Australian Scrum Community

Since first posting this I have become aware of potential confusion over the term “Project Charter” which traditionally outlines the project – vision, purpose, success criteria etc. This is what we call a Project Definition in Scrum. What I am describing here would be better termed a “Team Charter” as it is focused on the internal working of one or more Scrum Teams. I agree with Diana Larsen who suggests that what I am calling the Team Charter and Project Definition are both necessary at the start of a project and should be well aligned. This is an important consideration to take to the team when working on a Team Charter whether it is a section of a bigger Charter document or physically separate but related wiki page (my preference).

The original post follows – updated to use the refined terminology. I recently used the template outlined here as a starting point for a Team Charter workshop that I facilitated. The team came up with a few more sections and points but I still think this is a good place to start.

As a servant leader-style ScrumMaster, it can be difficult to encourage team members to adhere to the sort of disciplined work practices that agile development requires. Part of a potential solution to this is to get the team to put into writing the work practices it agrees should be adhered to. Such a document is called a Team Charter.

An example Team Charter can be found here at Think Box. Although only a partial charter document mostly relating to development-level eXtreme Programming practices, the example here is a good starting point for a team developing its own charter. It covers:

• Working Practices
• Planning and Estimation
• Tracking Progress
• Test-Driven Development
• Continuous Integration
• Coding
• Iterative and Incremental Development

Teams using Scrum may wish to add a number of other Scrum-specific items to this list. A good source for this are the Scrum Rules at the back of Ken Schwaber’s second Scrum book. The following is a list of possible additions that I have put together including some items from this source as well as from Joseph Pelrine’s recent CSM course.

• Daily Scrum – time and place, alternatives to physical attendance, participation of chickens, late penalty, 3 questions only structure, follow-up discussions
• Issue Resolution – impediment resolution, requirement ambiguity resolution, sprint scope renegotiation
• Done – definition
• Testing – user acceptance testing process
• Sprint Review Meeting – attendance, structure, preparation, what can be presented,
• Sprint Retrospective – when and how instigated, action item follow-up
• Sprint Planning Meeting – attendance, structure
• Estimation – daily update, method eg. Planning Poker, tasks no more than 2 days

In facilitating a Team Charter definition meeting, a ScrumMaster might stress how choosing and adhering to a good set of work practices is about the team assisting itself in working as effectively as possible towards its sprint goals. Working smart requires some discipline but the pay off is what you can achieve without doing overtime.

Thanks very much to Joseph for the link and the advice on Chartering.