Scrum – understanding the framework and why it is awesome
- January 22, 2016
- Posted by: Admin
- Categories: Agile Methodology, Business Analysis, Kanban, Product Ownership, Project Management, Project Management Certifications, Scrum Framework, Software Development Lifecycle
What Is Scrum Methodology?
You can define Scrum methodology as a project management framework for developing, delivering, and sustaining complex products.
According to the scrum guide, Scrum is a “framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value.”
At its core, Scrum empowers teams to create a healthy balance between delivering the right thing, the right way, as fast as possible.
Scrum Approach to Project Management
Scrum is founded on empiricism—which implies that knowledge comes from experience, and decisions are made based on what is known. Scrum employs an iterative, incremental approach to optimize predictability and control risk.
Three pillars uphold scrum empiricism: transparency, inspection, and adaptation.
The implementation of Scrum follows the core principles of Agile.
Here’s a breakdown of Agile principles.
1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
2. Working software over comprehensive documentation
3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
4. Responding to change over following a plan
The goal of Scrum is to improve teamwork, communication, and speed of development. Concepts such as Sprints, Scrums, Backlogs, and Burndown are all derived from Scrum.
The 3 Artifacts Of Scrum
Scrum artifacts communicate vital information that the Scrum team needs to be aware of during product development.
1. Product Backlog
2. Sprint Backlog
3. Increment
Product backlog lists all the features, functions, and requirements enhancements, and fixes that make up the changes that are needed in the product in future releases. It’s common for a product’s requirements to change over the course of development, either to reflect business needs or market trends. The product backlog will continuously update to reflect such changes.
The Product Backlog is dynamic; it constantly changes to reflect what the product needs to be functional, competitive, and useful. If a product still exists, its Product Backlog also exists.
The product backlog items that have been selected for a sprint. This will also include a plan for producing an Increment at the end of the sprint. The sprint backlog defines the work that the Development Team will perform during the next sprint and the items required to produce an increment that meets the definition of done.
The Increment is the sum of all the Product Backlog items completed during a Sprint and the value of the increments of all previous Sprints. At the end of a Sprint, the new Increment must be “Done,” which means it must be in useable condition and meet the Scrum Team’s definition of “Done.”
The Scrum Team
The Scrum Team consists of
1. A Product Owner
2. The Development Team
3. A Scrum Master
Scrum Teams are self-organizing and cross-functional. Self-organizing teams choose how best to accomplish their work, rather than being directed by others outside the team. Cross-functional teams have all the competencies needed to accomplish the work without depending on others, not part of the team.
The Product owner represents the business or customer base. They are there to ensure the other members of the Scrum team don’t forget the purpose of the sprint. Because of the wide variety of potential business users and customers, the Product Owner must have a strong understanding of the users needs.
Each sprint begins with the product owner prioritizing the requirements and features of the product to the Development Team. Their job is to answer any questions the Development Team may have regarding specifications and requirements. The product owner is not involved with development.
The Scrum Master is responsible for leading the Scrum Team. They make sure everyone has a firm understanding of Scrum principles and offer guidance and teaching when it’s necessary.
The Scrum master will also work with the Product Owner to make sure the project is on track.
They’ll do tasks such as:
- Guaranteeing that the Scrum goals are understood by everyone;
- Organizing Scrum events;
- Coaching the Development Team in self-organization and cross-functionality;
- Helping the Scrum team understand the need to concise product backlog items;
- Coaching the Development Team in organizational environments in which Scrum is not yet fully adopted and understood.
The Scrum master’s job is to keep everyone focused and pushing towards the same goal. They want to remove obstacles, prevent against unnecessary distraction, and help the team make progress day after day.
A Scrum Development Team is a group of professionals responsible for delivering a releasable increment of “Done” at the end of each Sprint.
Development Teams are unique in the following ways:
- Development teams are self-organizing. Nobody within the Scrum team (not even the Scrum master) is allowed to tell them how to turn the Product Backlog into Increments.
- They’re cross-functional. All members must have the skills required to create an Increment.
