Scrum

Notes

• It's is a lightweight agile framework.

• It helps teams and organizations generate the highest possible value for the project.

• It describes a set of meetings/events/ceremonies, tools/artifacts, and roles to help teams structure and manage their work.

• Scrum Team:

  • Few people.
  • There are no sub-teams or hierarchies.
  • Every member must be focused on one objective at a time.
  • Roles:
    • Product Owner (PO).
    • Scrum Master (SM).
    • Developers.

• Tools or artifacts:

  • Product backlog:
    • The main list of work that needs to get done.
    • Maintained by the PO.
    • It's used as sprints input.
    • It's the "To Do" list.
    • It's constantly revisited, re-prioritized, and maintained by the PO as the product priorities and the market change.
  • Sprint Backlog:
    • Items selected from the product backlog to be executed on the current sprint.
    • The "Doing" list.
  • Increment:
    • The result of a sprint.
    • The "Done" list.
    • Must add value to the project.

• Ceremonies or events:

  1. Organize the backlog:

     • PO's responsibility.
     • Prioritize items as they know more about the business, the market, and the stakeholders' priorities.

  2. Sprint planning:

     • The work is to be performed during the current sprint.
     • Is planned by the entire team.
     • SM leads this event.
     • At the end of this meeting, every team member needs to be clear about the sprint goals, what can be delivered and how the team can deliver the increment.

  3. Sprint:

     • The period that the Scrum team works to finish the increments.
     • Generally two weeks.
     • The more unknown and complex the work, the shorter the sprint should be.
     • All events happen during the sprint.

  4. Daily Scrum:

     • Daily super-short meetings that happen at the same time and place.
     • The goal is for everyone on the team to be on the same page, aligned with the sprint goal.
     • Each member of the team answers these questions:
       • What did I do yesterday?
       • What do I plan to do today?
       • Are there any obstacles?

  5. Sprint Review:

     • Happens at the end of the sprint.
     • The team gets together to present or inspect the increment.
     • The PO decides to release or not the increment.
     • The PO reworks the product backlog that the team will use to feed the next sprint.

  6. Sprint retrospective:

     • The team comes together to document and discuss what worked and what didn't work in the current sprint.
       • The team can focus on what went well and what needs to be improved next time.

Questions

• How do you define Scrum with a few words?

• Besides software development, which do other fields use Scrum?

• What does the Product Owner do? And the Scrum Master?

• The scrum framework defines some tools, ceremonies, and roles. List them.

• Does Scrum work with a team working remotely?

References

• ProductPlan. Scrum Agile Framework
• Scrum. WHAT IS SCRUM?
• Atlassian. What is Scrum?

Backlinks

• Agile Methodologies
• Daily Scrum
• Product Owner
• Queues in Product Development
• Scrum Master