Preparing for the Training
I have found that a bit of preparation time will usually improve the training experience disproportionately. Please be encouraged to complete a couple of preparations, also detailed in the following sections, before the training begins. These include a few mental warm-ups in Scrum theory, as well as ensuring that you have a suitable technical setup to work with. Please plan on investing about 2-3 hours in preparations.
Warm-Ups
Please complete the following warm-ups, ideally a couple of days before the training commences.
The additional time to sleep over the learned content will work wonders, in terms of helping you connect it all into a coherent model.
Please start by thoroughly reading and understanding the current Scrum Guide and writing down any questions that you may still have. Based on what you learn, please prepare your answers to the following questions. It is important here to really base your answers on the content of the current Scrum Guide. For this activity, please avoid hearsay as well as sources other than the Scrum Guide. There are many Scrum myths and misunderstandings in circulation, and they are likely to give you a skewed picture unless you take correct reference. Please write down your answers digitally and arrive prepared to share them via copying & pasting at the beginning of the training.
1) How would you describe Scrum in a single sentence?
2) What are some benefits that Scrum can bring to your organization, if applicable, and to you personally?
3) What does each of the following terms mean, in the context of Scrum? What is the purpose/outcome of each?
3a: Empiricism
3b: Cross-functionality
3c: Self-management
3d: Scrum Values
3e: Timeboxing
3f: “Done”
4) What are the five Scrum events? What is the purpose/outcome of each?
5) What are the three Scrum artifacts? What is the purpose/outcome of each?
6) What do you think are the most important actions to take for the holders of each of the following three Scrum accountabilities?
6a: Developers
6b: Product Owner
6c: Scrum Master
7) What do you think is the most important characteristic of Scrum, and why?
Technical Setup
For you to participate fully, the following technical setup needs to be in place:
– A reasonably modern computer with a webcam. Please see the Zoom System Requirements and Miro System Requirements for details.
– A microphone and speakers, or a headset
– A stable and reasonably fast internet connection (3 Mbps downstream / 2 MB upstream at a minimum, faster being better)
– Zoom and Miro native apps, if possible – or at least a browser with fully ensured compatibility (Google Chrome usually works great)
– I recommend choosing a physical keyboard, large screen and mouse over mobile touchscreen devices, as this tends to speed up interactions significantly
Consider installing the native Zoom and Miro apps, if possible. These offer usability and performance advantages over using the corresponding web interfaces. If for some reason you are limited to using the web interfaces, please ensure that you are using a fully compatible browser, if your organization allows it. Recent versions of Google Chrome have proven to work well, while other browsers are prone to creating issues of one kind or another. Please ensure that all browser functionality such as JavaScript is enabled. Please also deactivate all ad blockers as they can sometimes misidentify legitimate content as ads and interfere with it.
I recommended signing up to Miro before the training, if you have not yet. This enables you to upload a profile pic and a choose a screen name. In case you are not familiar with Miro yet, you can get a head start by using the resources in the Miro Learning Center, accessible via the question mark in the top menu bar.
I also recommend muting the audio notifications on your cell phone, as well as on email and messaging apps, or shut off those apps entirely, to avoid them from beeping constantly during the training.
If you cannot fully control the space in which you are, I highly recommend using a headset. This also ensures that what other students say remains private to the training.
If background noise remains an issue, please consider additional means of supressing it, such as by using Krisp.ai.
Other Information
– Course hours will be 09:00 to 17:00 in the time zone listed (unless otherwise stated in your joining instructions).
– The Trainer will be in the Zoom room 30 minutes before the class begins on Day 1 if you need any assistance.
– Please arrive well before the start time and ensure you are all set up and ready to go on time.
– We will break for lunch at around 12:30 for 1 hour.
– We value safety and inclusiveness. Let us know if you require any special accommodations to make participating in this class a better experience for you. We will do our best to accommodate. You can also speak to your Trainer during the course.
The trainer will answer any other questions you have during the course. If there is anything urgent, or if you need any technical support in advance, please email [email protected] .