--- name: scrum-conductor description: 'Orchestrates AI-enhanced Scrum ceremonies and sprint coordination. Use when running sprint ceremonies, generating automated daily standups, engineering structured tickets, forecasting sprint capacity, or grooming backlogs. Use for fact-based standups, machine-readable tickets, predictive velocity, and backlog deduplication across GitHub Issues, Jira, and Linear.' license: MIT metadata: author: oakoss version: '1.1' --- # Scrum Conductor ## Overview Facilitates AI-enhanced Scrum orchestration with automated ticket management and high-velocity sprint coordination. Synthesizes daily updates from git activity, detects blockers proactively, and maintains backlog integrity across issue trackers. **When to use:** Sprint planning, daily standups, backlog grooming, ticket creation, velocity forecasting, sprint retrospectives, estimation, risk management, release planning, cross-tracker synchronization. **When NOT to use:** Technical implementation tasks (use specialized coding skills), architecture design, security auditing. ## Quick Reference | Pattern | Approach | Key Points | | -------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | | Fact-first standups | Auto-generate from git logs and PRs | Never ask humans for data in commit history | | Ticket engineering | Machine-readable DoD with acceptance criteria | Binary true/false criteria, implementation pointers | | Sprint planning | Capacity calculation with focus factor and velocity | Budget = avg velocity (last 3 sprints) adjusted for absences | | Estimation | Planning Poker with Fibonacci scale, T-shirt sizing for roadmap | Reference stories anchor the scale, re-calibrate quarterly | | Capacity forecasting | Historical cycle time and lead time | Factor holidays, context debt, and bottlenecks | | Backlog grooming | AI clustering and deduplication | Flag tickets older than 2 sprints for archive | | Backlog refinement | 1-2 sessions per sprint, Definition of Ready checklist | Stories must meet DoR before entering sprint planning | | Blocker detection | Scan PRs, assignments, and dependencies | Flag stale PRs, OOO assignees, breaking deps | | Parking lot | Move deep-dives out of standups | Standups focus on status and blockers only | | Sprint retrospective | Start/Stop/Continue with action item tracking | Track retro action completion rate across sprints | | Risk management | Dependency mapping, risk register (probability x impact) | Address risk scores 6+ immediately, monitor 3-5 | | Release planning | Multi-sprint roadmap with confidence levels | Feature flags decouple deployment from release | | Escalation tiers | Tier 1 autonomous, Tier 2 clarification, Tier 3 pairing | Match response to complexity | | Priority frameworks | MoSCoW, value vs effort matrix, WSJF | WSJF favors small high-value items | ## Conductor Protocol 1. **Ceremony Initialization**: Identify the current sprint phase (Planning, Daily, Review, Retro) 2. **Telemetry Sync**: Pull recent activity from git commits, PRs, and communication channels 3. **Fact Synthesis**: Generate factual summaries before ceremonies begin 4. **Verification**: Confirm all action items are converted into tracked tickets with clear owners and DoD ## Common Mistakes | Mistake | Correct Pattern | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Asking developers for status updates available in commit logs | Auto-generate fact summaries from PRs and merges before standups | | Creating tickets without a machine-readable Definition of Done | Every ticket needs explicit acceptance criteria and technical pointers | | Guessing sprint velocity without historical data | Use cycle time, holidays, and context debt to forecast capacity | | Letting standups run beyond 15 minutes with deep-dive discussions | Move deep-dives to a parking lot session; standups focus on blockers | | Allowing the backlog to grow to 200+ items without pruning | Auto-flag tickets older than 2 sprints for archive or refactor | | Using AI to replace human conversation | Use AI to prepare for the conversation, not substitute it | | Ignoring team sentiment and morale signals | High velocity with low morale is a leading indicator of burnout | | No Definition of Done agreed by the team | Establish a team-wide DoD checklist applied to every story | | Skipping retrospectives when the sprint "went fine" | Every sprint has improvement opportunities; consistency builds the habit | | Sprint planning without capacity calculation | Calculate capacity: members x available days x focus factor | | Stories entering sprint without acceptance criteria | Enforce Definition of Ready before stories enter a sprint | | Estimating stories individually instead of as a team | Use Planning Poker so the full team contributes perspective | | Slicing stories horizontally by layer | Slice vertically through all layers so each ticket delivers working functionality | | No dependency mapping between sprint stories | Map dependencies explicitly and identify the critical path | | Retro action items with no owner or due date | Every action item needs an owner, a due date, and follow-up tracking | ## Delegation - **Synthesize daily standup summaries from git activity and PRs**: Use `Task` agent to pull commit logs and generate fact-based updates - **Cluster and deduplicate backlog tickets across issue trackers**: Use `Explore` agent to scan GitHub Issues, Jira, and Linear for similar or conflicting items - **Plan sprint capacity and risk assessment using historical velocity**: Use `Plan` agent to model delivery probability and identify at-risk items ## References - [Automated daily rituals, fact-checking workflows, blocker detection, sprint planning, retrospectives, and refinement](references/daily-rituals.md) - [Ticket engineering standards, user story templates, estimation techniques, and priority frameworks](references/ticket-engineering.md) - [Predictive velocity, sprint metrics, risk management, distributed teams, and release planning](references/velocity-risk.md) - [Multi-agent task handoffs, escalation tiers, AI retrospectives, blocker detection, and human escalation guardrails](references/agile-agents.md)