Sprint Zero

A journey of thousand miles must start with a single step and before that first step its always a Zero.

Introducing Sprint Zero

The concept of “Sprint Zero” or “Iteration Zero” has been around for decades. It serves as a container for all those activities that need to be done before the first sprint or iteration is begun. This would set the course for rest of the journey the first Leap !

Goals of Sprint Zero

A zero sprint doesn't actually deliver a releasable product. Sprint should be a lightweight exercise and it is not about intense software development. By the end of this sprint zero , the hope is that you have the necessary details for your productive next sprint where all or few of the activities will fall into one of 3 below categories

Prepare

Requirements, Estimation , User story board ,Wireframes , Non functional requirements

Plan

Project plan, Test Plan , Infrastructure setup , Logistics ( Database) , Migration Plan as applicable

Perform

Onboard the team , understand the design of new project ,Set up minimal environment to write code

Is Sprint zero Anti-Pattern ?

Sprint zero is considered to be an anti-pattern as it delays the beginning of product development. It violates the principle of welcoming changing requirements. It prevents emergence of requirements, designs, and architectures as there is no viable product.

Conclusion

Sprint Zero is designed to set the project and people involved on path to success but we should also consider factors like time spent on each of the activities , ownership of the activity, partial or entire team members time in this. With each passing iteration, expectation is that team will release high quality work, gather feedback, adapt and improve on the velocity together.