Agile - Sprinting and the Daily Scrum

In our previous article on Agile meetings, we discussed sprint planning.  Let’s look at what happens next.

Sprinting and the Daily Scrum

Once we’ve finished sprint planning and have a commitment, we are ready to start the sprint. This is a two-week time box in which the team creates a tranche of working, potentially deliverable software.

During a sprint the team will hold a daily scrum, a 15-minute meeting in front of the sprint backlog (a visual display of what needs to be done, usually in the form of a whiteboard covered in written-on Post-It notes). This provides an opportunity to synchronise as a team and talk about what we’ve done, what we plan to do and anything standing in our way.

The scrum master oversees the meeting and listens out for any problems that may have arisen that could cause a delay.  It’s their responsibility to remove impediments and mitigate any future risk.  The scrum master uses a number of charts and techniques to understand if the team is on track and, if it’s lost direction, how to get it back on track.

We encourage continual feedback, so outside of the daily scrum there are regular conversations within the team and with the product owner to ensure we’re on the right path. The sprint is finished at the end of two-week time box.

Keep an eye out for our next article on the ‘Sprint Review’.

All About Agile

April 14th, 2016

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Story Preparation...

Here at RDT we use scrum as our project management framework. Our teams work in two-week sprint cycles in which they have a number of key meetings. Let’s take a closer look at some of these key meetings.



We create “user stories” to represent our clients’ needs. This helps us focus on the target users and what they’ll need, and the value that will be achieved by delivering the particular tranche of work we’re about to start on. Product owners are the link between our development team and our clients, and they work with the clients to find out what they need, either on a one-to-one basis or through workshops, depending on the scale of what’s needed.

During the “story preparation” meeting the product owner takes what they’ve learned from the client to the team for discussion and analysis. The team will ask a number of questions to help understand how they are going to solve the user story. The ideal outcome of this meeting is that the team gets a clear picture of the client’s needs – referred to as “a well understood requirement”, that they will already have some design ideas for that can be taken to the sprint planning meeting. However if the requirement is not well understood we may have to go back to our client for further discussions.

The teams need a regular flow of work and so the process of story preparation is continual. Once we have agreed user stories, these form part of a prioritised product backlog.

Contact us to find out more about our range of products.

September 2015 Employee Spotlight

September 16th, 2015

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Mandy Williams – Product Owner

We asked our 'credit hire' product owner to talk about how her career led her to RDT, what her role here entails, and what makes her tick...

"Before I came to RDT I worked at various insurance companies including Brit Insurance, Direct Line and Rebus.



"I joined RDT almost six years ago as a project manager but moved into a business analyst role after a year. I was immediately sent to Australia to gather requirements for replacing RAA’s green screen insurance solution with Landscape. This had many challenges – not just to implement a number of personal lines products, but to understand Australia’s complex tax rules and language differences.

"Once RAA had gone live I spent time with numerous customers gathering requirements for new projects and small changes.

"Two years ago I ventured into the Agile world in the role of product owner. I love this role as it combines my project management and business analysis skills. My first “product” was RAA’s road service product. This was a massive undertaking involving four agile teams and in hindsight probably not the easiest first product. There were four phases, with the content of each managed and agreed with RAA at every step. All phases were delivered on time and within budget which I was very proud of.



"A much smaller project followed – converting an existing household book into Landscape. Since then, I have been working on RDT’s credit hire project. I am working with an Agile team to incrementally build this product as a web based application. This has been a challenging project with lots of unknowns and new technology, but I am thoroughly enjoying it."

If you are looking for a new position in a cutting-edge insurance software environment, please view all available positions on our job vacancies webpage.

Alternatively, to find out more about what we do, please click here to contact us.

All About Agile

Sept 9th, 2015

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What is the role of a Scrum Master?

We have already talked about the role of the product owner, who plays an important part in the scrum team by defining what the team works on. The role of scrum master is just as important, as they facilitate production and delivery. The scrum master is often thought of as the team’s coach, encouraging and motivating team members to do the best work they can, at the same time ensuring that everybody works within the rules of Agile principles and practices.

The scrum master does everything in his or her power to enable the team to perform at their highest level while maintaining delivery and quality. This involves removing any impediments to progress, reducing wasteful activities, facilitating meetings and working with the product owner to ensure the product backlog is in good shape and ready for the next sprint.

As well as working with and for their team, the scrum master is continually searching for ways to improve and refine processes. Improvements they come up with are adopted by other teams to help optimise the entire value chain.

The product owner, along with the account manager, also manages their team’s relationship with our clients, ensuring they are kept up to date with progress and are informed of any issues or risks that could impact a delivery.



There is no individual in the scrum team environment who manages everyone. The team works collaboratively, self-organises around the work presented and is collectively accountable for all of its output. We will look at the team itself in another post.

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