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Introduction To Scrum

What is scrum?

Scrum is focused on following a set of rules and delivering in time-boxed increments. It encourages teams to self-organize and continuously improve.

Overview

scrum_overview

What's a sprint?

  • The first part of the cycle to explore is sprints. In scrum, the team delivers work incrementally in short, time-boxed cycles called sprints. A sprint duration can be between one and four weeks long, depending on the team.
  • Sprints help break down a project into manageable, bite-sized tasks. This way, the team has the flexibility to reprioritize tasks as the project changes.

What are artifacts, events, and roles?

They're critical components of the scrum framework.

Compared to kanban, scrum is more rigid and prescriptive. It has specific artifacts, events, and roles your team must practice. These can all be customized and adapted, but many teams aim to follow the original scrum framework closely. Let's take a closer look at them.

What are the scrum artifacts?

Artifacts are items that provide key information to make the sprint cycle successful.

  1. Product Backlog is the primary list of work that needs to get done. This is usually a long list of features, requirements, and fixes. It is, essentially, the entire team’s to do list. The product backlog is used as an input to decide what to work on for the next sprint.

  2. The sprint backlog is the list of items to be completed in the current sprint cycle. The highest priority items from the product backlog are pulled into the sprint backlog.

  3. The completed increment is the releasable product delivered at the end of a sprint. Typically, this is all the work that aligns with the sprint goal the team set at the beginning. Sometimes the completed increment is shipped to customers and shared with the world. Other times, the increment is meant only for internal audiences. Once the completed increment is delivered, the team is ready to start a new sprint cycle.

What are the scrum events?

  • Scrum events, also called ceremonies, are full-team meetings to ensure everyone is in sync.

  • Each team approaches scrum events differently. Some teams find that doing all the events is too repetitive, while others find them 100% necessary. Ask your team lead or scrum master how your team approaches events.

Below are the different ceremonies in Scrum:

  1. Sprint Planning meeting is to plan the work to be completed in the upcoming sprint and determine a sprint goal.

  2. Work items are pulled from the product backlog to the sprint backlog in the meeting. At the end of the session, everyone on the team must be clear on the sprint goal and the tasks to be completed.

    SCRUM_sprint_planning

  3. Daily Stand-Up The daily stand-up (or daily scrum) is a short meeting for team members to share progress and voice concerns about blockers.

  4. Typically 15 minutes long, the goal is to make sure everyone is on the same page.

  5. Some example questions team members may answer in the daily scrum are:

    1. What did I complete yesterday?
    2. What do I plan to complete today?
    3. Are there any blockers?

  6. Every team approaches stand-ups differently. Some teams prefer to meet in person every day. Others prefer to connect async in Slack or Teams.

    SCRUM_daily_standup

  7. Sprint Review is a meeting at the end of the sprint where the team shares a demonstration of the work completed, often related to the sprint goal.

    • This meeting is often open to a broad audience of stakeholders who review and ask questions about the work.

    • It's also where ideas for the next sprint start to form.

      SCRUM_sprint_review

  8. The Retrospective is an internal meeting after a sprint ends for the team to reflect on what worked well and what needs to be improved in the next sprint, including the project, people, tools, and events.

  9. The goal is to create a safe space for everyone to share their honest feedback, helping drive continuous improvement with every sprint cycle.

    SCRUM_retrospective

Who's on the scrum team?

  • The people on the team bring the scrum framework to life. There are specific roles that should be on every scrum team.

  • Each scrum team should have one product owner, one scrum master, and five to seven development team members.

Below are the different roles and their responsibilities in Scrum:

  1. Product owners understand the business, customer expectations, and market trends. They set the vision for the product and ensure the development team delivers the most value to the company. Each scrum team has only one product owner.

    • Their responsibilities are to:
    • Craft the product vision
    • Build, manage, and prioritize the product backlog
    • Provide clear guidance on which features to deliver next
    • Decide when to ship the product

  2. Scrum masters ensure the team is operating efficiently and in alignment with the scrum process. They coach teams, product owners, and the business on the scrum process, and look for ways to fine-tune their practice of it. Each scrum team has only one scrum master.

    • Their responsibilities are to:
    • Run sprint planning meetings
    • Facilitate daily stand-ups
    • Conduct retrospective meetings
    • Administer the scrum board
    • Meet 1:1 with team members as needed
    • Help eliminate blockers through workflow improvements

  3. The development team is the group that completes the hands-on tasks in a sprint. They're the ones that get the work done. With five to seven members, teams typically have a variety of skill sets: any role that helps complete the sprint goal, from design to engineering.

    • Strong scrum teams are self-organizing and approach their projects with an evident ‘we’ attitude. All team members help one another to ensure a successful sprint completion.
    • Their responsibilities are to:
    • Get the work done
    • Drive the sprint planning and goal setting
    • Forecast how much work they can complete

Summarization

  • Before a sprint begins, the product owner looks at the product backlog and determines which work items are the highest priority.

  • Then, the scrum master leads a team-wide sprint planning meeting to pull work items from the product backlog to the sprint backlog. These are the work items the team will complete in the upcoming sprint.

  • The two-week sprint starts, and team members move their work items across the scrum board. Then, every day, the team meets for a short 15-minute daily stand-up where they share progress and address any blockers.

  • At the end of the two weeks, the team met their sprint goal by delivering a completed product increment. Next, they host a sprint review meeting to share their work with stakeholders and gather feedback. Then, they have a retrospective meeting to discuss what they learned and what can be improved for future sprints.

  • And, that's it! The team is ready to repeat the scrum cycle all over again.