Scrum and sprints can be boring!!! The grind of daily stand ups, sprint planning, reviews, demos and retrospective can be daunting after few sprints. Is there a way to make the SCRUM team energized by deviating from normal process and yet make the stakeholders or Product Owner at least happy. The answer is ‘Flash Mob Sprint’. The idea came from flash mob, where bunch of normal looking people enters the dancing arena one by one and shaking their legs and body to the tunes. While it looks natural for viewers, there are many hours of preparation behind a successful Flash Mob. Let’s bring the same concept and add some sports flavor to software development.

1. #flashmobsprint
Ravindra Prasad

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LIFE OF
DEVELOPER
Product Owner
Developer
Scrum Master

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Why?

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Die slowly
He who becomes the slave of habit,
who follows the same routes every day,
who never changes pace,
who does not risk and change the color of his clothes,
who does not speak and does not experience,
Dies slowly.
Pablo Neruda, Noble Prize in literature

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Imagine the ultimate luxury hotel. There's gourmet food for
breakfast, lunch and dinner. During the day, you do as you
please: lounge by the pool, get a spa treatment, romp in the
game room. At night, you sleep in a king-size bed with down
pillows and 600-thread-count sheet. The staff is ever
present and ever pleasant, happy to fulfill any requests you
might have, and the hotel even boasts state-of-the-art
medical services. You can bring your whole family and
socialize with lots of new people. If you're single, you might
find that special someone among all the attractive men and
women around. And the best part is that it's free. Would you
like to stay there?
One additional information:
Once after you enter, you can never come back.
It is a Zoo

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Where the mind is without fear and the head is
held high
Where knowledge is free
…
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my
country awake.
Rabindranath Tagore

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Let me work on the
technology I love most
I do not want timelines
Let me control my own
outcome
I would like to work on
what I like

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We make a living by
what we get. We
make a life by what
we give. Winston Churchill

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Let me come out
of rat race
No fear of being
judged while
giving
Give without
expecting
anything back

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Live as if you were to
die tomorrow. Learn as
if you were to live
forever.

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Learning makes
me happy
Let me learn what
I like
Let me learn at
my own pace

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How many eggs and how many cavities

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What?

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“Create the product or features in
24 hours that will be used by
customers not just by your team
but by anyone who is interested
in the organization”

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How?

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Invite people from your entire
organization or even within your own
friends circle. Only condition is they
work on similar technology stack and
they have basic software to work.

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Ideal time to start is as early as possible
in the day. Product Owner explains and
let the team to brain storm for 60
minutes. Let them decide what user
stories they would like to pick up. There
is no need to commit anything to
anyone. Remember this is voluntary
team.
1. Invite people who works on same
Technology Stack

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If you are SCRUM master, ensure that
you are always around to help them.
Now it is time to show up you are a true
servant leader. Don’t forget to order
some hot and healthy food. Better avoid
junk food.
1. Invite people who works on same
Technology Stack

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If you are a Product Owner,
ensure you are there to explain
stories, detail them out and test
as well.
1. Invite people who works on same
Technology Stack
2. Start Early in the day and let the
people pick up what they like
3. Scrum Master: This is still a sprint.
Be a servant leader

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Don’t worry about velocity. It
is fine to have one developer
coding or testing and two to
three people watching
him/her. They can take the
turns so that they do not get
tired.
1. Invite people who works on same
Technology Stack
2. Start Early in the day and let the
people pick up what they like
3. Scrum Master: This is still a sprint.
Be a servant leader
4. Product Owner: This is your backlog.
Help them to achieve success

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Do intermittent demos and
tick the boxes whenever they
are done. And don’t forget to
celebrate success. Let your
floor know that you did
something amazing.
1. Invite people who works on same
Technology Stack
2. Start Early in the day and let the
people pick up what they like
3. Scrum Master: This is still a sprint.
Be a servant leader
4. Product Owner: This is your backlog.
Help them to achieve success
5. Let the people enjoy what they are
doing. No restrictions, No conditions

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While the “Flash mob
sprint” goes for 24 hours,
people are free to leave
whenever they feel they
can’t go any further.
1. Invite people who works on same
Technology Stack
2. Start Early in the day and let the
people pick up what they like
3. Scrum Master: This is still a sprint.
Be a servant leader
4. Product Owner: This is your backlog.
Help them to achieve success
5. Let the people enjoy what they are
doing. No restrictions, No conditions
6. Intermittent demos and celebrate
success and make some noise

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1. Invite people who works on same
Technology Stack
2. Start Early in the day and let the
people pick up what they like
3. Scrum Master: This is still a sprint.
Be a servant leader
4. Product Owner: This is your backlog.
Help them to achieve success
5. Let the people enjoy what they are
doing. No restrictions, No conditions
6. Intermittent demos and celebrate
success and make some noise
7. Let people decide what time they
call it a day
You just added colors
to life of Developer

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“Learnt some
thing new”
“I cant believe we
did so much in 24
hours”
“Came to know the
value of working
together”

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“Learnt some
thing new”
“I cant believe we
did so much in 24
hours”
“Came to know the
value of working
together”
•Do not over do this. It
will burnout the team.
Once in a quarter is
ideal.
•Ensure the backlog is
prioritized before
starting the sprint.
•Ensure that team gets
due credit for their
contribution.
•This can’t be used as
bench mark for velocity.
This is outlier.

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ravindraprasad@yahoo.com
+91-9845575368
@ravindraprasad