SCRUM - Explained in Simple Terms

Now that you have mastered the agile mindset, it's probably time to step into some famous, widely used agile frameworks. 

If you have not read my previous article on Agile practices, you can do so by clicking here. 

Scrum is just only one framework that adapts agile practices. The reason why I chose to elaborate on this is because, Scrum is an agile framework that is widely used in today's industry for many different reasons. Some teams do not employ Scrum in its whole but adapt certain ceremonies and practices of Scrum. So yeah - in brief - it is really good to know! 

Scrum does not abbreviate. It is said that this practice gets its name from the famous rugby term - 'Scrum'. A scrum refers to a method where the team huddles together in an attempt to get hold of the ball. So, the gist of it is - a team closely working towards a common goal, in an organized manner. 

Just like the rugby Scrum, in the IT world, the Scrum helps teams to work together. Scrum adopts all the principles from the agile manifesto. 

Scrum acknowledges the following facts:

1. At the project kickoff, there is uncertainty and the team does not know everything. 
2. A team evolves with experience and adapts to changing conditions or requirements. 
3. Transparency between all stakeholders (including the team) is vital. 

Scrum Terminology 

Sprint -

Scrum celebrates frequent deliveries. A sprint is a set time period (usually 1 week to 4 weeks) where the team develops and delivers a potentially shippable piece of work. Although each sprint may not mean there is a shippable piece, most of the time, this is what the team should aim for. 

User story -

Now user story is not essentially just a Scrum terminology. This is a method of representing one or more requirements from the perspective of the user. 

There is a format to which a user story is written:

As a <user>, I want to <do this (usually some goal)>, so that I can <accomplish this>. 

We will discuss this in detail, in a later blog post!

Scrum Roles

An ideal Scrum team is a collection of individuals (typically between 5 to 9 team members). 

Let's dive right in. 

Product Owner

The product owner is the person who has the product vision. He defines the direction that the product should be headed towards. 

Scrum Master

The Scrum master coaches, facilitates, reinforces agile principles, and acts as a servant leader to ensure that the team stays connected. He/she makes sure that there is a smooth execution of the project. 

Team 

The rest of the team could comprise of developers, quality assurance engineers, and designers. These are usually T-shaped resources (this is a team member who has good knowledge and skills in a particular area of specialization but also is fully capable of connecting across different disciplines). 

For. e.g. A developer will not just wash his hands off saying that they are only going to think about the codebase. They are also capable of pitching in their ideas and being involved with quality and design aspects. 

This is the kind of environment agility aims to create. When this mindset is implemented and accomplished amongst the organization, it is a face-paced growth you experience!

Scrum Artefacts

Product Backlog 

A backlog is basically the list of the tasks to be done for the completion of a project. This is a living, breathing document. This means that tasks will continuously be added, modified, removed, re-prioritized. 

A product backlog should be sorted in the order of priority (starting from the highest priority item on top). In Scrum, it is the product backlog that serves as a single source of tasks for the team. In the Scrum process, the team also adds high-level estimates to the tasks in the product backlog. 

This product backlog can be maintained in tools such as JIRA, Trello, or simply even in an Excel spreadsheet (for manageable lists of items). 

Sprint Backlog

It is the list of tasks that the team commits to deliver within a sprint (a period of time usually ranging from 2 weeks to 4 weeks). The team then works on the tasks and aims to complete the full sprint backlog. 

SCRUM Ceremonies

What are 'ceremonies'? Well, it's just a fancy name for meetings. In fact, Scrum ceremonies are timeboxed. 

Here is the list of ceremonies that are practiced in Scrum. 

• Backlog Grooming/Backlog Refinement - this is the meeting where the product owner gets together with some or all members of the team (depending on the team member's availability and need) to refine, review, reprioritize the backlog. This is done to make sure the backlog remains up to date, prioritized (most important item on the top), relevant. Backlog grooming could be done. 

• Sprint Planning - It is during this meeting the team decides on the sprint backlog for the upcoming sprint.

• Daily Standup - It is a 5-10 minute daily meeting where the entire Scrum team participates to discuss what they did, what they are working on and if there are any blockers. There is also a reason why this is called a 'Standup' meeting. We will get to it in a later article.

• Sprint Retrospective - This, in short, is a meeting where the entire team participates and reflects on the sprint. As you may have already guessed, yes, this happens at the end of a sprint. Here, the team talks about what worked out well, what could be improved and anything else that is deemed important to make their processes or environment better. 

• Sprint Review - At the end of a sprint, the team gives a demo of the product in the presence of the product owner, the scrum master and any other stakeholders. The aim of this meeting is to be transparent about what has been accomplished in the sprint, what has not been done etc. 

To sum up, here is a visual depiction of the Scrum process. 

Source: SlideBazaar

Why does SCRUM work? 

• In Scrum, tasks are prioritized in the order of importance. This means that the most important features will be developed early on. 
• Done chunks of work are tested and often released. 
• Scrum encourages self managed teams and there is a very high degree of collaboration in the process. 
• Scrum ensures that the team is aware of each other's work and therefore, they work towards a common goal. 

In another article, I will be elaborating more on how to choose a framework for a project that you are working on. 

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I will be sharing templates and infographics in the next few days on Scrum and agile practices!