Scrum

The first idea that comes to mind when someone says the word “scrum,” is people in rugby
jerseys standing in a circle and crashing into each other. But when someone brings up scrum
in terms of the workplace, they’re probably referencing Scrum with a capital “S”, which begs
the question: what is Scrum? Why Use Scrum? How Does Scrum Work?

What is Scrum
Scrum is a widely-used, agile product development strategy a collection of values, team
roles, and rituals used in combination to create iterative work products. Scrum began in the
software industry and has since spread to universities, the military, the automotive industry,
and beyond.
The scrum framework is heuristic; it’s based on continuous learning and adjustment to
fluctuating factors. It acknowledges that the team doesn’t know everything at the start of a
project and will evolve through experience. Scrum is structured to help teams naturally
adapt to changing conditions and user requirements, with re-prioritization built into the
process and short release cycles so your team can constantly learn and improve.

How does Scrum works

The Scrum roles

 Product Owner, is accountable for the work the team is supposed to complete, whether
they do much of that work themselves or delegate it to other team members. The
Product Owner is always a single person and not a committee; while they can take input
from others when it comes to their decisions, final decisions ultimately come down to
the Product Owner.
 The Development Team, is exactly what it sounds like the people working together to
deliver products. Despite the “development” title and Scrum’s software background,
keep in mind these products can be anything (this blog post you’re reading is a Scrum
product, for instance).Development Teams are given the freedom to organize
themselves and manage their own work to maximize the team’s effectiveness and
efficiency.
 Scrum Master, is the team’s resident facilitator, responsible for helping all team
members follow Scrum’s theories, rules, and practices. They make sure the Scrum Team
has whatever it needs to complete its work, like removing roadblocks that are holding
up progress.
Scrum Teams are self-organizing and cross-functional. Self-organizing teams choose how
best to accomplish their work, rather than being directed by others outside the team. Cross-
functional teams have all competencies needed to accomplish the work without depending
on others not part of the team. The team model in Scrum is designed to optimize flexibility,
creativity, and productivity.

The Scrum Events

 A Sprint is a specified time period during which a Scrum team produces a product (this
can include a big project, multiple smaller ones, a series of reports, a version of an app,
etc).
 Sprint Planning is a meeting where the work to be done during a Sprint is mapped out.
During this meeting, the entire team clearly defines deliverables for the Sprint and assigns
the work necessary to achieve that goal.
 The Daily Scrum (sometimes called a Stand-Up or Daily) is a 15-minute daily meeting
where the team has a chance to get on the same page and put together a strategy for the
next 24 hours. Work from the previous day is analyzed, while updates are shared for work
taking place that day.
 The Sprint Review takes place after a Sprint ends. During Review, the Product Owner
explains what planned work either was or was not completed during the Sprint. The team
then presents completed work and talks through what went well and how problems were
solved.
 The Sprint Retrospective also takes place after a Sprint. Retros provide a dedicated forum
for the team to analyze their process during the previous Sprint and make adaptations as
needed. At Skillcrush, we typically start with some kind of icebreaker game to get the
feedback going and give ourselves the opportunity to honestly communicate with our
teammates.

The Scrum artifacts

The Product Backlog is a complete, ordered list of all product requirements, and acts as the
sole reference for any necessary product changes. The Product Owner oversees the Product
Backlog, including how it’s made available to the team, its content, and how it’s ordered.

The Sprint Backlog is a list of all items from the Product Backlog to be worked on during a
Sprint. This list is put together by prioritizing items from the Product Backlog until the team
feels they’ve reached their capacity for the Sprint. Team members sign up for tasks in the
Sprint Backlog based on skills and priorities, following the self-organizing Scrum framework.
A Product Increment is the sum of product work completed during a Sprint, combined with
all work completed during previous Sprints. The goal of a Sprint is to produce a Done
Product Increment.It’s up to the Scrum team to agree on what defines an Increment’s
“Done” status, but all team members need to agree on and understand the definition.

Scrum is simple.  It is the opposite of a big collection of interwoven mandatory components.
Scrum is not a methodology. Scrum implements the scientific method of empiricism. Scrum
replaces a programmed algorithmic approach with a heuristic one, with respect for people
and self-organization to deal with unpredictability and solving complex problems.  The below
graphic represents Scrum in Action as described by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland in
their book Software in 30 Days taking us from planning through software delivery.