What is Scrum and how can it help your business tackle projects more efficiently?
Scrum is a framework for team collaboration. It enables teams to learn from experience and self-organize while working on a problem. It also helps project managers to reflect on their victories and losses to continually improve.
Let's go over the basics of Scrum to see if it is a good fit for your future projects.
Scrum In a Nutshell
In Scrum each project team is called, The Scrum Team. All product-related duties, such as stakeholder collaboration, maintenance, operation, experimentation, research, and development, are handled by the Scrum Team. The three main team member roles of Scrum are referred to as the Scrum Master, the Product Owner, and the Development Team.
Scrum Master:
Responsible for Scrum Teams effectiveness.
- Serves the scrum team - coach of the team
- In charge of removal of any impediments to progress
Product Owner:
Responsible for maximizing the value of the deliverables from the work of the Scrum Team.
- Is the voice of the client/shareholders
- Performs product/service backlog management
- Communicating product goals
- Creating and communicating product backlog
- Ordering product backlog items
Developers:
Responsible for creating the plan for the upcoming sprint and executing.
- Subject matter experts
- Must adapt each day towards the goal and adhere to ‘Definition of Done'
Scrum’s work periods are referred to as ‘sprints’. The duration of a sprint is 1 month or less. During each sprint four different collaborative meetings take place.
Sprints are the heartbeat of Scrum, where ideas are turned into value. The 4 different meetings that take place during a sprint are:
- Sprint Planning Meeting
- Daily Scrum Meetings
- Sprint Review Meeting
- Sprint Retrospective Meeting
Sprint Planning Meeting
Sprint planning initiates the sprint by laying out the work to be performed for the sprint. The Product Owner makes sure that the team is prepared to discuss the most important product backlog items and the product goal.
During Spring Planning the Sprint Backlog is created:
*Sprint Backlog = The Sprint Goal + Product Backlog + the plan for delivering them
Daily Scrum Meetings
Daily Scrums are quick 15-minute check-ins for the development team to assess progress toward the sprint goal.
Sprint Review
The Sprint Review is a collaborative working session where the Scrum Team presents its results to key stakeholders. At this time, the backlog may be adjusted to meet new opportunities.
Sprint Retrospective
This meeting’s purpose is to plan ways to increase quality and effectiveness.
During the Sprint Retrospective meeting the Scrum Team inspects the outcome of the last sprint, identifies issues that arose, uncovers solutions for future sprints. This signifies the end of the Sprint.
Businesses Are Turning to Scrum
The obvious advantages of agile Scrum lead to the effective completion of projects within constrained time and financial constraints and the production of high-quality deliverables.
Many organizations who have adopted Scrum have chosen it as their framework of choice for integrating management concepts into their company's operations. The agile methodology is used by roughly 60% of firms in various industries. Even a large number of companies that don’t use it entirely mix it with other complementary methodologies.
Ways to Get Started
It will forever be a daunting task to change the hearts and minds of a well-established team. However, to switch your project management framework, all team members must devote some time up front and buy into it 100%. Scrum provides the structure to help the majority of companies make continuous progress by working more nimbly and intelligently in today's fast-paced work environment.
The easiest way to grasp these concepts is to learn the fundamentals of Scrum from agile experts. Microtrain offers a virtual 2-day course that covers the principles of Scrum methods. For more info, visit https://www.microtrain.net/programs/view/certified-scrummaster-csm.