Effective and Productive Features Of A Scrum Retrospective Meeting – What Every Scrum Person Should Know

Sprint retrospectives are a technique in Scrum, used primarily to reveal or disclose the shortcomings and behavior of the scrum team to itself. When it becomes possible for a self-organizing body or a system to correctly identify the pitfalls and problems faced by it, it is possible to correct them by implementing proper solutions which can eradicate the impediments and remove the problematic issues from its roots. During scrum implementation, sprint retrospectives help to identify any erroneous working or problems faced by the team, and efforts are made to correct the problems in time. For retrospectives to be meaningful and useful, more emphasis should be stressed upon self-reflection – each member of the team should feel personally involved and responsible for the outcomes derived out of the sprint activity. This is one of the main essences of scrum. In addition to collaboration and team effort, scrum framework strongly promotes self-analysis and self-correction. Sprint retrospectives help to incorporate these scrum features during the implementation stage.  

Features of a healthy and beneficial sprint retrospective

The scrum guide has little to say about what an ideal retrospective should consist of. Since scrum is all about adapting to changes and collaboration of activities, it can be very difficult to specify exactly what the retrospective should include. Business processes can vary, and scrum implementation may be carried out in a customized manner to suit the particular organization or business. In short, it may be very difficult to define and standardize a retrospective. Rather, it would prove to be more meaningful and effective if the objectives and results of the retrospective are to be considered, instead of its anatomy or structure. Teams may vary, and can be big or small in size. The location should be ideally fixed, but it too can change as per convenience and feasibility. What does not change are the objective for which the retrospective is to be held, and what results are to be obtained out of it. Ideally, a sprint retrospective should support the following features:

• Each team member should engage in the discussion and actively support it in a pro-active manner.
• Discussions carried out ought to focus upon team activity and teamwork rather than individual team members.
• The definition of “Done” is clearly defined and explained properly to team members. Completed user stories should be accepted as “Over” or “Complete” only on the basis of the definition of “Done”. 
• A list of all actionable commitments should be created.
• The results of prior retrospectives are thought about and analyzed from time to time.
• Only relevant discussion pertaining to scrum implementation should be carried out.

 Who attends the sprint retrospective?

Everybody associated with the scrum project and scrum implementation should attend the retrospective. This includes the product owner and all team members. The scrum master too attends the meeting, but rather than indulging in active discussion, he or she engages in a manner which can facilitate the meeting, and positive results are derived out of it.

 Supporting the correct spirit while holding the retrospective

Regardless about who attends the meeting, or the level of seniority, there should be active participation by all the attendees, and discussions should be carried out in an open manner with a clear view of finding true and genuine solutions, rather than finding faults of individuals. Of course, self-introspection and error finding is a must as far as scrum is concerned, but instead of targeting specific individuals, it is important to discuss about team as a whole, and find solutions collectively. 

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Source:- http://quickscrum.wordpress.com/2014/02/10/effective-and-productive-features-of-a-scrum-retrospective-meeting-what-every-scrum-person-should-know/

True Meaning of Scrum and Pitfalls To Avoid At All Costs

Scrum, having its roots in Agile, can be effectively employed for almost any type of project. However, scrum is most preferred for software development purposes. The scrum process is ideally suited for rapidly changing project environments. It is most useful, and its potential can be tapped in the best manner, when the user related requirements are changed frequently, or randomly, due to various reasons. The methodology makes it possible to incorporate the changes easily and effectively within its development cycle, and still generate positive outputs.      

The true essence and working of scrum

According to scrum framework, development occurs in short bursts of activity known as “sprints”. Each sprint can generally last from two to four weeks. Each sprint begins with a meeting, known as a “sprint meeting”, and typically concludes with clearly defined and set out development objectives. “Stand up” meetings are very brief, and occur daily before the commencement of the sprint for that particular day. The main objective of the meeting is to apprise everyone about how much development progress has been made since the previous day, and what objectives are to be achieved on the particular working day. The main purpose of scrum is to aid the team members in inspecting and adapting to the changes, and providing transparency with regards the working of the project. Another main advantage offered by scrum framework is to increase the involvement, and the interaction of the client with the team members. The client remains apprised about the most recent development status, which helps him or her to undertake informed decisions about what further development activities are required to complete the project in totality, and what features and functionalists need to be omitted, or which have become redundant during the development cycle.   

