An Overview Of Scrum Methodology

Scrum framework

Scrum is a unique framework specially designed to build a versatile product.  The framework supports a dynamic design, which allows the features and functionalities linked with the product to be changed, along with the real time changes occurring in the ongoing market conditions. Generally, a scrum project is started when the stakeholders or the investors desire to develop a product for marketing and selling purposes.

Scrum roles

Scrum is basically a team process. There are three important roles in scrum:

·       The Product Owner

Responsible for the work to be done in the scrum project.

·       The Scrum Master

Plays the servant-leader role, ensures that scrum is properly implemented in the project, and acts as a facilitator.

·       The development team members

Undertakes the product development in the form of sprints and actually gives “birth” to the product.

Daily sprints

A sprint is the fundamental unit of developing the product in scrum methodology. Actually, the entire product is developed in short bursts of development activity known as “sprints”. Each sprint generally lasts for two weeks. It can, however, extend up to four weeks if required, but in practice it generally lasts for only two weeks. A fully functional, or a “shippable” product feature or functionality is delivered at the end of each sprint.

Scrum artifacts or objects

Scrum includes three important artifacts which facilitate the scrum process. They are:

·       The Product Backlog

It consists of the user stories, or the list of features and functionalities which actually define the entire product to be developed.

·       The Sprint Backlog

A certain portion, or a subset of the product backlog, is transferred to the sprint backlog for development purposes during the sprint.

·       The Product Increment

It constitutes the list of features and functionalities which have been developed successfully by the development team, and is ready for “shipping”.

Scrum meetings

Scrum also requires five team activities or meetings, which are:

·       Product Backlog Refinement

The meeting includes updating the product backlog items or the user stories with the latest updates and feedback availed from the stakeholders, and resetting the priority of the backlog items on the basis of their importance.

·       Sprint Planning

Scheduled just before a sprint is to be carried out, the meeting is used to plan which tasks should be taken up for development by the team, and to clear the doubts or issues concerning the development.

·       Daily Scrum

The meeting is held just before the sprint commences for the particular day. The purpose is to discuss three important questions associated with daily sprinting:

-        What was done yesterday?

-        What is to be done today?

-        Are there any difficulties?

·       Sprint Review

Once a sprint is carried out, the product owner compares the user stories developed by the team, whether they fulfill the acceptance criteria. The review functions as a “learning” activity, and the team uses the prior experience to avoid potential pitfalls from occurring in the future sprints.

·       Sprint Retrospective

Once the development is carried out in sprints, and the product owner accepts the tasks as “Done”, it is required to demonstrate the successfully completed user stories to the stakeholders and the end users. The retrospective also helps to obtain a feedback from the individuals who are actually going to use the product.

Source:- https://www.apsense.com/article/an-overview-of-scrum-methodology.html

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Why Certain Businesses Fail To Benefit From Scrum – Part 1

Scrum may be difficult to understand and follow

Despite the fact that scrum framework helps to provide solutions for the drawbacks prevailing in traditional project management methodologies, in many cases, the company implementing scrum for the first time may face certain issues associated with scrum itself. Scrum methodology is highly adaptable and powerful. It can cater to changing market conditions, and successfully incorporate the changes within the product development cycle, even while the product is currently being developed. There are several advantages, which makes Agile scrum a much desired development methodology. However, implementing scrum in a successful manner can prove to be very challenging for first timers. The impediments faced are generally related to the transition process, as the company starts migrating from its current development methodology to scrum. For majority of people new to scrum, the environment may appear to be complex, rigid, and difficult to understand and follow. This is a misconception since scrum can be almost everything but not rigid in the truest sense. In the initial stage, the team may find it difficult to understand how scrum works, and what kind of roles the product owner and scrum master play while implementing scrum. In addition, there are certain artifacts or objects such as the product backlog and the sprint backlog which figure prominently in scrum. Moreover, scrum events such as the daily sprint meeting, sprint planning meeting, sprint retrospective meeting, and the sprint review meeting may confuse novices why they exist, or are needed in the first place. Scrum can be quite different when compared to traditional waterfall project development methods, and people often start developing a negative attitude towards it simply because they fail to understand it.   

Not getting the desired results out of scrum implementation

A company or a business may decide to implement scrum to reduce the project turnaround time or increase the productivity and the ROI. There is always a reason why an ongoing process flow may be required to be replaced by a new one by the business owners. The management and stakeholders may have “heard” about the obvious benefits of using scrum, and how their business can possibly benefit from them. The management personnel may have high expectations, and might even plan their marketing goals and objective keeping in mind the benefits availed by implementing scrum in their ongoing projects. However, in many cases, due to various reasons scrum implementation may fail to produce the desired results for the particular business, and the entire project may go askew with no clear indication as to in which direction it is heading for. The reasons may be many and varied. It is important to know what they are if scrum is to be implemented successfully.  