- They are responsible for successes and failures as a team. It doesn’t matter if one member made a mistake that caused the team to not have an Increment at the end of a sprint, the Development Team accepts responsibility as a whole.
Scrum Ceremonies
There are 4 main kinds of Scrum meetings or Scrum ceremonies:
1. Daily Scrum
2. Sprint Planning Meeting
3. Sprint Review Meeting
4. Sprint Retrospective Meeting
Certain types of Scrum meetings will take place during specific times in the development process. These are also known as the Scrum Ceremonies. For more information, you can read our guide to scrum ceremonies.
The work to be performed in the Sprint is planned at the Sprint Planning. This plan is created by the collaborative work of the entire Scrum Team.
Sprint Planning is time-boxed to a maximum of eight hours for a one-month Sprint. For shorter Sprints, the event is usually shorter. The Scrum Master ensures that the event takes place and that attendants understand its purpose. The Scrum Master teaches the Scrum Team to keep it within the time-box.
Sprint Planning answers the following:
- What can be delivered in the Increment resulting from the upcoming Sprint?
- How will the work needed to deliver the Increment be achieved?
The Daily Scrum is a 15-minute time-boxed event for the Development Team. The Daily Scrum is held every day of the Sprint.
The Development Team uses the Daily Scrum to inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal and to inspect how progress is trending toward completing the work in the Sprint Backlog. Every day, the Development Team should understand how it intends to work together as a self-organizing team to accomplish the Sprint Goal and create the anticipated Increment by the end of the Sprint.
The structure of the meeting is set by the Development Team and can be conducted in different ways if it focuses on progress toward the Sprint Goal. Some Development Teams will use questions, some will be more discussion based. Here is an example of what might be used:
• What did I do yesterday that helped the Development Team meet the Sprint Goal?
• What will I do today to help the Development Team meet the Sprint Goal?
• Do I see any impediment that prevents me or the Development Team from meeting the Sprint Goal?
The Scrum Master ensures that the Development Team has the meeting, but the Development Team is responsible for conducting the Daily Scrum. The Scrum Master teaches the Development Team to keep the Daily Scrum within the 15-minute time-box.
A Sprint Review is held at the end of the Sprint to inspect the Increment and adapt the Product Backlog if needed. During the Sprint Review, the Scrum Team and stakeholders collaborate about what was done in the Sprint. Based on that and any changes to the Product Backlog during the Sprint, attendees collaborate on the next things that could be done to optimize value.
The Sprint Retrospective is an opportunity for the Scrum Team to inspect itself and create a plan for improvements to be enacted during the next Sprint.
The purpose of the Sprint Retrospective is to:
• Inspect how the last Sprint went with regards to people, relationships, process, and tools;
• Identify and order the major items that went well and potential improvements; and,
• Create a plan for implementing improvements to the way the Scrum Team does its work.
Important Terms and Concepts
The product characteristics, specified by the Product Owner, that need to be satisfied before they are accepted by the user, customer, or other authorized entity. These are used as standards to measure and compare the characteristics of the final product with specified characteristics.
Agile methodologies reduce waste by cutting back on work that does not add value. Planning a project does not directly add business value. Therefore, planning at any stage of a Scrum project should be as efficient as possible. Planning ahead for the whole project is considered waste, because Agile projects are prone to a high rate of change. Therefore, planning is done Just in Time (JIT).
Modification in the product being developed or in the process of product development. Variations in the actual value and true value trigger the need for control and modification of the product or process.
Agile is a group of iterative and incremental software development methods. It encourages flexibility and speed in responding to change. It requires collaboration between self-organized, cross-functional teams to generate requirements and solutions.
A project management exercise that explores the validity of assumptions that were made at the beginning of the project to identify any potential project risk conceived and developed because of the inaccuracy of any assumption. It also identifies risks because of any instability, inconsistency, or incompleteness of assumptions.
A group activity or creativity technique that can be used to generate and analyze ideas or to identify issues, risks, or even to determine solutions to problems.
