After reading Tom DeMarco's Slack, I'm wondering how to factor slack into sprints.
For those who haven't read the book, TDM describes 'slack' as providing time for innovation and other good things.
Scrum leans towards eliminating slack and resisting change within the sprint. Allowing stories to be re-prioritised between sprints. I appreciate the purpose of a sprint, and am not trying to ask how to respond to change within them.
My initial thought about adding slack to sprints would be to plan a sprint with 8/9 days of work for a two week sprint. If you're conscious of this decision, can still calculate your velocity accurately? Based on story points completed in your 8/9 day window (vs 10).
Conversely, these are two competing ideas and don't belong together… ?
gnat's focus factor link is interesting.
Best Answer
Yes and No.
Scrum forces you to make an intelligent "time for innovation and other good things".
"Other good things" are what retrospectives and daily stand ups are for.
"innovation" is what technology spikes or spike solutions are for.
They don't go away. They aren't buried.
They become first-class, highly-valued parts of the process.
Being responsive to change -- with one small constraint -- is the whole point of an Agile method and scrum in particular.
The one small constraint (wait until the end of the sprint) doesn't require building in slack time or otherwise tinkering with scrum or the development team.
It's easy to be responsive (by waiting until the end of the sprint) without building in needless overheads.
Innovation is supported through spike solutions.
Other Good Things are supported through daily stand ups and retrospectives.