What is Scrum ?

The Scrum framework consists of Scrum Teams and their associated accountabilities, artifacts, events and rules as defined in the Scrum Guide.

What is Scrum ?

• Well, without making things too complicated, the Scrum framework can be defined as the following :
  • Scrum is an iterative software engineering process to develop and deliver great software your clients will love !
  • Although the software is the main focus of the Scrum framework, iterative and agile Scrum process can be and is already being applied outside the software industry as well.

Scrum benefits

• BUILD high-performer Scrum Organizations,
• AVOID common mistakes,
• WORK with higher efficiency,
• and ultimately BUILD the future you want.

Scrum history

• Most people in the IT industry believe that the term “Scrum” was coined early in the 2000s as a parallel track of emerging agile software development and delivery trends.
  • That is a piece of incorrect information!
  • The term “Scrum” was first used and published by Harvard Business Review in January 1986.
  • Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka coined the term “Scrum” with their article : The New New Product Development Game.

Scrum and Project

• Scrum can be used in all kinds of software development projects to develop and deliver complete software packages or only some modules of larger systems (both for products and services of internal and external clients).

The Scrum Framework

• The Scrum framework is a lightweight process :
  • It focuses on increasing the productivity of teams while reducing wastes and redundant activities.
  • Scrum defines some general guidelines with a few rules, accountabilities, artifacts, and events.
  • Nevertheless, all of these components are critical, serve for specific purposes, and they are essential for the successful use of the Scrum framework.

Scrum Framework overview

• The main components of Scrum framework are :
  • Three Scrum Accountabilities :
    • The Product Owner,
    • The Developers,
    • and the Scrum Master.
  • Three Scrum Artefacts :
    • Product Backlog :
      • An artifact that is used to manage and prioritize all of the known requirements of a Scrum project.
    • Sprint Backlog :
      • An artifact to keep track of requirements committed by the Scrum teams for a given Sprint.
    • Increment :
      • A shippable software product or service develop within a Sprint
  • Five Scrum Events (Scrum Rituals) :
    • Sprint Planning
    • Daily Scrum
    • Sprint Review
    • Sprint Retrospective
    • Sprint
      • Sprint is a container for all 4 events.
      • Sprint : Cycle of work activities.

Scrum Framework practice

• Self-Organization and unconditional collaboration are critical elements of the Scrum framework.
  • Scrum Teams do no longer require a project manager in a classical sense.
  • With the Scrum framework, the crum Master and the Product Owner share the role and responsibilities of a typical project manager.
  • Nonetheless, a Scrum Master or a Product Owner is never allowed to overrule the democratic decision-making capability of Developers.
  • For instance, only the Developers can jointly commit which ones of highly prioritized Product Backlog items they will deliver in a Sprint as a software Increment.
  • Another central element with the Scrum framework is the continuous improvement that we enable with “Inspect and Adapt“.
  • A Scrum Team continuously monitors, inspects, and assesses their Artifacts and their use of Scrum framework to adapt and optimize them.

Scrum and Risk Management

• These continuous efforts for optimization maximize quality, efficiency, client satisfaction, and therefore minimize wastes and overall project risks.
  • The Scrum framework understands that the requirements are likely to change and they are not entirely known, especially at the beginning of projects.
  • Every project has UNKNOWN UNKNOWNS.
    • Sometimes a few, sometimes a lot.
    • The Scrum framework helps us embrace that we can discover and deal with these unknown unknowns only while we are running our projects.

Scrum and Requirements

• The Scrum Team first fine-tunes and granularizes the lower-level or low priority requirements before it implements them during Backlog Refinement and Sprint Planning.
  • Backlog Refinement isn’t an event, Backlog Refinement is a work activity.
  • Openness for change, continuous optimization, and learning from errors are now becoming integral elements of the whole software engineering lifecycle.

Scrum Transparency

• Another cornerstone of the Scrum framework is transparency and direct communication.
  • The Product Owner works closely with the Scrum Team to identify and prioritize requirements.
  • These requirements are written down as user stories and stored in the Product Backlog.
  • The Product Backlog consists of all tasks that need to be implemented to deliver a working software system successfully.

Scrum Team

• A Scrum Team is empowered to select the Product Backlog Items with which they are confident to deliver within the 2-4 weeks of Sprints.
  • Because the Developers commit their own goal, the Developers feel more engaged, and they know that their opinions are listened to.
  • This inclusion of Developers to the natural flow and planning of software projects increases the team morale and subsequently augments the team performance.

Scrum Master

• Scrum Masters possess another vital role in the Scrum framework as they work as servant leaders for and with their Scrum Teams
  • Scrum Masters are trained facilitators to ensure flawless operation of their Scrum Teams.
  • Sometimes they are master negotiators to protect their Scrum Teams from interruptions and fictive priorities of their stakeholders.
  • Other times they are master communicators to remove or prevent known or anticipated impediments before these impediments bring their teams to dead-end streets.
  • To only call a few of the responsibilities of Scrum Masters.

Scrum and Project Management

• The Scrum framework, in its pure form, is best suitable for highly independent, one-team greenfield or brownfield projects.
  • However, the practical common sense of Scrum professionals did not stop there.
  • With the introduction of additional roles and addendums such as “Chief Scrum Product Owner” and “Scaled Scrum“, it can be used within different project configurations too, including multi-team and geographically distributed project setups.

The Scrum framework

More informations for the Scrum PSD certification here.

Updated : 21/08/2021