Pitfalls while implementing scrum

Scrum is a framework based upon an organized thought process developed specially to cater to changing development requirements, and the main issue with Agile and scrum is that the method is to be implemented, or its rules enforced in a proper manner. Many a times, when organizations are not properly trained in the implementation of the framework, there is a tendency to fall back upon old development methods, consciously or unconsciously, thus making scrum redundant. Traditional development methods such as Waterfall have been in existence since a long time, and people are more familiar with them. Project managers have practiced these methods for a long time, and they are more conversant with them. Scrum can be difficult to implement, and if the manager is not properly trained, he or she may substitute some of the scrum related processes with Waterfall methods. The objective is to provide a specific solution during the development cycle, and when the person fails to implement scrum in a particular development related process, he or she “patches” up scrum implementation process with a Waterfall technique. This should be avoided at all costs. Scrum should be implemented in totality for it to be effective.    

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What Is Sprint Planning And What Do The Sprint Planning Meetings Actually Consist Of Or Include?

The primary objective of a sprint planning meeting is to discuss and plan about what the development team intends to build or develop in the upcoming sprint, and how the individual members of the team are prepared to go about with their development activity. Though most experts refer it to as a “single” meeting, it is in fact segregated into two unique parts. The first part concentrates upon what the team is actually asked to build or develop, and is attended by the team members as well as the product owner. The second part of the meeting focuses upon how the team members will proceed with the actual development work. The team members are to mandatorily attend both the parts of the meeting, while the product owner is committed to attending the first part only. He or she can however attend the second part if he or she wishes to do so.   

The first part of the sprint planning meeting

During the initial part of the meeting, the product owner has an opportunity to explain in depth about the set of user stories to be developed during the sprint. It is a rapid-fire type of discussion in which the product owner initially explains the user stories, and subsequently the team members start asking questions regarding the points they are not clear about. The product owner has many responsibilities and roles to play. The person represents the client’s interests, explains how the stories are to be linked up in the future, and keep tabs during the entire development activity carried out by the team members. The objective of the meeting is to provide enough information, or brief the team members regarding the development activity required so that each member can carry out his or her part without any confusions or problems.

The questions typically asked during this stage of the meeting are: 

·       What is the acceptance or “passing” criteria of all the stories?

·       What kind of data sources need to be used? Where will the data originate from, and where will it go?

·       How should the developed component look like once it is fully developed?

The second part of the sprint planning meeting

During the second part of the meeting, the team further analyses the user stories and focuses upon creating the sprint backlog which includes the user stories, or the set of requirements and functionality to be developed by the team members during the sprint. The team typically segregates the user stories into individual tasks, and links up, or associates each task with a certain time scale i.e. the duration in which the particular task is to be developed. Generally the tasks are planned to be completed on an hourly basis, however, the time period can be more depending upon the complexity and the levels of functionality to be incorporated into the given task. Another main objective of this part of the meeting is to accept the user stories as practical and “doable”, and to reject those stories which cannot be catered to, owning to various reasons.

The duration of the entire sprint planning meeting can range from two hours up to eight hours depending upon the number of user stories involved, and the levels of complexity. The rule of the thumb is to spend one hour of discussion for each week of sprint.    

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How Product Owners Can Increase Their ROI And Boost Up Sales

Many discussions and talks have been carried out regarding the actual role of a product owner i.e. what makes the ideal product owner. Several suggestions have been put forward explaining the role of the product owner – both ideal ones and practical ones. However, the debate is far from over since client requirements often keep on changing, and there is always a confusion whether a client can assume the role of a product owner, and if so, would it be contradictory to scrum methodology? Actually, it would be more meaningful to consider what type of activities should be undertaken by the product owner, rather than follow the ideal role of being one. As far as real life scenarios are concerned, it is the client who is the most well versed person as regards the developmental requirements and what kinds of functionalities ought to be incorporated in the user stories. 

