AI-enabled Team Coach – exercises

Prompt for Sprint Planning

### 🧠 Prompt for Sprint Planning Support
**Role**: You are an experienced Agile Coach and Scrum Master. You facilitate sprint planning sessions in a way that promotes team ownership, clarity of goals, and a sustainable pace.
**Context**: I am about to facilitate a Sprint Planning session with my agile team.

The team includes X team members with the following roles, a Product Owner, X developers, X tester, X business analyst and me as Scrum Master.

The team works in 2-week sprints and uses Azure DevOps for backlog management.

The team is currently at a **[maturity level: inexperienced / maturing / high-performing]**, so the facilitation style, level of guidance, and depth of explanation may need to be adapted accordingly.

We are working in a **remote/hybrid setting**, so engagement methods need to support distributed participation. We have the following online tools available:

# END OF USER INPUT

**Objective**: Help me run a focused and effective Sprint Planning session. The goal is to (1) align the team on the sprint goal, (2) clarify the highest priority backlog items, (3) break down stories into tasks if needed, and (4) ensure the team has confidence in what they commit to.

**Your Tasks**:

1. Suggest any preparation I need to do and any input from the team members that would be relevant to get before the planning session (eg. known vacation)

2. Suggest a **step-by-step agenda** for the session, including timeboxing.

3. Provide **questions or prompts** I can ask the team and the Product Owner to spark useful conversations.

4. Suggest **facilitation techniques** (e.g. silent estimation, dot voting, story slicing) that help promote clarity, alignment, and commitment

5. If the planning session is remote/hybrid then include techniques adapted for remote or hybrid collaboration with the tools mentioned in the context section.

6. Offer guidance on how to adjust facilitation depending on the **team’s maturity level**—for example, more scaffolding and clarification for newer teams, and more autonomy and peer-led facilitation for mature teams.

7. Provide reminders or **checkpoints** to make sure we don't overcommit or miss dependencies.

8. Optionally, give a **template or script** I can use to open and close the session.

**Optional Inputs (feel free to ask me)**:

- What’s the current team velocity?

- Are there known blockers in the coming sprint?
- Are we planning for a release, spike, or special demo?
- Are there any **special themes or focus areas** for this sprint (e.g. tech debt reduction, onboarding, cross-team alignment, experimentation)?
- Are there any **remote or hybrid collaboration constraints** I should account for (e.g. time zones, tech issues, low engagement)?

Prompt for Retrospectives

## Agile Retrospective Facilitation Guide
**Objective**: Conduct a comprehensive Agile retrospective to reflect on the recent sprint, identify areas of improvement, and develop actionable strategies for the upcoming sprint.

### Pre-Retrospective Input for the Facilitator
Before the retrospective, the facilitator should consider the following questions to tailor the session effectively:
1. What was the overall tone or energy of the team during the last sprint?

2. Were there any significant events, blockers, or conflicts that need to be addressed?

3. What goals or changes were agreed upon during the last retrospective, and were they achieved?

4. Are there any specific team dynamics or individuals that may require special attention during the discussion?

5. What feedback (if any) have team members shared informally that could shape this session?

6. Are there external factors (e.g., organizational changes, deadlines, dependencies) impacting the team's performance?

7. What is the desired outcome or focus for this retrospective?

8. Is the team fully co-located, fully remote, or hybrid? What adjustments are needed to accommodate the team's setup?

**Instruction to AI Facilitators**: Suggest retrospective activities, formats, or questions. Use their responses to tailor recommendations and ensure the retrospective aligns with the team’s context and current needs.

### Preparation
1. **Set the Agenda**:
- Define clear objectives for the retrospective.
- Allocate time for each segment to maintain focus.
2. **Choose the Appropriate Format**:
- Select a retrospective format that aligns with the team's current needs (e.g., Start-Stop-Continue, Sailboat, 4Ls).
- Consider whether the format translates well to remote or hybrid participation.
3. **Prepare the Environment**:
- Ensure a comfortable and distraction-free setting.
- For remote or hybrid teams:
- Set up reliable video conferencing and digital collaboration tools (e.g., Miro, MURAL, Jamboard, Parabol).
- Test technology in advance to avoid disruptions.
- Share links to boards, documents, or retrospective templates before the session.
- Encourage camera use and minimize background noise to enhance engagement.

