Scrum: What it is, How it works, and Why it’s Important?

The basic purpose of agile scrum methodology is to deliver the highest value services to the clients or stakeholders. It’s a sprint-based project management system that can be used by companies of all sizes and types. From time to time, researchers and project management experts have researched and discovered different ways to complete tasks and ensure that they are delivered on time while providing the highest value. Agile Scrum Methodology is one of these approaches.

Every project has to have a workflow. It must be governed by a system that gives the project managers and workers enough room to complete the work on schedule. Scrum lets you accomplish this by segregating the work into small pieces combined with continuous experimentation and feedback loops.

Today we are going to talk in detail about the Agile Scrum Methodology, its working methodology, and its benefits for a development team.

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What is Scrum?

At its core, Scrum is a framework. It represents a structure we can use to solve complex problems, and that was the intention for creating this technique in 1995. Since then, this methodology has been used by every top software development company to deliver the work without any lags.

The framework revolves around four main aspects;

1. Roles
2. Events
3. Artifacts
4. Rules

The methodology itself is the representation of a system that binds these components together. In the development domain, the Agile Scrum methodology consists of a Scrum team built up with a product owner, a Scrum master, and the developers.

Every person involved in the Scrum methodology has specific accountabilities. The word Scrum comes from the huddle rugby players create to discuss their playing strategy. As the players create and modify their strategies on the ground based on continuous feedback and effective management, we can use this methodology in the development world.

When talking about Scrum, the term Agile cannot be missed. Both of these represent ways of project management, but there are a few differences. Simply put, with Agile, the teams get more flexibility, and it promotes the leadership model in a team. But Scrum is relatively rigid, and it promotes cross-functional team structure.

However, in both these methodologies, the proponents will experience high collaboration and efficiency in project management and completion.

Knowing More About Scrum | Principles, and Values

As we have said before, Scrum is a framework, and it governs the outcome of a project. It’s an approach to completing the project with different ways and methods coming together to deliver the intended outcome. To know more about the type of Agile project management methodology, let’s talk about its values and principles.

Scrum Values

• Commitment: The success of the Scrum-based software development lifecycle heavily depends on the commitment of the members. Every member of the project must be committed to the task and complete it with utmost accountability.
• Courage: As Scrum is a cross-team functional system, the team members need to have the courage to do the right thing. They need to be able to face challenges and deliver solutions.
• Focus: One of the most important aspects of the Agile Scrum methodology is to have the right focus on their work. The members must understand the tasks given in the sprint and work on them with determination.
• Openness: Another element of the Scrum methodology is the team member’s ability to be open about their work and voice their concerns. They also must share the challenges faced during task completion.
• Respect: Last, the team members need to show respect to each other and the project managers.

Scrum Principles

Moving forward with the Scrum methodology, we need to understand the Scrum principles;

• Transparency: A transparent work environment is a must for companies working on the Scrum methodology. Transparency implies that everyone must be aware of each other’s work, challenges, and progress. As a result, the teams can collaborate with ease and also help each other find resolutions or brainstorm ideas.
• Inspection: In an Agile Scrum methodology, there are multiple inspection points set within the framework. The purpose is to allow the teams to reflect upon their progress and check how the process is working. The teams working on the project can review these inspection points at daily meetings and move forward after taking the important things into account.
• Adaptation: Adaptation is important from every perspective, as the team working on the project must be able to change according to the current situation. As they investigate and reflect upon how things are going, it becomes easier to adapt to the dynamic environment and also become resilient.

Understanding Scrum Team, Artifacts, and Events

The Agile Scrum methodology is a combination of several parts that bind and work together to build a project management machine. All of these parts have a specific purpose and objective. Let’s explore these components.

Scrum Team

The Scrum team has three types of roles;

• Developers: Don’t take the word developer in a literal sense. The term developer represents anyone who is working on the team and providing some work. Even the members outside of the coding team, like designing, analysts, etc., are called developers in the Scrum system.
  The developers are supposed to supply the completed product at the end of each sprint. Moreover, these developers are self-organizing members of the team, and not even the Scrum Master can tell the development team to turn Product Backlog into Increments.The cross-functional team structure is essential for this system, and the skills of each team member is essential to create product Increments.

• The Scrum Master: As the name suggests, the Scrum Masters ensure that the Agile Scrum methodology is implemented and enacted exceptionally well. The Scrum Masters ensure that the team adheres to the theory, practices, and rules of the Scrum methodology.
  The individual on the helm also ensures that the members outside of the Scrum team understand which of their interactions are useful to the Scrum team.Some of the responsibilities and duties of the Scrum master include;
  • Discover new techniques for effective Product Backlog Management.
  • Assisting the Scrum Team to understand the Product Backlog items and components clearly.
  • Making sense of product planning with the help of facts and figures.
  • Implementing and practicing agile work practices.

  In addition to this, the Scrum Master has some special responsibilities for the Development team. These include coaching the team to be self-organized and ensure seamless cross-functionality. Assisting the development team in building high-value products and removing any or all barriers in their progress.

• Product Owner: The product owner is the person who takes responsibility for managing the product value and output. The main task also includes overseeing the work of the development team, but the process taken by the Product Owner for this task depends on the organization.
  The product owner has a variety of roles and responsibilities, and the major one is bringing clarity to the product backlog items. Moreover, the person in this role is responsible for ordering items required for the product backlog to achieve the goals and mission.Moreover, the product owner ensures that the product backlog is understood by everyone on the Scrum team.

