How to complete a mission impossible

During the scrum training last week, dainel Teng assigned each team a task to complete a three-minute presentation of scrum video in three 40-minute sprints, this is also one of the most impressive things I have learned during my three-day training. "I have to learn this on paper. I am sure I want to do it ".

When listing the story points, we thought that three minutes of Video should be a relatively easy task, so we listed a lot of content to be completed, in addition, we plan to complete the introduction of "What is scrum", "the source of scrum", "the advantages of scrum", and "the real case of scrum" in the first sprint. However, in the actual operation process, we found that this is simply a mission impossible.

Why? In fact, when our team made the DOD (definition of done), it has already been reflected, but we have not paid much attention to it. The DOD we developed at that time includes the following:

1. Complete video shooting
2. Complete subtitle Creation
3. Integrate background music
4. Merging scenarios
5. Complete the description of the content
6. ......

We can see that this includes the use of various technologies, including video shooting, sound synthesis, and non-linear editing software. For our non-professional students, every technology requires a certain amount of learning and familiarity, not three hours. In addition, many estimates are not reliable because they are unfamiliar, which directly leads to a great choice for content during actual operations.

At the beginning of the first sprint, we started a planning meeting based on the scrum framework and decided to divide the six-member team into three groups, each of which is responsible for completing the following two story points:

1. What is the source of scrum + scrum?
2. Benefits of scrum
3. Scrum case

Then, after a simple discussion, we paired up and started to work. We are still discussing some details and want to make the video have a unified style as a whole. However, we find that too many plans are meaningless and time-consuming. We have to make a trade-off. In other words, it is most important to complete basic tasks and obtain user feedback. Otherwise, it is very likely that time is exhausted and there is no result.

At the end of the first sprint, we found that there were serious problems with the original estimation. One of the three groups completed 15 seconds of shooting, importing, and editing, the other two groups are still in the design phase, and there is no integration or demo content, so we decided at the refinement meeting to abandon the original idea, in the three sprints, you only need to complete the most basic four product backlogs, that is, the content originally planned to be completed in the first sprint. Then, because there are only two laptops, make full use of them.

Starting the second sprint, the first group completed the shooting and merging of the remaining two points of "scrum benefits" as soon as possible and started to enter the subtitle phase. Then, I found that the other two groups encountered problems in the use of the software, so I adjusted the correct combination in time and moved it to another group, start to make the "What is scrum + scrum source" part, show three photos taken, then write the corresponding content, and start to make.

With the technical accumulation and experience in the First sprint, the progress of this phase is much faster, and two parts of the video have been basically completed, the third part of the material has been prepared and can be started at any time.

Soon, the third and last sprint started. After we finished the preparation of the third part, we entered the final merging stage where the background music was configured. Even so, the time was just right, because of problems in music selection and downloading, I had to choose a good music as the background music. In addition, it took some time to study the technology of eliminating the original sound. The final combination and generation take some time. At this time, the existing experience has played a role. We stopped all the adjustment and optimization work for the remaining five minutes and immediately entered the generation phase, this ensures that a complete video can be submitted at the end of the time.

120 minutes are fleeting. We found that the efficiency of the team is still very high, and finally we have a fairly reasonable result. Let's summarize the gains:

1. It is very important that estimation without practical tests is unreliable.
2. Dynamic Adjustment is very important in two aspects:
1. Dynamic Adjustment of the content to be completed
2. Dynamically adjust the team and use the most appropriate person in the most appropriate position
3. It is important to divide the entire 120 minutes into three sprints, so that you can review, summarize, and adjust them in a timely manner after each stage ends.
4. Decisions must be decisive. Sometimes they may need to be strong.
5. We know ourselves, know ourselves, and know each other. We need to constantly understand the tasks we want to accomplish and our own capabilities in the actual operation process, so as to make better estimates and decisions.
6. When encountering technical problems, we need to use the collective wisdom to solve them, rather than relying on a person's head-on research.
7. The 20% principle is very important. In many cases, we spent 80% of our time completing of our work.

There are still many gains, and we still need to constantly think about and summarize. The most important thing is that we have realized the importance of a team's collaboration and have the confidence to use the appropriate methods, in a short time, you can complete the tasks that are originally considered impossible.