Scrum framework is an agile methodology followed by most corporates to manage complex projects. It is more like a philosophy that almost every organization follows to continuously evolve their products as well as processes to keep up with the ongoing trend in the market while valuing customers often. It involves several roles and management tools for the efficient delivery of goods and services to their customers.
Why Scrum Framework?
Scrum methodology, unlike the Waterfall model, emphasizes continuous improvements in the process and product. Since it involves different levels of managing roles, tools, and set of meetings, tracking the progress becomes easier and the clients are frequently updated with the development status. Because of this, the developers get practice to adapt to changes. Developers not only learn to adapt to changes but also learn to develop and improve their knowledge from experience. This, in turn, improves the quality of the developing team and deliverables and delivers value to the clients.
How Does it Work?
Scrum framework delivers products in a time-boxed period called ‘Sprint’. It is the fundamental element of Scrum methodology that expects developers to develop, test, and deliver a functional deliverable or an improvement in a product. Depending upon the complexity of deliverables, the duration of sprints varies, usually from a week to a month. Sprints maintain a consistent pace for development and learning from past experiences to improve future sprints.
At the start of each sprint, the developing team commits themselves to the ‘Sprint Goal’ that sets the focus and direction for the development. Daily Scrum meetings are held to create a plan for the day, track the progress, and clear any blockages in the development. During this meeting, each developer in the team answers:
- What work has been completed on the previous day?
- Any pending tasks?
- What’s the plan today?
- Any setbacks?
This will keep all the developers in sync with the development. Developers log their tasks and progress status in management tools which are overseen by the ‘Scrum Master’ and the development team itself. Stand-up meetings are held daily or weekly once to update the status of development with the customers.
Following that, sprint review is conducted where the developers perform a demo of the completed deliverables to their stakeholders and collect feedback. This provides efficient developer- stakeholder collaboration. Based on the gathered feedback, an analysis of improvements is done. The reflection on the sprint review identifies the improvements required for future sprints in terms of process, tools, and collaboration among the developers as well as with the stakeholders.
At the end of the sprint, refinement of product backlog is done in such a way that it does not affect the sprint goal and quality of the deliverable. Likewise, a product can have multiple sprints and each of them follows the same pattern but with different sprint goals.
Scrum Roles
| Roles | Responsibilities |
| Scrum Master | -Coaches the developing team the ‘Scrum Principles’ and ensures that they apply them. -Identifies and removes any impediments in the development. -Responsible for planning sprints, conducting daily Scrum meetings, holding stand-up meetings, and actively participating in sprint reviews and sprint retrospectives. |
| Product Owner | -Works closely with the customers and ensures that the investment done by them is worth it. -Responsible for creating and maintaining the product backlog and for defining and prioritizing the work for the team. -Makes decisions on the sprint releases and the beginning of the next sprint. -Ensures that the team delivers the right product to the customers. |
| The Development Team | -Usually consists of 3 to 9 members that includes people from different roles like UI/UX specialists, consultants, developers, testers, etc. -Members participate in daily Scrum calls to sync up on the development. -Works in a self-organized and empowered way. -Individuals are accountable for any credits/errors. |
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Scrum Core Values
- Commitment – The team members should commit themselves to achieving a common goal. Not only to the goals but also to the other team members, meaning that trust one another in a team to fulfill their responsibilities and perform to their fullest potential.
- Courage – The team should never hesitate to ask open, challenging questions and take risks. This happens only when the team members are transparent with each other, ask for help when needed, try out new tactics, report when something goes wrong, or identify any deviations from the goals.
- Focus – To get the maximum output of a sprint, the team members must remain focused on the tasks at hand and how they will impact the sprint goals. To achieve this, limiting the tasks per person and prioritizing the assigned tasks are necessary. In addition to this, the active participation of team members in the daily Scrum call makes them more focused on the objectives of a sprint.
- Openness – The team members need to be honest and open about the progress within the team as well as with the stakeholders. This might help in identifying and solving issues at the early stage. The team needs not only to be honest with progress and issues but also with feedback. Honest feedback brings the best skills and knowledge out of the team and helps to deliver quality products.
- Respect – Respect one another in the team. This implies that neither individual member nor their contributions are more valuable than the other. Respect each other’s ideas, opinions, and contributions in achieving common goals.
Scrum Principles
Adhering to the following 6 Scrum principles is essential to achieve the objectives of the projects:
- Empirical Process Control
- Self-Organization
- Collaboration
- Value-based Prioritization
- Time-boxing
- Iterative Development
Empirical Process Control: Since the Scrum framework enables the team to learn from their experience, the process is revised based on the experience and not from theory. The revision of workflow depends on the need and scope of various projects.
Self-Organization: The team members are accountable for completion of tasks and empowered to work independently.
Collaboration: The team members must interact and work together towards achieving the common objectives.
Value-based Prioritization: The team needs to complete the assigned tasks efficiently. To do so, prioritizing them is crucial. One should be aware of the value of each task assigned to them. Prioritizing the tasks based on their urgency and complexity, and planning how to finish them will deliver products on time.
Time-boxing: The sprint ceremonies like sprint planning, daily Scrum meetings, and the sprint itself are all time-bound. This avoids wastage of time and delays in deliveries.
Iterative Development: As Scrum is an agile methodology, it adapts to changes. The project might undergo several revisions during its development.
Scrum Artifacts
The following are the three Scrum Artifacts:
- Product Backlog – A list of requirements, enhancements, features, and fixes that must be
completed for a successful project completion - Sprint Backlog – The list of tasks decided to complete in the current sprint. It is a subset
of Product Backlog. - Increment – The completed, usable product of a sprint.
Conclusion
The Scrum framework is a structured yet flexible approach for teams to tackle complex projects. It enables the team to deliver valuable products to customers through iterative and incremental development. By understanding and applying the principles and practices of Scrum, teams can enhance their productivity, responsiveness to change, and ability to delight customers. As you embark on your own Scrum journey, remember to stay true to the values, tailor the framework to your context, and continuously inspect and adapt. With commitment and courage, Scrum can help you and your team achieve remarkable results.
