Time Boxes end with a Premiere

I ran a first-in-a-long-time Scrum training the past two days, and some cool ideas came up … which I’ll share here with a few focused posts. This one is about a time box.

Time Box

In trainings, lots of exercises are run with time boxes. In Scrum, we have lots of time boxes as well – most prominent the iteration or sprint. What’s special about this?

• A time box is a previously agreed, fixed amount of time.
• A request is made for what needs to happen within that time.
• An agreement is made (aka commitment) on the outcome at the end of the time box.
• Who ever takes responsibility for (agrees/commits to) achieving the outcome enjoys freedom on how to achieve it.

Imagine the end of the time box to be like a theatre premiere.

• The outcome is presented to an audience for feedback.
• The cast puts all their creative effort into creating the best possible outcome.
• They take full responsibility for the timely creation and delivery.
• They shape the outcome’s scope during the time box so that it gets done.
• They very, very, very rarely cancel the premiere.

Time Box – Premiere