First Sight at Scrum

Scrum is a method for agile project management. It is mainly used in, but not limited to, software development.

 

Agile Maninfesto

The maninfesto for agile software development:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

 

Roles in Scrum

Scrum Master: His main tasks are facilating, coaching, interworking between team members and Product Owner, etc. He himself may be one member of a team, too.

Product Owner: He represents the interest of customers or end users. He defines what features or functions should be achieved.

Scrum Team: The advised number of members of a scrum team is 7 plus/minus 2.

 

Processes in Scrum

A feature list called product backlog is maintained. It can be changed or added or removed dynamically. After all or Product Owner defined number of features being achieved, then final release of the product is achieved. Each feature's effort should be estimated by members of the Scrum. The situations that estimatimation person and implementation person is not the same person should be avoided. 

 

The process of development is divided into Sprints. The cycle of each Sprint is advised to be 2-4 weeks. Before each Sprint's start, a Sprint plan meeting will be held. In the meeting, features are chosen in priority from Product Backlog to Sprint Backlog. Big features are broken down to small action items. Efforts are estimated in the meeting, too. After the meeting, the Sprint is going to start.

 

Each day, a Sprint meeting is held. In this meeting, everybody in the Scrum team reports 3 things. First thing is what has been down by him before the meeting. Second thing is what will be done after the meeting. Third thing is what impediment he has. Scrum Master will coordinate and record. The meeting needs to be kept as short as possible, and everybody should stand up during the meeting. Discussion should not be made in the meeting, and it should be made between proper persons after the meeting so as to save times. At the same time, not all persons have interests in the discussion.

 

A Sprint burning down chart is maintained. It is used to track how many efforts are left to finish Sprint tasks after each Sprint daily meeting. It can be used to determine efficiency and if the Sprint is delayed or not, etc.

 

After each Sprint, retrospection meeting can be held to conclude merits and shortcomings so as to make improvement in later Sprints.