Get ALL the work on the board

Get ALL the work on the board 

&

Make sure it all is visible in your burndown chart.

When using a Scrum board or a Kanban board, one of the big challenges is to get ALL the work on the board.

For me the key feature of the board is just that; That all the work that's done is on the board.  So not just the work the Team is doing for the Product Owner, but also all the other things the Team does.

So things like production issues, non sprint tasks like for your line manager or for another team, training, meetings, ....  Put it all on the board.

In the burndown, I like to make a difference between the work the Team does directly for the Product Owner and the other work that's done.


In this example Team Green has commited 50 points to the Product Owner and 10 more points of work.   Commitment on 60 points.
At the end of the sprint, the Team has burned 69 points.  47 of 50 points for the Product Owner, and 22 instead of 10 points of other work.

This kind of outcome is exactly why I think it is so important to have all the work on the board, and make sure it all is represented in your burndown.
Based on the above burndown

• It is clear that the Team has worked hard.  No discussion on that.
• The 12 points of extra work are an interesting candidate for retrospectives
• Product Owner can challenge the Team on their priorities
• It's visible for everybody what the Team does.

Bottom line, .... it's an invitation to conversation and that's exactly what you want it to be.