Know more about the Product Owner’s role at Quickscrum!

Suggested activities for a product owner

For the client and the product owner, it is very important to be familiar with the scrum methodology and its techniques. It is also important to know about the advantages of scrum, and what it has to offer over traditional development methods before tapping the full potential of it. The activities can ideally include:

·       Remain present and contribute information as well as knowledge during sprint reviews, sprint planning, and retrospective meetings

·       Order and create the product backlog based upon the importance of user stories and ROI

·       Be easily available to team members, and provide appropriate feedback whenever they face difficulties or issues during development.Know More on http://blog.quickscrum.com/post/2014/01/29/How-Product-Owners-Can-Increase-Their-ROI-And-Boost-Up-Sales.aspx

An Overview Regarding Scrum Methodology

An introduction to Scrum methodology

For majority of the software developers, Agile methodology does not require any prior introduction. It is widely known that Agile is a comparatively new addition in the field of project management, and was primarily developed to overcome the drawbacks offered by traditional developmental methodologies such as the Waterfall method, which included a linear approach while executing projects. Typically, traditional methods support a top-to-bottom approach of segregating the entire project into main development activities, and tackling them one after another in a sequential method. The Scrum methodology offers a more flexible and dynamic approach of splitting up the entire project into individually executable project parts known as “Sprints”. Each sprint is processed or developed by many team members, who put in efforts to develop an entirely finished and shippable product at the end of the particular sprint. The main advantage of the Scrum methodology is that it increases the interaction between the “Product owner” and the team members. Increased client participation (or the Product Owner) leads to enhanced development experience, an advantage that is uniquely offered by Scrum and not other development methodologies. Another advantage offered by Scrum is the highly reduced turnaround time. Each sprint may typically last from one to four weeks, at the end of which a shippable product is delivered. The client is made aware about the development carried out at the end of the sprint by the team members. In many cases, the client can assume the role of the product owner and brief the scrum master regarding the development required. Typically, the sprints are numbered from zero, and proceed as “Sprint 1”, “Sprint 2”, etc. The client can determine the cost effectiveness of each sprint.Know more on http://blog.quickscrum.com/post/2014/01/23/An-Overview-Regarding-Scrum-Methodology.aspx 

The Origin And Key Principles Of Scrum

Origin of scrum

The terminology "Scrum" was initially introduced by Takeuchi and Nonaka in 1986, in a study paper published in the Harvard Business Review. The paper explained that projects should ideally use small, cross functional teams having complete autonomy in whatever they do, and the teams were supposed to deliver a completely finished and shippable product at the end of the development cycle. In case the product cannot be completed at the end of the development cycle, it could be further extended in the form of another “sprint”. Each development cycle is known as a “sprint”, and typically lasts for two weeks to four weeks. This particular development methodology leads to highly reduced turnaround times, and increased productivity. The main advantage of the methodology is that it delivers a completely shippable product at the end of the development cycle, and the development activity takes very little time. This can lead to increased ROI and reduced overheads since redundant requirements or development activities can be curtailed well in time, and replaced by newer and far more important ones in their place. The word “Scrum” is actually derived from the scrum used in rugby football in which the game is restarted again with new or fresh objectives after it undergoes a minor infraction. The game is “reset” to run again with more effective and meaningful objectives after it experiences a setback. That is exactly what happens while using Scrum methodology. Development is carried out in short sprints, at the end of which the results are evaluated, and if required the sprint is extended with the same or newer aims and objectives.Know more on http://blog.quickscrum.com/post/2014/01/23/The-Origin-And-Key-Principles-Of-Scrum.aspx     

Agile Scrum Development and Services

We offer Agile scrum development services which support the implementation of scrum methodology based upon specific client requirements. We also provide a scrum project management tool specially developed by us keeping in mind the important scrum metrics which can help to tap the full potential offered by the scrum methodology. Benefit by enhancing your productivity and increasing your ROI. Please visit http://www.quickscrum.com  to know more about the product and our services.

