

Facilitator Comments & Questions:

• “You have some concerns about this recommendation?”

• “What can we do to re-work the proposal and make it acceptable to you?” ”Tell us how

you would handle it and still meet our objective to ____?”

• “Who can give us the advantages of this approach?”

• “We all agree that cutting costs is necessary; how do we do that and still maintain

quality?”

• “Keep in mind that our primary purpose here today is ______.”

• “How does your comment help us to reach that goal?”

• “If we deal with your concern, will you support the recommendation?”

• “How do you think your customers will react to this change?”

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Moves the Discussion Along to a Conclusion or a Decision

Purpose:

Throughout the meeting, as you deal with each item, it is necessary to keep the group focused

on the outcome – acting on a recommendation, agreeing on a plan, making a decision. It is your

role to provide the structure for the group and then help them reach their goal. It is not enough

to just have a group discussion. You and your group should want to reach closure – to do

something or to take action.

Facilitator Comments & Questions:

• “Is everyone clear on what we are proposing here?”

• “As you look at the alternatives, what strikes you as the best approach?”

• “Setting aside the specifics for the moment, it looks like we all agree that this is the way

to go. Am I right on that?”

• “If we can eliminate the problems that have been noted, are you ready to move forward

and support this plan?”

• “Let me summarize the key points on which we agree.”

• “We’ve talked a lot about this recommendation and the consensus appears to be….”

• “While not everyone is happy with the whole package, we’re still willing to give it a shot.

Let’s talk about the next steps.”

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Help the Group Identify Clear Action Items and Commitments

Purpose:

A decision without a plan can be worse than no decision at all. Effective facilitation requires

that the group members commit to take action to implement the decision. In many ways,

agreeing to take on tasks is an indicator of commitment. If people are willing to accept and

follow through on action items, this is a sign of a healthy and mature group. It’s also signals a

successful facilitator.

Facilitator Comments & Questions:

• “We’ve decided to go ahead with the recommendation to……. Let’s list the steps

involved in implementing this approach.”

• “You have agreed to ___. What are the next steps?”

• “Let’s brainstorm a list of tasks that must be completed in order to reach this objective.”

• “We gave agreed on these action items. Now, let’s get some volunteers to take

responsibility for each item.”

• “Who would like to own these tasks?”

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Close the Meeting on a Positive and Forward-Looking Note

Purpose:

How you end a meeting is as important as how you open a meeting. The purpose of a positive

closing is to summarize what has been accomplished and what will happen next, as well as to

“celebrate” the successes. The facilitator can take responsibility for summarizing or it can be

done by the scribe. The summary is also a final reminder for group members of their decisions

and their personal action items. In addition, it is often helpful to take five minutes at the end of

a meeting to ask for assessment of the meeting.

Facilitator Comments & Questions:

• “Before we wrap up, let’s quickly review the key decisions and next steps.”

• “What do you see as the most important outcome of this meeting?”

• “How do you feel about what we accomplished today?”

• “Let’s take a few minutes to reflect on our meeting process. What might we want to

consider doing differently next time?”

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Facilitation Tools & Techniques

Ground Rules

Before the meeting starts, it's good to have everyone on the same page in terms of what

behaviors are encouraged and those that are potential obstacles to a valuable meeting. It's best

to come to the meeting with "suggested" ground rules and ask the team if they are willing to

"opt-in" to those rules. Also ask if there are any rules they would like to add. Some suggested

ground rules are:

1. No use of electronic devices (unless presenting or taking notes)

2. No interrupting

3. No side conversations

4. Be respectful and courteous

5. Start and end meetings on time

Set the Stage

Open the meeting by stating the purpose of the meeting and the objectives that are intended

to be achieved.

Visible Agenda

Meetings flow well when there is a visible agenda in the room. The meeting can begin by

socializing the agenda with the audience and asking for approval/any changes needed to the

agenda.

Time-Boxing

Once the agenda has been set, ask the attendees how much time they would like to spend on

each agenda item (a.k.a., time-boxing). Mark the agreed upon time box next to each agenda

item. Once the time boxes have been set, and the room is ready to commence the meeting,

keep track of the time elapsed for each agenda item's time box. When approaching the end

time for an agenda item, let the room know by announcing something like "just wanted to let

you all know, there are X minutes left in this time-box."

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When the time box expires, don't aggressively cut off the discussion. There is a fine line

between facilitating a meeting, and rudely cutting off valuable conversation, and the objective

is to make sure the audience gets max value for their time, not get alienated. Take the

temperature of the discussion and look for an opportune time to insert yourself. When that

moment arrives, you could say something like "the time we have agreed upon for this agenda

item has expired. Do we need more time, or are we ready to move to the next topic?" If the

room agrees that more time is needed, ask how much and start a new time-box.

Parking Lot

Invariably, discussions break out on topics that are not consistent with the room-approved

agenda. If that happens, as facilitator, invite those who are interested in discussing something

off topic to note it on a post-it and place it on the parking lot board. The intention will be to

leave time at the end of the meeting to "empty the parking lot." That can mean multiple things.

If there is time left in the meeting, parking lot items can be discussed then and there. If not, a

follow up meeting can be scheduled. In addition, in some cases parking lot items can be turned

into actions.

Actions, Decisions & Impediments

While the meeting is taking place, a good facilitator listens closely to the conversation. This is

NOT done so the facilitator can inject their opinion or expertise as to the subject being

discussed. Rather, the facilitator listens carefully to identify items that could be actions,

decisions or impediments that the group needs to capture.

It's a good idea to have artifacts on the wall where meeting attendees can place post-it notes

containing actions, decisions or impediments they have identified during the course of a

discussion. From the facilitator's perspective, when you hear something that would qualify as

an action item, ask "is that an action?" If the answer is yes, follow that up with "would you be

willing to capture that and put it on the action's board?" Use a similar approach to decisions,

impediments and parking lot items.

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Note Taking

A facilitator is NOT a note-taker. As a matter of fact, if a facilitator is taking notes, their

attention is effectively diverted from meeting facilitation as described in this document.

Consider involving the entire audience in the process of note taking by asking them to

contribute to Actions, Decisions, Impediment and Parking Lot artifacts. Post-it notes, and

sharpies are a wonderful tool for this.

Opinions & Directives

A facilitator does not share their opinions or give orders in a meeting. A facilitator is a neutral

observer of the discussion and only cares about executing on the principles and tactics outlined

herein.

Standing

It is a common practice for a facilitator to stand during a meeting. It allows the facilitator to:

1. See everyone's facial and other non-verbal expressions

2. Gain everyone's attention when appropriate

3. Move out of the focal point of conversation when appropriate

50-Minute Hour

When planning your meeting, try to set the agenda and activity to finish with a small amount of

time remaining in the time box allocated for the meeting. If the meeting is set for an hour, try

to be wrapped up in 50 minutes.

This gives time for:

1. Emptying the parking lot

2. Possibly doing a mini-retrospective with the group. How did this meeting work for you?

Would you change anything next time?

3. Give people time to arrive at their next meeting on time.

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Room Preparation

If possible, try to arrive to the room early. Make sure all attendees have the materials they will

need and that the room contains the artifacts necessary to have a productive meeting. Some

suggestions are:

1. Area to display:

a. Visible agenda

b. Ground rules

c. Actions, Decisions and & Impediments board

d. Parking lot

2. Stickies and sharpies for each attendee

3. Poster board for creation and preservation of artifacts (if necessary)

4. Handouts or visual aids that may be required

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Setting Expectations

Notes

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