·       Improper communication channels and feedback

Broken feedback channels and improper communication processes primarily lead to a void in the learning process which is so very important while implementing scrum. A major issue is the lack of feedback availed during the scrum meetings and important information not being transmitted to the team members in the correct manner, or at the correct time. In scrum, the entire project is developed in short bursts of development activity called sprints. Sprints are to be conducted on a daily basis. The daily stand up or the daily scrum meeting precedes the sprint activity. Three important questions are to be answered during the meeting. The product increment during the daily sprint can be affected by the answers availed during the stand up. After the entire sprint is over, a sprint review meeting is held to evaluate the development carried out by the team. The product owner and the scrum master evaluate the entire sprint during the review, and efforts are made to generate new findings based upon prior experiences. The findings need to be conveyed to the team.

Result

When the communication channel fails due to some reason and proper feedback is not transmitted to the team members, they may start with a new sprint and repeat the same mistakes they made in the prior sprint. Scrum supports self-learning and self-correction activities which are possible only when a proper communication channel is set in place, and feedback is made available to the entire team. If the team members do not receive any feedback or communications from the concerned personnel, they may proceed with future activities without any definite aim or objective.  This can be disastrous for scrum because everything is planned, and each activity is carefully regulated in scrum. The team members fail to perform in the correct manner and the entire project suffers as a consequence.     

·       Organization lacks sufficient scrum knowledge and experience

Project managers are more used to traditional waterfall methods and are familiar with their process flow. Scrum is very different, and the framework should be understood in depth before it can be used or implemented in any particular way or manner. It is essential that the entire team be educated in scrum and knows how it works. The team members should be well apprised about the importance of the scrum artifacts and the purpose of the meetings. They should be made aware about the importance of sharing information in scrum and collaborating with other team members. At times, the team may not be clear about how a scrum meeting should be ideally conducted, and what information ought to be availed from it. A lack of clear purpose may render the entire meeting as useless. The team members may fail to deliver productivity in a scheduled or effective manner. The entire scrum process could be hampered.Read more on http://blog.quickscrum.com/post/2014/03/31/Why-Certain-Businesses-Fail-To-Benefit-From-Scrum-%E2%80%93-Part-1.aspx

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The Core Role and Responsibilities of a Product Owner in Scrum

One of the commonest mistakes that people make while considering the product owner’s role in scrum is to consider him or her as either actually owning the product, or functioning as a decision maker while developing the product for the stakeholders. This is far from true, since the product owner is actually employed by the stakeholders to represent their interests while scrum is implemented in a project. A product owner can own a product, but is not necessarily its owner in most cases.

The core job of the product owner, or rather the main responsibility, is to:

·       Figure out how to “make” the product

·       Ensure that the sprints are successfully completed during the project

·       Shippable products are delivered at the end of sprints

·       Ensure that the scrum project is successfully completed

The product owner’s job is a difficult one, and a full-time one.

The product owner as the core determinant of a successfully completed scrum project

It is essential to deliver value, and the scrum method requires an efficient, reliable, and an accurate mechanism, which can help to determine the product vision and create an effective pipeline which has the capability of distilling the product vision into shippable, concrete, and deliverable product backlog items that can successfully demonstrate the tangible benefits as a part of the longer project vision. It is because of this reason that the role of a product owner becomes a very important one while implementing scrum.

While the product owner can participate in each Scrum ritual, his or her main function, parallel to that of the scrum master, is to act as a facilitator for the entire team, and be available when problems and issues arise in the project. The main tasks of a product owner are:

·       Envisioning the product and facilitating its development

·       Creating an iterative or sprint release strategy which can incorporate the changing market conditions and product requirements

·       Distilling the high-level product related requirements into developable and deliverable user stories linked with acceptance criteria

·       Prioritizing the product backlog

·       Communicating difficult and complex system architecture issues to the clients

·       Negotiating all client-sided disputes and concerns associated with the product design, development, and user story priorities

Responsibilities of a product owner

The person is mainly responsible for:

·       Representing the interests of, and acting as the voice of stakeholders and customers

·       Understanding project profitability and delivering high ROI

·       Managing the stakeholders

·       Maintaining communications and promoting collaboration amongst the team members

·       Undertaking on-the-spot tactical decisions and ensuring that the product development cycle is not affected

·       Participating in the release meetings and planning

·       Writing effective user stories

·       Maintaining and updating the product backlog

·       Helping the team in estimating the development time for each scrum scenario

·       Participating in the sprint review meetings, accepting the user stories as “Done”, and providing effectual feedback

·       Monitoring the project progress and suggesting constant adjustments based upon important strategic objectives

Source: http://www.informationbible.com/article-the-core-role-and-responsibilities-of-a-product-owner-in-scrum-373803.html

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Norms for Holding Effective and Fruitful Scrum Meetings

Many types of meetings are held while scrum is implanted in a project. Right from sprint planning meeting to the sprint review and the sprint retrospective, other non-conventional meetings can also be arranged in scrum as and when needed to fulfill specific objectives.  Following certain norms can help to effective and fruitful meetings.

