The scrum development
team
The scrum team is the heart of any scrum based project. The
development team is directly responsible for manufacturing the functionality
linked with the particular project. The development activity is carried out by
the team members during the iteration or the sprinting activity, which
generally lasts for up to two weeks. It is very important for the team members
to “jell” with each other, and collaborate, because it is a prerequisite while
implementing scrum. The physical location of the team members plays a very
important part while the sprint is carried out. In most cases, the entire
development activity, and the sprint too, is carried out in a single location,
or the same place – under the same roof. However, with the advent of off-shoring
and using scrum for complex and extended product development, it may become
necessary for the team members to remain located in different geographical locations
owing to various reasons.
Advantages of having a
collocated team
For healthy scrum implementation, high level, and frequent
communications are essential between the team members as well as the scrum master while the project is
underway. It is generally preferred that the team members are collocated.
Collocation means all the team members share a common development location, and
even similar infrastructure, during the sprint. There are several advantages of
being collocated:
· Questions can get answered
quickly and easily
· Problems can be fixed “on
the spot” with minimal wastage of time
· Less friction is created
in the interactions of the team members
· Trust is availed and
rendered much quickly
Means of communications
for collocated and distributed teams participating in the sprint
It is important to communicate in an effective manner to improve
collaboration. Several types of tools and methods can be used to improve the
collaboration among team members.
· Collocated teams
Teams working in and sharing the same office.
Since the team members
are located in the same premises the preferred methods of communications can
be:
o
Face-to-face
o
Messaging utilities
o
Internal chat tools
Discussions can also be
facilitated using:
o
Meeting rooms
o
Scrum boards
o
Wall displays
o
Shared tables
· Distributed teams
Teams placed in different geographic locations.
Some of the tools
recommended for communication purposes are:
o
Video conferencing tools and hardware/software
o
Instant messaging utilities
o
Chatting utilities
o
Social media tools
o
Shared screens
o
Remote access facilities
o
Specialized scrum software which emulate the functionality offered by
traditional scrum boards
"Please visit http://www.quickscrum.com to download the Quickscrum tool"
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