In simple terms, a technical spike is a separate refinement activity that allows an ungainly and unquantifiable backlog item to actually be sized. As any good agile team knows, that's where a "technical spike" comes in. The lesson, of course, is that these items must be handled carefully from the beginning. No one can say exactly what will be involved, how long it will take, or even if the team can do this kind of work at all. What to do now, though, since it cannot be put off any longer? There are great risks and uncertainties to this item, the prospect of unmastered technologies, new skills to learn, and unproven design assumptions being brought into play. No one wanted to deal with it because it brings too many unquantified dangers. There was always the hope that it might somehow wander out of the office and back to the business department, back to the circus.
For months, this creature was kept down at the bottom of the backlog, deprioritized, and ignored. An "Urgent!" sticky-note has been slapped rather indecorously onto its hide.
The doors slide apart and it looks out mournfully at the DevOps team, waving its trunk for assistance. As if to defy all reasonable laws, including those of common decency and basic physics, the beast has been pushed by management into the executive elevator, trumpeting wildly as it rides up the backlog to the very top.
#SPIKE MEANING IN SPRINT SERIES#
"Two spikes would be an extravagance." - Lady Whiteadder ("Blackadder," Series II)
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