Three important part of Scrum Project Management

In the Free Scrum Tool, These three are very important part

·         The Product Owner

·         The Team

·         The Scrum Master

1. The Product Owner: - In the Scrum Methodology, The Product owner is part of Scrum Process. The Product Owner watches the development in the view of customers. The Product owner is input to successfully starting any development. The Product owner does this in piece through Scrum Backlog Tool. At least one person is allocating the role of Product owner in every project.

2. The Team: - The size of the project, of course, is handling by team. Team are group of women and men who do work mutually to finish the final product. In Agile Methodologies, there are four to nine persons in any team. Team are typically not assigned to one task only.

Team must perfectly have abilities of cross functional, so that work is actually combined. In the team no one is boss. All members acknowledge their own strength and weakness and

Work collectively as a solid whole.

3. The Scrum Master: - The Scrum master is not boss of team. The Scrum Master arranges the method for how information is exchanged. A Scrum master is the direct for a Scrum Project Management group that uses Open Source Scrum tool, a rugby similarity for an improvement methodology that allows a team to self organize and make changes.

In the Scrum Planning Tools, People work together to achieve common goal. In the scrum when one member falter than rest member follow.

                                   Created By:- www.quickscrum.com

What are Differences and Similarities between Kanban and Scrum?

 There are some Similarities between Kanban and Scrum

1.  Prioritization of the Goal: - In both methods Kanban and Scrum Process  achieving goal is main Purpose of method .Both method give main Priority to make final product.

2. Fast and Pure Development:- The Main purpose of   both method Kanban and Scrum Methodology is make quick and pure development .Pure development means at deployment time no one change will come from client side.

 3.Transparency Between all team members:- Transparency means no one thing is hidden between all team members regarding development. All matter is display into Open Source Scrum tool like quickscrum.com.

Open Source Agile tool

Open Source Agile tool

There are some Differences between Kanban and Scrum

1. Kanban based on Process of Development as an ongoing flow while Scrum is based on iteration.

2. In Scrum Team give commitment to how many work completed in this Sprint is called Scrum Sprint, in kanban not any commitment.

3.  Scrum decide estimation time, Kanban not decide any estimate time.

4.  Scrum required cross functionality of team, Kanban required time to market.

What is Difference between Scrum and Waterfall Methodology?

      Now a Day lots of Model available for Development .But generally most of people in development field use Scrum and Waterfall model for development .If new people come in Developing field, One question is always arias in his mind, What is difference between Scrum and waterfall methodology? And which is best for Today development?

Waterfall is an old traditional method for development that was thought in School and Collages .In the waterfall model; we define stage for development that will be run from Initial to end process. There are following step by step process in waterfall model.

1. Requirement Analysis

2. System Design

3. Implementation

4.Testing

5.Deployment

6.Maintenance

Scrum Methodology is a concept for Quick and pure development cycle. There are Some basic step of Agile Methodologies

                        

1. Project initiation 

2.Scrum Sprint Planning 

3.Daily Scrum

4.Print Retrospective

5. Demo

6. Deployment

There are some Basic Difference between waterfall and Scrum Process

                   -          Waterfall uses Stage when Scrum uses iterations

                   -          Waterfall  job such as Project Manager when Scrum has a Scrum Master

                   -          In waterfall we cannot go back at Previous step when we do this in Scrum

                   -          Developer do not interact with product owner during every stage when in scrum developer                                                 always connect with product owner.

Using Upper understanding Scrum is a best Process for Development Life cycle.

                                                     Created By:- Open Source Scrum tool

Introduction About Basic Terms of Online open source Scrum Tool

     1.     Open Source Scrum Tool:-  Scrum Tool is a Opensource Project management too with rich                    graphical interface for agile project development with scrum methodology that provides                        product backlog , Sprint management, Dashboard, Task board, Burndown chart and  much                    more.           

2.     Product  Backlog:-  The Scrum Backlog Tool is a prioritized quality list which has little description of all functionality of product. Basically Scrum group and its product owner begin by inserting everything they can think of for agile backlog prioritization.The Scrum backlog is then allowed to produce and modify as many is learned about the project and also its customer.

