How Agile practitioners can make GenAI their powerful ally?
How Agile practitioners can make GenAI their powerful ally?
AI tools are intended to supplement, not replace, human expertise and collaboration.
As the world of technology is evolving at a rapid pace, the landscape of agile project managemnt is changing too. With the emergence of powerful Generative AI (GenAI) tools like ChatGPT and Gemini, there's a growing conversation (read concern) about its potential impact on traditional Agile roles such as Scrum Masters (SMs). I came across a few posts that declare the demise of the SM role, which seems grossly exaggerated. If people saw the SM simply as a note-taker, capturing decisions and action items, then it was a very narrow understanding of the role anyway. Although the focus of this article is not to re-emphasize the relevance of the SM role in this era, suffice it to say that the role of SM is indispensable for a product-focused organization. With their Pi-shaped skills, SMs can coach teams to drive innovation and continuous improvement by effectively tuning the balance between processes and practice.
Now back to the topic :)
A prudent view for all agile practitioners would be to avoid viewing GenAI as a threat. On the very contrary, they can leverage these tools to enhance productivity, generate insights, and streamline workflows, ultimately leading to more successful projects.
Generating assistance for the PMs and the POs
GenAI tools can serve as invaluable assistants to agile project managers (PM), helping them streamline communication, facilitate decision-making, and track progress more efficiently. For example, a PM can utilize the tool to forecast project timelines using a prompt, as follows:
"I want you to act as a Agile Project Manager forecasting the project completion date based on Sprint duration of [X] weeks, current velocity of [Y] story points per sprint, and remaining backlog size of [Z] story points. Assume a constant velocity through the Sprints."
Similarly, product managers and owners can use the tools to perform market research, competitive analysis, persona creation, generate ideas for new features and user stories, and predict the the impact of new features based on historical data.
Product Owners can leverage the tool, for example, to critique a User Story they have on the backlog based on INVEST principle. ChatGPT can help them on how to make it better. Lets say you have a story, as follows:
For this User Story, ChatGPT gave the below advice:
ChatGPT can further assist in breaking-down this User Story into smaller ones that can be delivered within a Sprint, using a prompt similar to following:
As a seasoned Product Owner who is an expert in writing excellent user stories meeting the INVEST criteria, you enable delivering product increments of value to the customers. You plan to split bigger user stories into smaller ones that deliver value and could be delivered within the Sprint timeframe of up to [X] days. Split the following user story into [Y] to [Z] smaller ones:
[User Story]
Note that while ChatGPT “thinks” that each of the smaller stories can be accommodated within a sprint, only an actual estimate drawn by the team would be able to ascertain that. For example, the story on accessing the account balance might involve creating a backend API to fetch the information if it doesn't already exist, and warrant further splitting.
A shot in the arm for the Scrum Master
While some may argue that GenAI could replace SMs, the reality is that these tools can complement and enhance their role. For example, they might ease their task using a GenAI tool to transcribe meeting recordings and create a summary and an action log.
They can also use it to help them devise strategies to manage a conflict situation in their team, for example, using the following prompt:
Imagine you are a Scrum Master for an agile team. You are noticing that your stakeholders have unrealistic expectations for upcoming increments. They are adding new requirements constantly and complain about developer productivity being low. The team morale is down as they have been working overtime for many sprints to keep up. The technical debt is consequently increasing. During sprint retrospectives, the team members indulge in a blame game. Create a structured plan to resolve the situation in the next [x] weeks.
The tool will create a structured plan to help mitigate burnout, improve productivity, and maintain product quality despite evolving requirements. Many of these steps might already be known to the SM, but a structured approach helps to achieve results within a defined period.
Another example: as an SM, you can make the Agile Retrospectives more engaging and fun for the team by getting novel ideas, as follows:
As a seasoned Scrum Master, you intend to make the Agile Retrospectives more engaging and fun for the team by using popular themes to gain insights on how to make your team better. Suggest [X] questions using quotes from [theme] that could be asked during a retrospective. Create your suggestions in a tabular format.
Measuring the Benefit of GenAI in Agile Projects
While GenAI has presented new opportunities, you can justify the investment on such tools with a trial-based approach. Keep a track of the time saved by utilizing GenAI tools for tasks such as meeting preparation, research, and documentation. Assess their impact on the quality of deliverables, including reduced defects, increased consistency, and improved customer satisfaction. Gather feedback from team members on their experience with the tools, focusing on usability and effectiveness. Lastly, track key Agile metrics such as velocity, cycle time, and backlog throughput to evaluate the overall impact on project productivity.
Make AI your powerful ally
While there is no doubting GenAI tools' transformational potential in Agile project management, it is critical to recognize that they are intended to supplement, not replace, human expertise and collaboration. AI can never duplicate a human's empathy and creativity.
Agile practitioners must embrace GenAI as a valuable ally in their pursuit for continuous improvement and delivery excellence. As we progress in the digital era, the collaboration of human intellect with AI will power the next wave of agile innovation and success.
P.S. Found a great set of useful GenAI prompts at this GitHub repo that also include extensive explanation (I am not affiliated).