What is Scrum?

Published On - November 11, 2018

Eric Uncategorized
AS THERE ARE COUNTLESS SITES DESCRIBING WHAT SCRUM IS, I WILL AVOID THE OVERLY LONG EXPLANATION.

Scrum is an iterative and incremental agile framework for managing product development. It defines a flexible, holistic strategy where a team works as a unit to reach a common goal,
it challenges assumptions of the traditional, sequential approach to high quality, best value products.

ELEVATOR PITCH VERSION OF SCRUM
  • A product owner creates a prioritised wish list called a product backlog.
  • During sprint planning, the team pulls a small chunk from the top of that wish list, a sprint backlog, and decides how to implement those pieces.
  • The team has a certain amount of time — a sprint (usually two to four weeks) — to complete its work, but it meets each day to assess its progress (daily Scrum).
  • Along the way, the ScrumMaster keeps the team focused on its goal.
  • At the end of the sprint, the work should be potentially shippable: ready to hand to a customer, put on a store shelf, or show to a stakeholder.
  • The sprint ends with a sprint review and retrospective.
  • As the next sprint begins, the team chooses another chunk of the product backlog and begins working again.
WITH A DIAGRAM
SCRUM VALUES

The Team uses the following Scrum Values to ensure they work in a cohesive manner that builds trust into their interactions.

THE SCRUM FRAMEWORK

The framework contains 3 Roles, 4 Events and a handful of Artefacts.

Roles

  • Development Team
  • Product Owner
  • Scrum Master

Events

  • Product Backlog Refinement
  • Sprint Planning
  • Daily Scrum
  • Sprint Review
  • Sprint Retrospectives

Artefacts

  • Product Backlog Items
  • Sprint Backlog Items
  • Product Increment
  • (Optional) Burn down, Impediment List, Risk List

Over the past 30 years the practice of the Scrum has been honed to these items as critical. However the difficulty in ‘doing Scrum’ lies in the correct use of these components. Only with the correct practice and continuous improvement will the true value and benefits of Scrum be realised.

While it is highly flexible and can be adapted to suit most ‘knowledge worker’ environments such as software and web development, it is also possible to adopt Scrum for other industries such as marketing projects and development of complex systems.

TO READ MORE

About the mechanics and roles of Scrum, head over to http://www.scrumguides.org

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