The Nokia Test, extended with scoring by Jeff Sutherland

History

Nokia has several hundred Scrum Teams. In 2005 Bas Vodde, agile pioneer and coach within Nokia Networks, started to develop a test so that they could quickly asses the status of any team claiming to do iterative and agile software development. 2007 he tuned the test to a simple 8 question yes/no test including Scrum practices. The people at Nokia say that test saved them so much pain and confusion over so many years, they would not be without it.

In 2008, Scrum co-creator Jeff Sutherland extended the pass/no pass test with a scoring system, giving you a rating from 0-10. In 2009 he added a Team question to the test. Jeff Sutherland has been involved in creating some of the most productive and profitable software development companies ever. Perhaps most notably with PatientKeeper where he was the CTO. Currently he works with openview venture partners to help investors make money by only investing in companies with state of the art software development capabilities. So, his opinion on what makes a good Scrum is well worth listening to.

If you want to see how your Scrum implementation measures up to Nokia & Jeff Sutherland's standards, just fill out the form below and click submit!

Select the answer to the question by clicking in the circle in front of the best choice.

1. Describe your iterations
   We do not use iterations
   Iteration length is > 6 weeks
   Iteration length is variable but < 6 weeks
   Fixed iteration length 6 weeks
   Fixed iteration length 5 weeks
   Fixed iteration length 4 weeks or less
   
   
   
2. Describe your testing
   
   We do not have any dedicated QA
   At the end of an iteration software is unit tested
   At the end of an iteration software is feature tested
   Features are tested as soon as they are completed (during iteration)
   At the end of an iteration software passes acceptance testing
   At the end of an iteration software has been deployed at customer
   
   
   
3. Describe your requirements at the time an iteration starts
   
   We do not have any requirements
   We have a big requirement documents
   We have poor user stories
   We have good requirements
   We have good user stories
   We have just enough, just in time specifications
   We have good user stories tied to specifications as needed
   
   
   
4. What about your Product Owner?
   
   We have no Product Owner
   We have a Product Owner that do not understand Scrum
   We have a Product Owner who disrupts Team during iterations
   We have a Product Owner who is not involved with Team
   We have a Product Owner with a clear Product Backlog estimated by team before Sprint Planning meeting
   We have a Product Owner with a release roadmap with dates based on Team velocity
   We have a Product Owner who motivates Team
   
   
   
5. What about your Product Backlog?
   
   We have no Product Backlog
   We have multiple Produck Backlogs
   We have a single Product Backlog
   The Product Backlog is clearly specified and prioritized by ROI before Sprint Planning
   Product Owner has a release plan based on product backlog
   Product Owner can measure ROI based on real revenue, cost per story point, or other metrics
   
   
   
6. How about your estimates?
   
   The Product Backlog is not estimated
   The Product Backlog has estimates not produced by Team
   The Product Backlog has estimates not produced by planning poker
   The Product Backlog has estimates produced by planning poker by Team
   Our estimate error is < 10%
   
   
   
7. How about your burndown charts?
   
   We have no burndown charts
   The sprint burndown chart is not updated by the Team
   The sprint burndown chart burns down also for partially completed tasks.
   The sprint burndown chart only burns down when a task is done
   The sprint burndown chart only burns down when a story is done
   
   Does the Team know its velocity? Yes No
   
   Is the Product Owner release plan based on known velocity? Yes No
   
   
8. Team disruption
   
   There are Managers or Project Leaders that disrupt Team during iteration
   The Product Owner disrupt Team during iteration
   Manager, Project Leaders or Team Leaders are telling people what to do
   We have both Project Leader and Scrum roles
   No one is disrupting team, we have only Scrum roles
   
   
9. Team
   
   Tasks are assigned to individuals during Sprint Planning
   Team members do not have any overlap in their area of expertise
   No emergent leadership - one or more team members designated as a directive authority
   Team does not have the necessary competency
   Team commits collectively to Sprint goal and backlog
   Team members collectively fight impediments during the sprint
   Team is in hyperproductive state
   
   
   
10. Some optional information for our Nokia Test survey:
    
    How big is your organisation? 1-24 25-99 100-499 500-4999 > 5000
    
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