scrum-conductor

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
• Ticket engineering standards, user story templates, estimation techniques, and priority frameworks
• Predictive velocity, sprint metrics, risk management, distributed teams, and release planning
• Multi-agent task handoffs, escalation tiers, AI retrospectives, blocker detection, and human escalation guardrails