In this article, I will explain about the Agile-Scrum process for project management, based on my knowledge and experience.
Agile-Scrum is a most widely accepted methodology of Agile development. The term Scrum is taken from the sport rugby in which the entire team works to get possession of the ball.
Scrum Framework
Scrum Roles
In Scrum a Business Owner, Stake Holders and Scrum Team will be involved.
Scrum Team: Scrum team consists of the product owner, Scrum master, and the development team. The Scrum team as a whole is responsible for delivering incremental versions of a shippable product at the end of each sprint. A definition of Done is agreed upon at the beginning of the sprint.
Product Owner: He is responsible for creating a prioritized wish list called a product backlog.
Scrum Master: He ensures that Scrum is understood and enacted in the project's development. He is responsible to identify what kind of external interactions are required with the development team.
He also ensures that daily stand up meetings and other Scrum events are facilitated as required. In case any impediments are hampering the progress of the development team, he makes sure that they are resolved in a timely manner.
Development Team: Consists of professionals who do the work for delivering a potentially releasable increment of Done.
Scrum Artifacts
Product Backlog: The product backlog is a complete list of the functionality that remains to be added to the product. The product backlog is prioritized by the product owner so that the team always works on the most valuable features first.
Sprint Backlog: During the sprint planning meeting, team members create the sprint backlog. The sprint backlog can be thought of as the team’s to-do list for the sprint. The sprint backlog is the list of stories and tasks the team needs to perform in order to deliver the functionality they committed to deliver during the sprint.
Burn down Charts:
We have two types of burn down charts, i.e . Sprint and Product backlog burn down charts.
- Sprint backlog burn down Chart: It is useful for predicting when all of the work will be completed. Updated every day, it gives a simple view of the sprint progress. It also provides quick visualizations for reference.
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- Product backlog burn down Chart: The release burn down chart that shows the amount of work left to complete the target commitment for a Product Release.
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Scrum Ceremonies/Meetings
A Team works on a sprint for anywhere between 1-4 weeks. An ideal sprint duration is 2 weeks.
Sprint Planning: What has to be done in a sprint is defined in the sprint planning. Product owner will decide and prioritize the back log items to pull in to the Sprint. Once planning is done, the Development team and the QA team will create Dev and testing etc. tasks for each item (PBI/Bug).
Here, PBI (Product backlog item) is nothing but a feature, and Bug is nothing but a defect/issue.
Daily Scrum: This is the status meeting among team(s) members; in this meeting, each team member gives a status on the following three criteria:
- What did I do yesterday?
- What will I do today?
- Any Impediments?
Sprint Review: It is held at the end of the sprint. Development /QA team will give the Demo of the items which they worked on that Sprint. In this Business team, stake holders and product owners are the audience.
Sprint Retrospective: This gives an opportunity to the development team, QA team, and Business Owner, to discuss the following three things:
- What went well?
- What went wrong?
- What we want to improve?
Backlog Grooming: In the Grooming session,the team will get the clarifications on each of the back log items and estimate the stories, using various tools, like Planning poker and etc.
Release Planning: RM (Release Management team) and Business team will decide when we need to release the product with the new features/Bug fixes. Ideally, every 4-6 sprints will have the release.
Scrum activities
- A product owner creates a prioritized wish list called a product backlog.
- During sprint planning, the team pulls a small chunk from the top of that wish list, a sprint backlog, and decides how to implement those pieces.
- The team has a certain amount of time, a sprint, to complete its work – usually two to four weeks – but meets each day to assess its progress (daily scrum).
- Along the way, the Scrum Master keeps the team focused on its goal.
- At the end of the sprint, the work should be potentially shippable, as in ready to hand to a customer, put on a store shelf, or show to a stakeholder.
- The sprint ends with a sprint review and retrospective.
- As the next sprint begins, the team chooses another chunk of the product backlog and begins working again.
Scrum Values
- Commitment – Be willing to commit to a goal. Scrum provides people all the authority they need to meet their commitments.
- Focus- Do your job. Focus all your efforts and skills on doing the work you have committed to doing.
- Openness – Scrum keeps everything about a project visible to everyone.
- Respect- Individuals are shaped by their background and experiences. It is important to respect the different people who comprise a team.
- Courage- Have the courage to commit, to act, to be open, and to expect respect.