Scrum

crum is a lightweight agile project management framework whose primary use is in software development. In Scrum, projects are incrementally broken down into iterations called sprints. Sprints are typically two to four weeks in length. Scrum is best used when the project has highly emergent and ever changing requirements. Use the Interactive Scrum Diagram below to see what the key elements are or click the shortcuts below.

Daily Standup | Planning Meetings | Release Planning | Potentially Shippable | Burndowns

Scrum is simple in its implementation but challenging in its execution. Scrum has three key roles that make up the Scrum Team; the Product Owner, the ScrumMaster and the Core Team.The job of the the product owner is to ensure the vision that is being asked for by the business is being turned into functionality. This is done through stakeholder and customer management and using an artifact called the Product Backlog.The ScrumMaster has the job of keeping everything on track and the team healthy. This is a challenging job. While lacking the authority to tell the team what to do or being able to commit dates to the Product Owner, the ScrumMaster must make sure these things are happening.The core scrum team is comprised of the developers, testers, architects and whomever else is needed to accomplish the work. Team sizes range from four to ten. It is best to use even numbers in teams which allows for more efficient pair programming, an extreme programming practice. Everyone works on the team to ensure successfull delivery of the project. The team works towards potentially shippable code such that if the customers like what they see, they can release it to begin utilizing the value built to date. Scrum scales by adding more teams, not by growing the team size.

Once the team is in place, the product owner will work with the business to build the Product Backlog. The Product Backlog contains a prioritized list of features and stories that the customers wish to have built. At the start of each sprint, the team gets together for the Sprint Planning Meetings. There are two meetings. The first one defines what will be built. The Product Owner shares information on the highest priority stories so that the team understands what it will build for the sprint. Once this is completed, the second planning meeting begins. This defines how the team will build what was asked for. The output of this meeting is the Sprint Backlog, which contains all the tasks needed to execute on the stories and functionality that was askked for by the Product Owner. The team commits to the Sprint at this point and begins working. Each day the team gets together for the daily standup (or Scrum) meeting. This meeting is for the team and helps keep everyone up to speed on what the team is working on. This level of daily planning is important because it allows the team to surface blocking issues for resolution by the ScrumMaster.

At the end of the Sprint, the team holds the Sprint Review, which contains a demonstration to the customers as well as a team retrospective. Once this is complete, the cycle begins again until the project is completed.