Scrum for Beginners: What It Is and How It Works
Scrum is an inspection and adaptation framework — used to solve a specific domain problem — which results in an increment, piece of software that works and can therefore be released. The Scrum features five events: the Sprint, the Daily meeting, the Sprint Planning meeting, the Sprint review meeting, and the Sprint Retrospective meeting.
The Scrum Team involves three roles: Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Development Team. And to give transparency to this team, three artifacts are used: the Product Backlog, the Sprint Backlog and the Increment.
Scrum Roles
The Product Owner is responsible for the Product Backlog, which is nothing more than a wish list that users and other stakeholders have about the product. It consists of a list ordered by the Product Owner, in which whatever is at the top is the priority.
Scrum Master is the facilitator for the team, helping it with the events and actually making good use of the artifacts. An example of this might be to ensure that events do not exceed planned time (so-called “timebox”), facilitate conversations in order to reach a conclusion and, of course, remove impediments.
The Sprint Planning meeting is when the Development Team — programmers or software developers — based on the priority set by the Product Owner, selects Product Backlog items to be made at the next Sprint, taking into account its speed , and brings them to the Sprint Backlog; Sprint’s goal is defined by the Scrum team based on business needs (value delivery) to be covered in the next iteration (next Sprint).
Example of Sprint Backlog and Product Backlog
It is during Sprint, which has a duration of 15 to 30 days, that the Development Team will work on tasks focused on meeting the Sprint´s goal previously defined . On a daily basis, the developers gather for the Scrum Daily meeting in which they report their progress against the Sprint goal; often respond to three questions: “What did you do yesterday?”, “What are you going to do today?” and “What is your impediment?”
During Sprint the status of each task tends to evolve from “To Do” to “Doing” and from “Doing” to “Done”. This is usually exposed in a physical frame, using post its, a supplementary practice to Scrum, which is part of the General Accepted Practices (GAP).
Example of the Scrum board
It is expected that at the end of Sprint at the Review meeting, all tasks defined to meet the goal will be complete and so presented by the team to the Product Owner and stakeholders, who will be able to give feedback on the increment delivered. That way, Sprint will be considered made. If the expected value is not delivered, Sprint has not been finalized, then it will be necessary to review the goals and redefine the tasks.
As the last Sprint event we have the Retrospective meeting, which is to bring to light all that worked well and what did not work during the Sprint in a big debate, proposing solutions in the “Action Items” to be implemented in the next Sprint. And that involves everything from processes to people and tools.
The Scrum Cycle
In short, feedback cycles are frequent and rapid (maximum one month) and, unlike traditional Project Management methodologies, Scrum is iterative (with development cycles) and incremental (in which an evolution of the previous delivery is delivered in every Sprint), it generates value while fighting waste.
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Article originally published in: https://www.concrete.com.br/2018/02/22/scrum-para-iniciantes-o-que-e-e-como-funciona/
