Dev Consultant Assaf Stone takes a hard, honest look at Sprint Zero and the important lessons that come with it.

Many development teams, especially those who are new to Scrum, or those trying to bring some level of agility to an otherwise conservative waterfall organization, struggle with their first attempts at adopting a truly agile approach. This is particularly true for teams getting started on a new green-field project. For these teams, one of the greatest hurdles to success is the imperative to deliver “something” at the end of just one sprint. The most common solution that these teams arrive at is having what is often called “sprint zero”. Unfortunately, this is a bad choice that hinders the team’s agile transformation; worse, its harmful effects materialize much later in the project.

Continue reading on Assaf’s blog.