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