Introduction
In this article, you will learn about important aspects of the Scrum Framework. Mostly, you will gain knowledge on types of roles, events, and artifacts.
What Are Scrum and Agile?
Agile is a project management methodology that emphasizes on flexibility and customer satisfaction through the iterative delivery of products. Agile principles were introduced as a response to the limitations of the traditional project management approach, which focused on predictive planning and control. The Agile Manifesto emphasizes on individuals and interactions, working software, customer collaboration, and responding to change.
Scrum
Scrum is a framework that follows Agile principles and is used for managing and completing complex projects. Scrum is based on the principles of empirical process control theory and encourages collaboration, flexibility, and continuous improvement. The Scrum framework consists of three main roles, five events, and three artifacts.
Scrum Roles
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Scrum consists of three roles responsible for ensuring a Scrum project's success. The three roles are:
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Product Owner - The Product Owner is responsible for defining the product vision, maintaining the product backlog, and ensuring that the development team is working on the highest priority items in the backlog.
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Scrum Master - The Scrum Master is responsible for ensuring that the Scrum framework is followed and the team is able to deliver a high-quality product. The Scrum Master facilitates the Scrum events and helps the team remove any impediments.
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Development Team - The Development Team is responsible for delivering the product increment at the end of each Sprint. The Development Team is cross-functional and self-organizing and is responsible for estimating and planning the work required to deliver the increment.
All of them together are called Scrum Team. A Scrum Team should have two essential characteristics,
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Cross-Functional means that the team has all the necessary skills and expertise to deliver a potentially shippable product increment at the end of each Sprint. A cross-functional team typically consists of developers, testers, designers, and other specialists as needed for the specific project.
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Self-Organized means that the team has the autonomy to decide how to accomplish the work and how to manage their own process. The team members collectively decide how to break down work items, how to approach problem-solving, and how to improve their processes.
Having these two characteristics helps to ensure that the Scrum Team is empowered to deliver high-quality, valuable products in a timely manner. Cross-functional teams bring diverse perspectives and expertise to the table, allowing for more efficient and effective problem-solving. Self-organizing teams are better able to adapt to changing requirements and deliverables, which is essential in an Agile environment.
They have all the expertise and competencies needed to get the job done without any help from outside the team.
Scrum Events
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A Scrum project is done through a number of Sprints. Each Sprint is a time box of no more than one month, during which an Increment of a potentially shippable product will be delivered. A Sprint is a container for the following events:
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Sprint - A Sprint is a time-boxed period, usually two to four weeks, during which the Development Team works to deliver a potentially releasable product increment.
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Sprint Planning - Sprint Planning is a time-boxed event where the Development Team collaborates with the Product Owner to define the Sprint Goal and select the items from the Product Backlog that will be worked on during the Sprint.
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Daily Scrum - Daily Scrum is a time-boxed event that occurs every day during the Sprint. During Daily Scrum, the Development Team meets to discuss their progress towards the Sprint Goal and identify any impediments that need to be addressed.
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Sprint Review - Sprint Review is a time-boxed event that occurs at the end of each Sprint. During Sprint Review, the Development Team presents the increment to the stakeholders and receives feedback.
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Sprint Retrospective - Sprint Retrospective is a time-boxed event that occurs at the end of each Sprint. During Sprint Retrospective, the Development Team reflects on the Sprint and identifies areas for improvement.
The Sprint itself and all other events are time-boxed: they have a maximum duration, and Scrum Team tries to achieve a certain goal during that period. They are all designed to enable critical transparency, inspection, regularity, and adaptation.
Scrum Artifacts
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Scrum framework consists of three artifacts, which are:
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Product Backlog - The Product Backlog is a prioritized list of items the Product Owner maintains. The Product Backlog items represent the work that needs to be done to achieve the product vision.
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Sprint Backlog - The Sprint Backlog is a list of items from the Product Backlog that the Development Team has committed to completing during the Sprint.
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Increment - The Increment is the sum of all the Product Backlog items completed during the Sprint and all previous Sprints. The Increment must be in a releasable state and meet the Definition of Done.
Definition of "Done" - the shared understanding of what it means for a piece of work to be considered complete
Monitoring Progress toward a Goal - the performance measurement and forecast for the whole project.
Monitoring Sprint Progress - the performance measurement and forecasts for a single Sprint
That's it! You now have a good understanding of Scrum and can start using Scrum in your projects.