In addition to knowing about the Scrum Roles, another essential component of the Agile Scrum methodology is Scrum Events.

Understand Scrum Events in Agile Development Methodology

Scrum is a framework comprising different parts working together to deliver the intended result. In Scrum Agile project management system, these are called Events, and there are five Scrum events.

• Sprint

Sprint is also called an iteration, is the basic unit of the development exercise in Scrum. It involves a time-boxed (allocating a fix and maximum unit of time to an activity) exercise. As a result, the activities that are to be done in Scrum are held for a specific duration. The time is fixed before the beginning of the Spring.

• Sprint Planning

In Spring planning the Scrum team determines the product backlog items and the work they will complete during the spring. They will discuss the sprint plan and the details of the items in the sprint. Spring planning is like a blueprint of the entire project undertaken by the Scrum team.

• Daily Stand-Up

This is where the Scrum team organizes and executes daily meetings to organize themselves. The organizational setup is such that the teams come together to discuss their progress and tasks. Any type of discussion related to the project is held in the Daily Stand-Up. In general, the meeting is five to fifteen minutes longer.

• Sprint Review

Spring Review comes after the Spring ends, and during the review, the Product Owner takes the helm. In this, the product owner explains the planned work and what has been done, plus what needs to be done in the project. Different teams present their completed works and talk about the issues they faced, the problems they solved, etc. 

• Sprint Retrospective

In this part, the Scrum Team self-inspects themselves and identifies the areas where they have lacked and where they need to put on more work. They will then take note of these things and implement them in the next Sprint.

Understanding Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, and Increment

Throughout our discussion, you might have noticed the words product backlog and increment mentioned several times. In Agile Scrum methodology, these are called Scrum Artifacts. They represent physical records of the work done in the project. 

• Product Backlog: This is an itemized and prioritized list of features, defects, and technical work that needs to be done for the completion of the project. This is the work that must be considered valuable from the perspective of the product owner.
• Sprint Backlog: Sprint Backlog is the list of items and work from the Product Backlog that must be completed during a Sprint. In other words, it’s an itemized and priority-based list of items that the Spring team believes they can complete during one Sprint. In this, the people working in the software development lifecycle will take up tasks they have expertise in and can complete on time.
• Increment: Also called Product Increment, this is the sum of work and tasks that need to be completed during a spring. Plus, the Increment also contains all the previous Sprint works and tasks. The ultimate goal of Increments is to provide Done Product Increment. However, what signifies “Done” depends on the Increment team itself. All team members need to concur on what represents “Done” to synchronize the plan.

What’s the Scrum Lifecycle Like, and How Does it Work?

The Scrum software development lifecycle is a representative process consisting of every step and milestone in the exercise.

• The Scrum lifecycle begins with the Product Backlog. This is the first step, where the team establishes a list of items to be completed ranked according to their priority. This product backlog is owned by the Product Owner.
• Spring Planning: Product Backlog identification is followed by Spring Planning, which is required to establish the Spring Goal. In this, the teams recognize what needs to be done and how to complete the itemized list of tasks. This part is taken care of by the product owner and the development team. In this, the representatives determine the scope of each Spring and the delivery schedule.
• Sprint Backlog: This is a set of Product Backlog items that are selected by the Developers for each Sprint. Moreover, they also work on a plan to deliver each product Increment and accomplish the Spring goal.
• Sprint Review: This is a review and analysis meeting that can happen on a daily basis to discuss the previous day’s work progress and future scope.
• Sprint Retrospective: In Sprint Retrospective, the Scrum team takes notes of the work completed in the past and the reason behind the issues they faced during the same time.

The processes of identifying product backlog items, sprint review, and sprint backlog is repeated until and unless the project is complete.

Benefits of the Agile Scrum Methodology

One of the most important benefits of the Agile Scrum methodology is flexibility and the ability to adapt to upcoming changes. Using the Scrum agile project management system makes an organization and its technique resilient to dynamic changes. It also enables the teams to adapt and change the course of their work in the next project.

Another benefit associated with the Agile Scrum methodology is that it provides the teams with creativity and innovation. The teams, while completing a project with the Scrum methodology, interact with each other in terms of finding solutions and troubleshooting problems. As a result, they are able to exchange ideas, and that benefits everyone in creating innovative solutions.

With this, the team morale also builds up, and with it, the individual developers in the team gain more skills and expertise. They are able to make decisions on their own and present their work to the team easily.

The Agile Scrum methodology saves time as it is a time-boxed project management system. Every Sprint has a fixed time in which it must be completed, and the high-priority tasks are completed first. All this gives a high-quality and low-risk output, ensuring that the perfect version of the product enters the market. Moreover, such software development methodologies work in increments, shortening the time by 30% to 40%.

Due to the reduction in time to market and effective feedback process, the Agile Scrum methodology provides a higher ROI.

Conclusion

The Agile Scrum methodology is an amazing way to complete a project. The different elements of this methodology are curated to provide the practitioners with several benefits and streamline the development system. Working with this methodology, the software development teams find it easier to deliver the projects and also ensure maximum creativity infusion into the development.