Tackle Life Together

A blog by Sally Waters

sally [at] homescrum .co.uk

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The speed-run | Summaries only

Too long, didn’t read? These posts are: the whole blog as bullet points, and the whole blog as check-lists. That’s it. Oh, and I’ve thrown in this image, which gives a visual overview of the basics of how to do Home Scrum. Go for it! 🙂

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Diagram of how to do Home Scrum. First section: What you'll need 1) At least one other person (could be online) 2) An empty wall you see often 3) A board, post-it notes, and (for a whiteboard) blu-tack or (for a cork board) pins. Second section: Board layout Adapt this layout to you, or start simple with columns for To Do, Doing, and Done. Divide columns with ribbon, string, tape, or strips of newspaper. Use different colours for different life categories (e.g. Health, Home, Work, Hobbies). Each task should be on a single post-it note of the appropriate colour, with a specific, do-able next step written on it. In the top corner you can write a number in a circle, which gives the task points. Points represent effort, and we often use the following scale: 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20, 40, infinity. Suggested landscape board layout: 1) 'Backlog' first column, far left, groups tasks by life category 2) 'This Week' top half of second column; fill this with a realistic number of tasks from the backlog 3) 'Regulars' bottom half of second column; 'Regulars' are repeating tasks, e.g. housework. 4) 'Today' third column, potentially split further into columns for each person's tasks. Could add a 'Morning' heading at the top of the column and an 'Afternoon' one halfway down, to indicate when you'll get to a task. 4) 'Done today' top third fourth column. 5) 'Burn-up Chart' middle third fourth column, this can just be a simple graph to show how many tasks you've done, but can be adapted later into a fun game. 6) 'Done This Week', bottom third fourth column; read the tasks from here again before discarding them, to celebrate your achievements. Third section: The Scrum Events 1) The Daily Scrum: - maximum 15 minutes - stand up if possible - move tasks to 'done today' - count total points done - record points on burn-up chart - move tasks back to regulars or into 'done this week' - plan tasks for next day (move them to 'today') - do *every day* 2) Retrospective ('retro') - 5 to 30 minutes - Discuss improvements to your system - Pick an idea to try for the next week - Use little games to make it more fun - Air your feelings - Weekly or fortnightly 3) Planning - 15 to 45 minutes - Remove stale tasks from backlong - Break down larger tasks into smaller steps - Decide which tasks from the backlog to move into 'this week' - Pick fewer tasks than you think you can do - Weekly or fortnightly 4) Review - Clear out 'done this week' - Remind yourself of all your progress and celebrate