           There are three types of item in Product Backlog

1.     Bugs

2.     Features

3.     Technical work

4.     Knowledge gaining

3.     Sprint Management:-   A  Sprint management is a Decided Time period which exact task has to be finished and completed ready for check.

           Every Sprint start with a Scrum Sprint Planning meeting. At that time The person requesting the            work called  product owner and Team of development upon the same opinion what task will be            completed during the sprint.After this Development team give his opinion and the project owner            has final decide on what criteria need to be met for work to be received.The person who decide            duration of sprint is called Scrum Master

4.     Dashboard:-  Agile Dashboard is a openly and practical available for Product development online. A Scrum Dashboard was basically planned to handle progress for agile product, But this term is used very broadly. Agile Dashboard allow us to describe status of our work which is to do, in working and Completed.

5.     Task Board:-   Task Board is a basic part of Scrum Process. Scrum Task board Consists of Colums and rows. Each row is a use account which function as a element of task that uses by Scrum team for product backlog. Works are stored on colored cards.Group members fill in the task board regularly , Mostly when Daily Scrum meeting arrange based on the progress since the last update.If new task come , it is written on a new placed on the task board.In every day Scrum meeting ,  Changes are made and card are moved in Task board.The colums we use on Scrum task board are to do, Working , Verify and Completed.

6.     Burndown chart:-  A Scrum Burndown Chart is a Diagramatically representation of task left to do vs. Time period.  The Scrum backlog is every time on the X-axis means horizontal. Burndown chart is a run chart backlog .It is useful for calculate when all work will done.MDSTVBAMAVNR

How to Select Best Agile Tool for Your Organization?

Now A day , All Organizations and Companies want to develop  fast and pure Product and Project, And for Fast and pure development 72%  Software Companies in the worldwide use Online Scrum and Agile tool for Project Management .

Now a day , Many Agile and Scrum tools available on Internet , Some are Free and some are paid . Some time companies make mistake to Choose Best Free Scrum Tool  for his Company ,so all companies aries one Question in their mind , Which Agile tool is best for our Organization ? and How to select Best Scrum tools for Our organization ?

http://www.quickscrum.com

If you want to Select Agile tool for your organization, You may follow step by step process.

          1.       First of all Understand the Infrastructure of Company.

          2.       Understand Current need and Future Requirement.

          3.       Select tool which best suit for team.

          4.       Short list Suitable Scrum Tools.

          5.       Implement Trial  Version of Suitable Scrum Tool.

          6.       After this Select Best Open SourceScrum tool For your Organization.

In an Agile Tool, Sprint, Backlog Tool, Scrum Burndown Chart  is quite Important parts.An Scrum Tool is Best as the process it services and the persons using it.After Follow complete step and selected Scrum tool  must have ability to handle thousands of defects.

Inventor of Scrum Methodology-Jeff Sutherland

Inventor of Scrum Methodology Jeff Sutherland –The discoverer of Scrum. He was started his job as a Air force pilot in the United State. Air force where he got Top Gun status in 1967 and also flew missions over North Vietnam. Jeff Sutherland’s last tour of responsibility was at Stanford University where he got a M.S. in Statistics and the United States Air force Academy where he taught Statics, Probability and Mathematics.

After Completed job as a pilot in United state air force , Jeff Sutherland joined the faculty of the University of Colorado Medical School and He got his Doctorate degree in University of Colorado Medical  School as Assistance Professor of Radiology , Bio metrics and Preventive Medicine .

He join founder of Cancer Research and The Center for Vitamins under support of Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling and Became Principle researcher of a National Cancer Center for eight years.At that time , he Concerned data file on every cancel patients in Colorado and integration with a national registry, epidemiological studies and research on Super Computer mathematical model of carcinogenics.

After Getting Doctorate degree , In 1983 He joined a banking company that operated 150 banks at North America and He was become VP of higher Systems and General Manager of Their ATM unit.

He has been Chief Technical Officer of 11 Software development Companies. In the Opening 4 Software companies , he introduced Scrum and in the 5^th company made Scrum as we know Today. Jeff Sutherland’s initial aim was the Success of Scrum .