### Conducting the Retrospective
1. **Set the Stage**:
- Welcome participants and outline the retrospective's purpose.
- Establish ground rules to foster an open and respectful dialogue.
- For remote or hybrid teams, perform a quick tech check and encourage participation through chat or reactions.
2. **Gather Data**:
- Encourage team members to share observations about the recent sprint.
- Utilize techniques like silent brainstorming or online sticky notes to collect diverse insights.
3. **Generate Insights**:
- Facilitate discussions to delve into the collected data.
- Use open-ended questions to explore underlying causes and patterns.
- Use breakout rooms for small group discussions in larger or hybrid settings.
4. **Decide on Actions**:
- Collaboratively identify specific, measurable actions for improvement.
- Assign ownership and deadlines for each action item.
- Record decisions in a shared document or board accessible to all team members.
5. **Close the Retrospective**:
- Summarize key takeaways and agreed-upon actions.
- Express appreciation for participants' contributions.
- End with a quick feedback activity or rating to improve future retrospectives, especially helpful for remote facilitation.

### Post-Retrospective
1. **Document Outcomes**:
- Record the discussion points and action items.
- Share the documentation with all team members for transparency.
- Ensure it is accessible in shared drives or team wikis.
2. **Follow-Up**:
- Monitor the progress of action items during the next sprint.
- Provide support to team members as needed to implement changes.
3. **Evaluate and Adapt**:
- Assess the effectiveness of implemented actions in subsequent retrospectives.
- Continuously refine the retrospective process to better serve the team's evolving needs.
- For remote teams, consider rotating tools or formats to keep sessions fresh.

Prompt for Cumulative Flow Diagram analysis

**Prompt: Analyze a Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD)**
You are an experienced Agile coach and flow expert. Help me analyze this Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD) to identify key insights and improvement opportunities. Do not attempt to make a visual graph of the data.
**Context:**
The CFD covers the period from 12 sprints. It includes the following workflow states: Backlog, To Do, In Progress, Review, Done

### Please evaluate:
**1. Flow Stability**
- Are the bands smooth and consistent, or do they show turbulence?
- Are there signs of bottlenecks, erratic flow, or context switching?
**2. Work in Progress (WIP)**
- Do you observe any spikes or drops in WIP?
- Is WIP stable, growing, or shrinking over time?
**3. Throughput**
- How consistent is the team’s delivery to the “Done” state?
- Are we accelerating, decelerating, or staying steady?
**4. Cycle Time**
- Based on band width, are there changes in how long items remain in each stage?
- Any patterns in certain stages that suggest delays?
**5. Blocked or Stuck Work**
- Are there areas where work appears to accumulate or plateau for a long time?
**6. Suggestions for Improvement**
- Based on the above, what are 2–3 actionable experiments or improvements we could try?
Examples might include: limiting WIP, improving handoffs, rebalancing team capacity, etc.
**(Optional) Additional context that may affect interpretation:**
[e.g., team members on holiday, onboarding new team members, unplanned work, scope change, external dependencies]

Wait for the file.
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Dataset for 12 sprints – download and add to AI after pasting in the prompt

https://drive.google.com/file/d/132bM2QUJIN2DTCU5c4hue28G1RYhTC3E/view?usp=sharing

--- AFTER RESULT
“How could I help the team to address some of the identified challenges?”
“What could be my own role as a team coach in this situation?”

Prompt exercise: Sprint Planning, Retrospectives and Analysis of Cumulative Flow Diagram

AI-enabled Team Coach – exercises

Prompt for Sprint Planning

Prompt for Retrospectives

Prompt for Cumulative Flow Diagram analysis

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