Sprint Rules

  • The Team can seek outside advice, help, information and support during the Sprint.
  • No one outside the Team should provide instruction, commentary or direction to the Team during the Sprint. The Team is utterly self managing and every member of the Team is responsible for managing the Team.
  • The Team commits to deliver Product Backlog items during the Sprint Planning meeting. No one outside the Team should change the Product Backlog items committed to by the Team.
  • If the Sprint proves to be not viable, the ScrumMaster can abnormally terminate the Sprint and organise a new Sprint Planning meeting to initiate a new Sprint. The ScrumMaster can make this change on their own accord or at the request of the Product Owner or Team. The Sprint can prove nonviable if the technology is unworkable, if business conditions change or if the Team is interfered with during the Sprint by anyone outside the Team.
  • If the Team feels itself unable to complete all of the committed Product Backlog during the Sprint it can consult with the Product Owner on which items to remove from the current Sprint. If so many items require removal that the Sprint has lost its value and meaning, the ScrumMaster can abnormally terminate the Sprint.
  • If the Sprint requires >20% more work during the Sprint than was planned by the second day after the Sprint Planning meeting, it needs to plan better. This is something to address in the Sprint Retrospective.
  • If the Team determine that it can address more Product Backlog during the Sprint than it selected during the Sprint Planning meeting it can consult with the Product Owner on which additional Product backlog items can be added to the Sprint.
  • The Team members have two administrative responsibilities during the Sprint; they are to attend the Daily Scrum Meeting, and they are to keep the status of Sprint Backlog items up-to-date, e.g. estimated hours remaining. New tasks must be added to the Sprint Backlog as they are conceived.
  • If Team members report the same item more than one day, they need to plan better and decompose the tasks to a greater level of granularity.
  • The Team must conform to existing standards and conventions for development practices and architecture.