Cadence
'Cadence' refers to the pace, rhythm, and recurring themes of a march or other piece of music.
The cadence of an Agile team revolves around its schedule of meetings, large and small.
The timing, recurrence, agendas and durations of these meeting all contribute greatly to the team's sense of cohesion, and provide regular touchpoints for feedback, communicatio and adjustment.
Standup
Frequency: Daily
Duration: 10-15 minutes max
Goals:
- be together, make eye contact, remember you are a team
- ask for help on current/upcoming work
- inform team of interesting news
- if discussions start, pick a time to finish them later
Iteration Planning
Frequency: Weekly (depending on iteration length)
Duration: 1-2 hours
Goals:
- track velocity
- groom backlog
- write upcoming stories
- estimate effort, cut scope, specify technical tasks
- identify risks and unknowns
- plan for (unestimated!) bugs and chores, to pay down technical debt
Story Demo/Acceptance/Rejection
Frequency: at least Weekly
Duration: as short as possible, but don't skimp
Goals:
- demonstrate individual stories, recently implemented and theoretically ready to ship
- developers seek feedback; clients give feedback
- correct misunderstandings and compare hopes with reality
- others can look for bugs & edge cases & global concerns (like performance or accessibility or marketing)
- determine if story is really done, or needs more work
- remember, rejection is not failure! it's feedback
- if it's partially ready, or scope or effort is larger than anticipated, then consider spinning off a new story for the remainder in the backlog, and move this story forward
- if acceptance is done on the fly (e.g. one-on-one at desk), then don't forget to schedule a group demo too, for other team members
Retrospective
Frequency: at least monthly, weekly is better, and/or after significant events like a major release or a team reorg
Duration: usually 1-2 hours
Goals:
- continuously improve the process itself
- focus on process, not individual features
- step outside the daily grind and think about...
- What's working?
- What's not working?
- What's confusing or mysterious?
- Are we accomplishing our goals (communication, feedback, testing, sustainable pace, etc.)?
Link: Agile Retrospectives book