Agile and Scrum 2024 Online Conference Logo

Agile and Scrum 2024
Online Conference

Rubin Jen - Agile and Scrum 2023 presenter - free course

Starting Off Right: Before Sprint 1

Rubin Jen

Sr. Trainer & Consultant
International Institute for Learning (IIL)

About the Presentation

So, you’ve started off applying Agile practices with a Scrum project, but it’s been much harder than they said it would be. Failed iterations early on, confused team members and stakeholders, low value items getting done… wasn’t this supposed to be easy and simple?

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of silence about what happens before iteration 1. “But isn’t everything supposed to happen after the first iteration? Doesn’t the Product Backlog just evolve on its own after starting the project?”

Yes, we could just get started with a number of user stories, and we would make some progress and get some things done. But is that really effective? Are we reaching the full potential of what could be created?

There are some key elements you should have in place before the first iteration. Let’s state (or re-state) to overall vision and purpose of the product. We need to truly understand the people who are going to use it, for now and for the future. And let’s analyze what can affect our outcome. These critical factors will inform the initial product backlog creation.

Having these important things will ensure a better start for your Agile project.

Key Takeaways

  1. Identify the key factors that contribute to a successful Agile project start.
  2. Focus on personas and journey maps, and business canvas.
  3. Recognize the attribute that the initial product backlog should have.

About Rubin Jen

Rubin Jen has been in the project management field for over 25 years spanning aerospace, engineering, telecom, software development, outsourcing, consulting, and government sectors. Rubin also has extensive consulting experience in strategic and operational planning. Rubin has been helping teams and organizations in their Agile transformational journey since 2014, as a subject matter expert and as an Agile coach. 

As a Senior Instructor with IIL for over 12 years, Rubin is a key member of the Global Learning Solutions (GLS) team, helping create new workshops or customize IIL’s course curriculum for clients.