You may have heard of Agile project management and the Scrum framework. But what exactly is Scrum, and how can it help you and your team deliver high-quality software in a shorter timeframe? In this blog, we’ll explore the pillars and values of Scrum, the roles of the Scrum team, the artifacts that Scrum teams use, and the events that occur during a Scrum project. We’ll also provide examples of how Scrum is used in a software project to help you understand the practical application of the Scrum framework.

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What is Agile?

Agile is the ability to create and respond to change. Agile values lean procedures and the development of minimum viable products (MVPs) that go through several iterations before being finished. Feedback is continually received and used, resulting in a far more dynamic process in which everyone is striving for a single goal.

Agile: Scrum Methodology

Scrum is a popular Agile methodology that is widely used in software development. It follows an iterative and incremental approach, with teams working in short sprints (typically 2-4 weeks) to deliver high-value solutions. The Scrum framework is designed to help teams manage complex and adaptive projects, with a focus on collaboration, communication, and continuous improvement.

Pillars and Values of Scrum

Scrum is built on three pillars:

  1. Transparency
  2. Inspection and
  3. Adaptation.

These pillars form the foundation of Scrum and are critical to its success. Transparency ensures that everyone on the team has access to the same information and understands the project’s progress. Inspection involves regularly reviewing the project’s progress and identifying areas that require improvement. Adaption involves making changes to the project based on the results of the inspection.

In addition to the pillars, Scrum is guided by five values:

  1. Commitment,
  2. Focus,
  3. Openness,
  4. Respect and
  5. Courage.

These values are essential to creating a positive team environment and delivering successful projects.

Main components of Scrum Framework

The Scrum framework provides a structured approach to Agile project management. The Scrum framework consists of three roles, five events, and three artifacts.

03 Scrum Roles and their responsibilites

  1. Product Owner: The Product Owner is responsible for defining and prioritizing the product backlog, ensuring that it reflects the needs of the customer and stakeholders.

  2. Scrum Master: The Scrum Master is responsible for ensuring that the Scrum framework is implemented correctly and that the team is following the Agile principles and values.

  3. Development Team: The Development Team is responsible for delivering a potentially shippable product increment at the end of each sprint.

The Scrum Team: A collection of individuals working together to deliver requested and committed product increments. The ideal size is 7 +/- 2 people. The Scrum Team is empowered and self-organizing to define:

  • What is will commit to deliver at the end of the Sprint?
  • How the expected results have to be broken down into tasks?
  • who will perform the task and in which order they are performed.
  • It is working as autonomous as it is possible.
  • The skills within the Scrum Team are balanced.
  • team is small and has no sub-teams.
  • The people within the Scrum Team work full time in the team.

Responsibility of Each Individuals in Scrum

Responsibilities of the Scrum Product Owner

  • Managing the Scrum Product Backlog.
  • Release Management.
  • Stakeholder Management.
  • Work closely with the Scrum Team.
  • Responsible for checking and accepting the Sprint results during the Sprint review session.

Responsibilities of the Scrum Master

  • Guard the Scrum Team from external requests and disruptions.
  • Act as a change agent and adapt processes to maximize productivity of the team.
  • Coach the Scrum Team.
  • remove impediments for the Scrum Team.
  • ensure efficient communication between the Scrum Team and the Scrum Product Owner.
  • facilitate the various Scrum Events

Responsibilities of the Development team/ Scrum Team

  • To breakdown the requirements, create task, estimate and distribute them. Then, write its down to Sprint Backlog.
  • To perform the short Daily Sprint Meeting.
  • To ensure that at the end of the Sprint potentially shippable functionality is delivered.
  • To update the status and the remaining efforts for their tasks to allow creation of a Sprint Burndown Diagram.