A graphical representation of the amount of work completed/done versus the elapsed time period. It is used to estimate the time needed to complete the project. The vertical axis represents the planned work, and the horizontal work axis represents the time. The general trend in the graph is to “burn down” to a point where no work remains.
A graphical representation of the amount of work completed against planned over a period of time. The graphical trend line moves upward toward the goal line, hence called “burn up” in contrast to “burn down.” It is used to estimate the time needed to complete the project.
A technique used in software development for restructuring/redesigning an existing body of code without changing its behavior. The purpose of re-factoring is to improve non-functional attributes of the software, e.g., managing technical debt or making coding faster.
A formal act or set of acts performed as prescribed by ritual or custom. Core Scrum activities like spring planning, daily scrum, sprint review, and sprint retrospective are referred to as ceremony by the Scrum team.
The daily stand-up meeting, or Scrum meeting, is a daily team meeting in the Scrum Framework. The name comes from the practice of the attendees standing up. This encourages the members to keep the meeting short. It gives the team a regular opportunity to monitor progress along the sprint plan.
The Delphi Method is an estimation/surveying method in which estimates and opinions are collected anonymously from a panel. This reduces the bias that may arise due to the power/influence of certain panel members.
A development team is formed with members from different areas of functional expertise. It has to be self-organized, and it must drive toward a single goal. This team is collectively responsible developing of an acceptable product.
This technique is used for identifying items with higher priority. Participants have to cast their vote by placing a colored dot against one item among the listed, and the item with most dots is considered an item of higher priority. This technique is frequently used during the sprint retrospective.
An epic is a large user story, typically one that is too big to fit in a single sprint. Epics need to be broken down into smaller user stories at some point before implementation as part of a sprint.
A factor that’s causing a hindrance or blockage from performing scrum in an effective manner in a team or organization.
Impediment log captures or records impediments, description of the impediments, impacts of the impediments, the solution, if any and status of the impediments. The format may vary. It is recommended that the Scrum Master update the log after each Daily Stand-up.
Scrum users frequently inspect Scrum artifacts and progress toward a Sprint Goal to detect undesirable variances.
A prioritized list of work to be performed in a project. In the Scrum framework, this evolves with the business need and the environment .
The filtering of tasks on the product backlog based on their importance as per criteria set by the product owner.
The leader of the product development team. The voice of the stakeholder community to the scrum team. The product owner defines what to do and in what order to do it.
Scrum board is used to plan and track progress during a Sprint which usually contains three columns to indicate the progress of the estimated tasks for the Sprint: a To Do column for the tasks not yet started, a Work in Progress column for the tasks started but not completed, and a Done column for the tasks completed. Scrum board also contains the Sprint burn down chart and space for unexpected items.
A set of principles, values, practices and rules that form the base for Scrum-based development.
A Scrum team is composed of a product owner, Scrum Master, and development team, responsible for the high-quality and timely delivery of sprint commitments.
A team or a group of people that manage themselves, their time and resources is said to be self-organized.
A sprint review activity where the product backlog items that are completed will be demonstrated. The intention is to encourage an information-rich discussion between the Scrum team and other sprint review participants.
The sprint goal is what is to be accomplished by the end of the sprint. Its a summary of the activities/results elaborated by the product backlog items that the Product Owner would like to accomplish during the sprint.
The abstract measure of effort to implement a story is called a story point. Typically determined by engaging in planning poker.
The appropriately aggressive pace at which a team works so that it produces a good flow of business value over an extended period of time without getting burned out.
A chart/board that depicts all the work the team is doing during a sprint. There are 5 columns: “Story,” “To do,” “In progress,” and “done.”
A fixed duration of time during which an activity is performed. In Scrum, sprints are time boxed iterations.
One of the key principles of Scrum is transparency, wherein the customer is constantly aware of the product progress, and the team members are aware of their roles and responsibilities.
A User Story is a statement (or a group of statements) that expresses the desired end user functionality. User Stories are generally simple, short, and easy to implement. Longer User Stories are further broken down into multiple User Stories.