Part II

Practicing Professional Scrum

In this part of the book, I will begin demonstrating how to practice Professional Scrum and Azure DevOps together effectively. The previous part established a baseline understanding of the three areas of knowledge required before proceeding: Scrum, Azure DevOps, and Azure Boards. Over the next several chapters, you will see how these three fit together and how a team can optimize their use to deliver business value in the form of working software.

I will begin with the discussion and activities surrounding product planning. This will take us up to the beginning of the first Sprint. I refer to this collection of activities as the pre-game—everything from envisioning the product, provisioning the Azure DevOps environment, setting up the project, organizing the team, building and refining the Product Backlog, and preparing for the first Sprint falls into the pre-game. As you can imagine, a lot is involved in the pre-game, with numerous opportunities to get sidetracked. We will stay focused on the intersection of Scrum and Azure DevOps; other books are available that explain the intricacies of product planning.

The remaining chapters will follow the rules of Scrum very closely as I establish how a Professional Scrum Team works within a Sprint using the relevant tools found in Azure DevOps. At times, I will focus on using Azure Boards to plan and track a Sprint and manage the daily work. I will also delve into the other Azure DevOps services to demonstrate how team members can collaborate effectively to maximize their flow as well as the quality of their product. I will continue to use the Fabrikam Fiber case study to give examples of how a team might use the many options that are available.

Tip High-performance Scrum Teams take the “let the team decide” mantra seriously, and they don’t abuse it. These teams have learned to effectively live within the balance of increasing value in the product with decreasing waste in the process. In short, they are not distracted by the shiny features but take an experimental approach to any new tool or practice.