A quick introduction to ‘scrum’ — so you’re not lost when someone says ‘join the daily’
So, what is ‘scrum’?
Scrum is a framework that helps to develop a product as a team. It’s a continuous process of learning, improving, and adjusting because of its heuristic approach. A scrum team learns and improves as the project progresses — it’s an agile-based framework. The dissimilarity between scrum and agile is that scrum is a faster and flexible approach. Compared to Agile, scrum accepts and reacts to changes swiftly.
The agile manifesto
The above is an extract fromThe Agile Manifesto.
Roles in scrum
There are three main roles in the scrum framework which are located in the same place for optimal results and better communication with development teams. These are the following:
Product owner
All clients and stakeholders are handled by the product owner. The product owner drives the backlogs and prioritizes the work to maximize the efficiency of the project. It’s the responsibility of the product owner to emphasize the business side of the product and stay in contact with clients and the scrum team.
This role is more about communication, the product owner acts as a proxy between the development team and stakeholders and communicate with each other and conveys messages in technical terms. The following are some tasks a product owner performs:
The product owner also has to see the interests of the stakeholders, cooperate with the team, and effectively fulfill the requirements.
Scrum team
A development team does not always have to be a team of software developers, but instead, it may consist of researchers, designers, data scientists, and developers. The development team has to be self-organized and handle their own decisions. The team members can also directly interact with stakeholders or clients for a better understanding of the requirement.
Scrum master
Scrum master assists the development team; this role is also termed as servant-leader. A scrum master removes any hindrance in the development process and makes sure that framework rules are being followed. They also lead the scrum and help the product owner in defining objectives. The scrum master has the following main roles:
A scrum master also assists the organization and team to take on empiricism and quitting predictability.
Scrum artifacts
Artifact means a work of art. So, an artifact is an object that we create, for example a product or device to solve an issue. There three primary artifacts that scrum defines:
Product backlog
Product backlogs are the requirements of the stakeholders. The product owner supervises and manages product backlogs. It includes a list of tasks for the development team to perform in sprints. Progress on product backlogs is always available for stakeholders to review it. Each backlog has a description, time, and amount. Backlogs keep on changing according to the feedback of the stakeholders.
Sprint backlog
Sprint backlogs come from product backlogs as goals to be completed in the sprint. The scrum team manages the sprint backlogs. Scrum team also plans and schedules the sprint backlogs.
Increment
Multiple increments make a product. Each sprint gives one product output. The product owner decides to demonstrate it or not after each sprint.
Sprint
Sprint is a working period of a scrum team, usually comprise of one to four weeks. A sprint starts with defining objectives and scheduling work. These objectives or tasks are also termed as ‘sprint backlogs.’ Scrum emphasizes to deliver useful output at the end of the sprint. Each sprint is consisting of the following workflow:
After each sprint, the product owner decides when to deliver the product. The final product may take more than one sprint.
Sprint planning
Each sprint starts with planning. In the sprint planning, the scrum team defines and lists the backlogs. Backlogs are the objectives that a scrum has to be fulfilled. Scheduling those tasks are also done in sprint planning. Backlogs have to be updated daily by each team member. The team tries its best to complete its sprint backlogs but it’s not rigidly required to fulfill all the planned tasks backlogs can be added in the next sprint.
Daily scrum
Scrum teams daily gather for a 15 minutes meeting where they update their backlogs and plan work for the next day. The development team members also share impediments of the backlog. So, the following are the few things which scrum team do in a daily scrum:
The scrum master makes sure the development team meets daily but still, it’s entirely up to the development team to hold a meeting.
Each sprint ends with “Sprint Review and “Sprint Retrospective.” Here’s what these are:
Sprint review
In the sprint review, the team reviews the work and identifies the unfinished tasks. The product owner and scrum team also hold a meeting with stakeholders, demonstrate their work, and plan what to work on next. Stakeholders give their feedback and then the product owner presents new objectives to the scrum team for the next sprint. It is important to note that incomplete work must not be presented.
Sprint retrospective
Before the next sprint planning the team inspect its performance and contemplate that what improvements can be made to boost productivity. The Scrum Master ensures the all the members attend the event acknowledge its importance and purpose.
Conclusion
Scrum is a framework designed for teams to produce a product. It’s an iterative and heuristic framework. The project progresses on the bases of facts instead of predictability. Three main roles control the whole process from start to end. The product owner manages the backlog and communicates with the stakeholder. The scrum team has to present the progress after every sprint. After getting feedback from the stakeholders the team and product owner review the sprint and retrospect it. Planning of the next sprint begins after this and the process keeps on going until the stakeholder finalizes the product.
Thisarticlewas originally published onLive Code StreambyJuan Cruz Martinez(twitter:@bajcmartinez), founder and publisher of Live Code Stream, entrepreneur, developer, author, speaker, and doer of things.
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