·       Scheduling the meeting

The best way to schedule a meeting is to consider all the information that needs to be conveyed during the meeting, and assign a proper time and duration for it. Do not try to cram in too many topics so that enough time is not allotted for discussing each topic during the meeting. Ideally, the meeting should last for approximately 30 minutes, so work out an agenda that fits into the time schedule. If the topics to be discussed are more, hold a separate meeting to discuss them. This is very important, since the team members need time to absorb the discussion, and remain perceptive to the plan of action decided for each topic in the agenda at the end of the meeting.

The time to hold the meeting should be properly selected too. Choose the time, which is most convenient to all. Ideally, the meeting should be held around 9 AM when everyone is fresh and about to start their day, or if that is not possible, than around 3 PM when everyone has taken the lunch and people are not feeling groggy immediately after having it.

·       Members attending the meeting

Work out the list of attendees who are going to remain present for the meeting. It is mandatory for the product owner and the scrum master to attend the meeting since they play a center role in scrum implementation. Invite only those members who are associated with the topics included in the agenda, and who need to carry out some plan of action based upon the discussions carried out during the meeting. Other members, who are not concerned, or who have no connection with the agenda topics should not be invited so the meeting place is not cluttered up with too many individuals. When the members are less, it becomes possible to have one-to-one discussion, which is more meaningful and effective.

·       Creating and distributing the agenda

Make sure that a proper agenda is created that includes all-important topics. Once the agenda is prepared, send it, or distribute to the concerned individuals well in time so they have enough time to prepare for the meeting. Each attendee should prepare a list of queries or issues concerning his or her work, and present it to the audience during the meeting. If the participants are well prepared, it leads to more fruitful and productive meetings.  

·       Conducting the meeting in the proper manner

Start your meeting on time. It is advisable not to wait for participants if they do not make it on time. It is essential to convey a message that the purpose and intent of the meeting is important, and should not be trifled with. The meeting should also not be taken lightly by the attendees. Some organizations even levy a certain penalty if the participants do not show up on time. 

Another aspect is regarding the discussions to be carried out during the meeting – they should be focused and topic centric. Make sure, only those topics relevant to the agenda are discussed, and the meeting is not emphasized with other trivial or non-related discussions. Utilize the meeting time in a productive way.Read more on https://www.apsense.com/article/norms-for-holding-effective-and-fruitful-scrum-meetings.html

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The Purpose And Goals Of Carrying Out Product Backlog Refinement In Scrum

The official scrum guide mentions about carrying out routine maintenance activities to update the product backlog, or to carry out the product backlog refinement. The exact time to be invested in the grooming activity depends upon the management, and how scrum is to be implemented in the project. A rule-of-the-thumb followed is to put in approximately 10% of the time utilized during the sprint activity, into the grooming activity. It is important to be clear regarding some of the aspects associated with product backlog refinement.

Purpose and goals of carrying out the refinement

The primary reason why the product backlog should be refined is to update or rebuild the backlog so that it remains consistent with the requirements provided by the stakeholders with regards the new features and functionalities to be included in the project. Another reason is to review existing user stories or product backlog items and decide whether they are still useful or pertinent from the development point of view, and to update the acceptance criterion and the explanation detailed in each PBI.  

It is recommended to use the “DEEP” method - detailed appropriately, estimated, emergent, and properly ordered – while prioritizing the user stories within the backlog. Larger stories or epics should be systematically broken down in to more manageable smaller ones, proper estimation by assigning relevant story points to the PBIs should be carried out,  user stories should be rearranged as per the new priorities,  and the queries regarding the development of user stories during the sprint should be effectively answered by the product owner. Whenever a meeting is planned to refine the PBIs, the objective should be to carry out enough refinement work so that it lasts for at least three future sprints.   

Duration and frequency of the grooming activity

Each activity and meeting is time boxed in scrum. Following the same principle, the product backlog refining or grooming activity should be time boxed too. However, in practice, there is no pre-designated activity or a meeting for planning and carrying out the product backlog refinement activity in the same manner as the sprint planning meeting and the sprint retrospective meeting is held. Backlog grooming is carried out more as a routine activity than anything else in scrum, and the guide does not exactly specify how much time or efforts should be invested in the activity. Perhaps a possible reason could be that the product development and creation of product backlogs vary from project to project, and it is difficult to standardize how the grooming activity should be carried out since the size and nature of the product backlog cannot be adjudged. Read more on http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Purpose-And-Goals-Of-Carrying-Out-Product-Backlog-Refinement-In-Scrum&id=8381136

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