05 Scrum Events

Scrum teams use five events: sprint, sprint planning, daily Scrum, sprint review, and sprint retrospective

  1. Sprint: A time-boxed iteration of development work that typically lasts 2-4 weeks.

  2. Sprint Planning: A meeting where the team plans the work that will be completed during the upcoming sprint.

  • Sprint Planning Meeting includes WHAT-Meeting and HOW-Meeting.
  • WHAT-Meeting the Scrum Team commits to the User Stories from the Scrum Product Backlog and it uses a HOW-Meeting to break the committed User Stories into smaller and concrete tasks. Then implementation begins.
  • Iterative process: Stakeholder requirements > Update Product Backlog -> Sprint Planning Session -> Daily Sprint Meeting -> Sprint Review Session -> Potentially deliverable Product -> Release -> Sprint Retrospective

WHAT-Meeting

  • the Scrum Product Owner defines the Sprint Goal.
  • based on this goal the relevant entries in the Scrum Product Backlog are chosen by the Scrum Product Owner.
  • these entries are updated and broken into smaller stories so that they can be completed within on Sprint.
  • the entries are estimated & prioritized.
  • the team defines their capacity for the upcoming Sprint.
  • define the Sprint Goal in a short description.
  • estimate the team capacity from Sprint to Sprint due to the capacity might change e.g. vacations, public holidays, efforts for Scrum Meetings and time needed for other activities.

HOW-Meeting

  • All WHAT-Meeting selected backlog items will be the input of the HOW-Meeting.
  • identifying the concrete tasks needed for complete implementation of the Scrum Product Backlog entries. Base for this estimation should be person-hours.
  • tasks normally include design, implementation, test and documentation activities.
  • can be down in a separate session after the WHAT-Meeting.
  1. Daily Scrum/ Daily Stand up meeting:

A daily 15-minute meeting where the team members discuss progress and plan their work for the day.

  • A short everyday meeting during Sprint, not more than 15 minutes.
  • Each team member should briefly provide the answers of the following three questions:
    • what has he/she accomplished since the last daily Scrum meeting?
    • what is he/she is going to accomplish until the next Scrum meeting?
    • what are the impediments that prevent he/she from accomplishing his/her tasks?
    • No issues or concerns raised during the meeting are allowed to be ignored due to the lack of time. Issues or concerns ought to be recorded by the Scrum Master and needs to be specifically handled after the meeting.
  1. Sprint Review: A meeting where the team presents the work completed during the sprint to the Product Owner and stakeholders.
  • Take place in the form of a demo of the new features.
  • Backlog items that are not completed shall not be demonstrated.
  • Incomplete items shall be taken back into the Scrum Product Backlog, re-estimated and completed in on of the following Sprints.
  • Should be kept very informal. No PowerPoint slides should be used and time for preparation and performing the meeting should be limited.
  • Scrum Product Owner inspects the implemented backlog entries and accepts the solution or adds new stories to the Scrum Product Backlog to adapt the functionality.
  1. Sprint Retrospective: A meeting where the team reflects on the previous sprint and identifies areas for improvement.
  • Time-boxed event.
  • An integral part of the “inspect and adapt” process.
  • Actionable suggestion to improve performance should be available at the end of the meeting.
  • All team members reflect on the past Sprint and check three things:
    • What went well during the Sprint, what didn’t.
    • What improvements could be made in the next Sprint.

Rules & Norms:

  • Time and location of the Daily Scrum Meeting.
  • The Definition Of Done (DoD) used to decide if work is finished or not.
  • Code guidelines.

03 Artifacts of Scrum

Scrum teams use three artifacts: the product backlog, the sprint backlog, and the increment.