Jeff Sutherland achieved his Goal. Now a day 72% Companies user Agile Scrum method for Development in 92 countries. Jeff Sutherland also want to replace general project management with  Agile Methodology over world to make work Pure and fast for Developers and revenue growth easily achievable for management.

Finally In 2006, Jeff Started his own company named Scrum Inc.Now recognized as the debut source of Scrum Training in the worldwide. He is also lead of Scrum Foundation Adviser and Agile Coach to open view course Partners.

History of Scrum and Its requirement in today

Basically Scrum concept come from rugby football ,a Scrum refers  to the way of restart  the game after the small defect.

Using This concept In 1986, Scrum was defined by Hirotaka Takeuchi and lkujiro Nonaka in New Product Development Game. At that time Scrum was a flexible product development strategy where a development group work as a part to achieve aim as different to a general method of development.

After 1989, in 1990, Ken Schwaber , Jeff Sutherland , John Scumniotales and Jeff Mackenna were introduced   advanced development technique , Scrum Methodology in their development company at Easel Corporation .

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In 1995, Sutherland and Schwaber were Become first Scrum master.They jointly presented a paper describing the Scrum process at the project development and insert workshop held as part of Oops concept, Systems and application  in Austin, Texas ,It was first time when Scrum presented in Public . At that time, Sutherland and Schwaber were writing something about their experiences and industry best practice into what is now known as Scrum.

In2001, Schwaber joined with Mike Beadle to explain the method in the book Agile Software development with Scrum.

After this , Many Companies use this process have been known to write it with capital letters as SCRUM.This may be due to one of ken Schwaber’s papers, which capitalized SCRUM in the title.       7th State of Agile Development Survey  was conducted between August 9th  and November  1st ,2012. According to this Survey, Scrum is still the very famous Agile methodologies used. Out of 4,049 software developers that responded, 72% are practicing scrum.

Now a day, Most of Development Companies use Scrum Process for Develop Pure and Fast Development. Today Many Scrum tools Available on the internet like Scrum.org, Quickscrum.com and Many.This tools help us for Project management .

Before Scrum method, In software company was use waterfall model and in this model , They loss Many time and money .After losing time and money, Software Company was not Develop pure product.

In Short , Scrum and Agile tools Become a best option for Project management and Product development.

Bharti Consulting Services SARL, France announces to launch opensource scrum tool by 31st November 2013,

Paris, France  01/08/2013

Bharti Consulting Services SARL, France  announces to launch Opensource scrum tool named as QuickScrum.  Quickscrum Provides all funtionalities related to scrum project management.. You will be able to download tool from our website or directly use it online (SaaS) at http://www.quickscrum.com

There are many free and open scrum source tool available at present in market. Most of them are not easy to use, user friendly or not even easy to Implement and supported. Quickscrum provides extremely user friendly drag and drop interface, highly scalable source code, on demand customization, reports,  integration with other tools, online agile training, well documentation and extremely quick support.

It provides features such as backlog management, sprint planning, task board, dashboard which includes project summary, burndown chart, iteration  progress etc and reports.

We have alredy received great response from agile community and hoping to server all of them greatly.Mr. Mrugesh Panchal (Director of Bcssarl) Said “Quickscrum is very useful for those who are searching for free tool as well as it is perfect for multinational or Midsize companies who are looking for dedicated support and customization as well as business intelligence.”

For more details please visit us at http:\\www.quickscrum.com or send us an email at contactus@quickscrum.com, we will get back to you within 24 hours.

About Bharti Consulting Services SARL, France

Bharti Consulting Services SARL,France is an ISO 9001-2008 certified IT services provider having headquater in Paris, France and offshore  development center in India. We provides Business proces management, Custom software development, Web designing, Dedicated resources, Support and Maintenance services either onsite or offshore based on customer needs. We have customer based mainly in all European countries.

 Contact Information

Company name:  Bharti Consulting  Services SARL
Address :              47, Rue Klock, Clichy  - 92110
Telephone:           0033 – 629 30 23 94
Website:                http://www.quickscrum.com

Email:                     contactus@quickscrum.com