Circle Map
The circle map is for organizations who wish to have more than one scrum team, where each team has their separate Product Backlog.
You can have one or more Primary Circles, each with their own Product Backlog. Other types of circles (Customer Circles, Supplier Circles etc.) also have their separate Product Backlog.
Please see circlemap introduction or Agile Lean Leadership to understand what the different circles types mean and how they can be used.
Delegation of User Stories between Circles
If you add a relation from e.g. a Customer Circle to a Primary Circle (called “Partner Team” in the illustration), it means that the team in the Customer Circle can delegate user stories from their Product Backlog to the Primary Circle for implementation.
Please see Delegate to another circle for more details about delegation.
How to create a Circle and Relation in the Circle Map?
To add a new circle, right click on the circle map and select the circle type in the context menu. The new circle added will also be available in the circle selection in the Main Menu (Read More).
Newly created circles will be placed in the Unplaced circles left pane by default, from where you can drag and place them into the Circle map main area.
To create a relation between two circles, hold down the “Alt” key while you drag the relation from one circle to another. A window will be loaded where the direction of the relation can be changed, default is bidirectional, and also a description or manifest of the relation can be added before creation is complete. In case the two Circles were already connected, then a window with the Edit tab selected will be loaded to allow editing of the same properties. Otherwise the relation can be edited from the context menu which is accessible via right click on the relation.
Circle Group
If you would like to group a number of Circles, you can create a Circle Group and then add the Circles to that group.
To create a Circle group, simply right-click on the spot where you want to place it, and select the option from the menu that appears.
You can add circles to Circle Groups by either drag and drop or via the Circle Group’s context menu.
You will most likely need to extend the group to allow space for placing Circles. To do this, click on the Circle Group to select it, then use the side drag handles to extend vertically or horizontally.
The Circle Group can also be dragged and moved around the Circle Map.
Circle Manifest and Traffic Light
Each circle should have a Manifest describing the purpose and scope or the circle. If you place the cursor over a circle, a popover will show the manifest.
If there are some problems in the circle, you want to draw attention to, you can change the traffic light of the circle to yellow or red. Write a traffic light comment to describe the problems. The traffic lights are shown at the right side of the circle cards.
Teams in Circles (Read More)
A circle has one Product Backlog and usually one team to handle the backlog contents. However, you also have the option of dividing users in to multiple teams within the circle.