  1. Product Backlog: A prioritized list of features and requirements for the product.
  • List of all things that needs to be done within the project.
  • Each entry in the Scrum Product Backlog must have some kind of customer value. Entries without any customer value are pure waste and should not be present anyway.
  • Should not contain the detailed requirement information.
  • Properties of each Scrum Product Backlog item:
  • an entry in the Scrum Product Backlog always add value for the customer.
  • the entries in the Scrum Product Backlog are prioritized and ordered accordingly.
  • the level of detail depends on the position of the entry within the Scrum Product Backlog.
  • all entries are estimated.
  • the Scrum Product Backlog is a living document.
  • there are no action-items or low-level tasks in the Scrum Product Backlog.
  • includes entries for the exploration of customer needs or various technical options, a description of both functional and nonfunctional requirements, the work necessary to launch the product, and other items as well.
  • added value, costs and risks are the most common factors for prioritization.
  • about 10% of the Scrum Teams total time should be reserved for maintaining the Scrum Product Backlog.
  1. Sprint Backlog: A list of tasks that the Development Team plans to complete during the upcoming sprint.
  • All entries have to be estimated on a person-hour base in order to track progress and remaining efforts.
  • The Sprint Backlog is a living artifact and is updated on a daily base.
  • At the end fo the day all remaining efforts are updated an this defines how much work is left until the Sprint Goal is reached.
  1. Increment: A potentially shippable product that has been developed during the sprint.

How to Implement Scrum

To implement Scrum, follow these steps:

  • Form a Scrum Team: Identify the Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Development Team.

  • Create the Product Backlog: The Product Owner works with stakeholders to identify and prioritize the features and requirements for the product.

  • Conduct Sprint Planning: The Development Team and Product Owner work together to select the features and requirements that will be completed during the upcoming sprint.

  • Conduct Daily Scrums: The Development Team meets daily to discuss progress and plan work for the day.

  • Conduct Sprint Review: The Development Team presents the work completed during the sprint to the Product Owner and stakeholders.

  • Conduct Sprint Retrospective: The team reflects on the previous sprint and identifies areas for improvement.

Examples of Scrum in Software Projects

Let’s say you’re working on a software project that involves developing a software project. Here’s how Scrum could be used:

  • Sprint 1, Day 0

  • Product Owner presents highest priority items from Product Backlog
  • Development team discusses and clarifies any open questions for each item
  • Team commits to completing selected stories by the end of the sprint
  • Scrum Master guides team in defining details of how committed items will be implemented
  • Tasks are written on cards and placed on Sprint Task board

  • Each member of Development Team selects a task to work on

  • Sprint 1, Day 1

    • During the Daily Scrum Meeting, the Development Team gives updates on their progress
    • Team members update the estimated remaining hours for their tasks on the Sprint Task board
    • Team members share what they plan to work on for the day and any obstacles they may be facing
    • The Scrum Master updates the Sprint Burndown chart to track progress.

  • Sprint 1, Day 28

    • Development Team presents current software implementation to Product Owner
    • Product Owner reviews implementation and documentation for accuracy
    • Invite outside parties for suggestions and comments (if needed)
    • Sprint Review Meeting conducted by Scrum Master
  • Sprint 2, Day 1
    • The Product Owner updates the Product Backlog with new items from customer meetings
    • The Development Team reviews and refactors any unfinished user stories from previous Sprint
    • The Development Team discusses and commits to new stories for the current Sprint under the guidance of the Scrum Master
    • The team defines the “Definition of Done” (DOD) for the new user stories
    • The second Sprint begins.

Scrum User Stories

  • The entries in the Scrum Product Backlog.
  • Tells a short story about someone using the product.
  • Focus on exactly what the user needs without going into the details on how to achieve it.
  • Be a descriptive sentence.

Distributed Scrum Teams

  • Can slide the teams in different manners as Component or Feature teams or Both.
  • Component Team — each team is only responsible for the implementation for dedicated components in the system. For example, User Interface, Business Logic and Infrastructure.
  • Feature Team — fully responsible for implementation on of user stories as contained in the Scrum Backlog.

Scrum is a powerful framework for Agile project management that can help software teams deliver high-quality products in shorter timeframes. By focusing on transparency, inspection, and adaptation, and guided by the values of commitment, focus, openness, respect, and courage, Scrum enables teams to collaborate effectively, prioritize work, and deliver value to customers. By understanding the roles, artifacts, and events of Scrum, and how it can be applied in software projects, beginner project managers can begin to master the Scrum framework and deliver successful projects.

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