What is a tech card, and how does it work?

Tech cards are "enabler cards." Tech Cards are used to set aside time for the team to perform research, investigation, feasibility, prototyping, and other actives during a sprint that enables a card to be developed. Tech Cards can take an entire sprint to complete. Tech cards are not used for activities less than 4 hours and don't replace or represent events like sprint planning or demo. Tech cards don't exist independently and have a relationship with a specific user story or set of user stories.

The Tech card is used to set aside a certain amount of time or points for the team to research or prototype a solution before developing it. Tech cards are associated with a specific card or user story, but they can be associated with multiple cards or user stories. Tech cards give the team a path to complete the card or user story.

Update the related user story as needed. Based on the Tech Card outcome, the acceptance criteria of the related user story may require adjustment and a reset of expectations between the team and the customer. This is especially true of, "We can solve this, but not in the way you originally expected." Expectations, acceptance criteria, and estimations typically require a discussion with the team and are often changed.

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