What Is Scrum? A Guide to Get You Started

What Is Agile?

Agile is a collection of methods and practices that focuses on iterative development. It is time-boxed and iterative, focusing on delivering products incrementally throughout the project, rather than all at once, in the end. 

The shorter projects are completed in short two-to-four week cycles called iterations. The requirements and solutions are obtained with the collaboration of self-organizing cross-functional teams. Some of the popular Agile methodologies are Scrum, Kanban, XP, Lean, Crystal, etc. 

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What are the Benefits of Agile?

Here are some benefits of Agile and why it is being adopted by many organizations for managing their projects.

Superior Quality Products

Testing is an integrated part of the project execution phase in Agile. The client is also involved throughout the development process and can recommend changes depending on the market. This ensures that the overall quality of the final product is greater and is a win-win for both the business and the clients.

Customer Satisfaction

In a traditional setting, the customer is only involved in the planning phase of development. In Agile, the customer is involved throughout the entire decision-making process. As the customer is always in the loop, changes can be made based on their feedback. 

Better Control

Agile consists of self-organizing teams that continually improve themselves with time. There is more transparency and a better feedback mechanism between the product managers, teams and stakeholders.

Reduced Risks

Since Agile methodology works on the concept of small sprints, there is enough time to come up with effective mitigation plans in case things don't go as planned. Burndown charts and sprint backlogs can help product managers to predict performances and plan sprints accordingly.

History of Scrum

1986

The name Scrum is first introduced by management experts Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi.

1995

Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber create the early versions of what would become the Agile methodology.

2001

The Agile Alliance is founded, and the first book on Scrum, the Agile Software Development with Scrum, is published.

2002

Schwaber found the Scrum Alliance, and certifications are added.

2006

Scrum Inc. is created and is in full swing. The certified Scrum courses are taught to users across the world.

2009

Scrum.org is created. It offers the professional Scrum series to users.

2010

The first Scrum guide is published. 

Now, let’s answer the primary question - what is Scrum?

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What Is Scrum?

Scrum is a popular framework that enables teams to work together. Based on Agile principles, Scrum enables the development, delivery, and sustenance of complex projects. It enables teams to hypothesize how they think something works, try it out, learn and reflect from their experiences, and make appropriate changes. 

With Scrum:

• Project deliverables are completed quickly and efficiently
• Time and money are used properly
• Projects are manageable since they’re divided into smaller units called sprints
• Teams have greater visibility, thanks to scrum meetings and stand-up sessions
• There’s constant feedback from customers and clients 
• Individual efforts of the team members can be focused on

Now, let’s look into the members of a Scrum team. 

Members of a Scrum Team

The Scrum team involves three significant roles.

Product Owner:

• A product owner is an individual responsible for understanding what the customer/ clients and to determine the business value of those wants. 
• The product owner must be able to maximize ROI by determining the product features, listing it out, prioritizing it, what needs to be focused on for upcoming sprints, prioritizing it, and making refinements. 
• The product owner takes decisions required to complete the project and manages the project backlog. 

Scrum Master:

• The Scrum master helps teams learn and apply the concepts of Scrum to obtain business value. 
• The Scrum Master makes sure the team is accountable for achieving the organization's business goals and removing impediments that may decrease the team's productivity. 
• He/ She also helps the team adopt Scrum methodologies. 
• They’re also responsible for organizing critical Scrum events and meetings.

Scrum Team

The Scrum team is a collection of individuals that work together to deliver the requirements of the stakeholders and clients.

How Scrum Works?

Scrum is simple, but it could take time to master, especially if the development team is used to the traditional waterfall model. But the long-term benefits of Scrum far outweigh its initial learning curve and cultural shift. Here is a step-by-step guide on how Scrum works and how you can use it in your organization:

Step 1: Create a Scrum project

Step 2: Create user stories or tasks in the backlog

Step 3: Create a Sprint

Step 4: Hold the Sprint planning meeting

Step 5: Start the Sprint in Jira

Step 6: Hold the daily standup meetings

Step 7: View the Burndown Chart

Step 8: View the Sprint Report

Step 9: Hold the Sprint review meeting

Step 10: Hold the Sprint retrospective meeting

Step 11: Complete the Sprint in Jira

Step 12: Repeat the whole process from step 2

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What are the Scrum Requirements?

The road to a successful Scrum project requires clearly defined requirements. These requirements establish a formal agreement between the business and the client to reach the same goal. Creating requirements is a complex task as it requires a great deal of analysis, validation, specification and management. Scrum requirements can be classified into two main types - functional and non-functional.

Functional Requirements

Functional requirements describe the functional aspects of the product - how it should behave, its features and functions. Generally, they describe the behavior of the system under specific conditions. For example, the voice feature of a product would allow the user to send a voice message instead of typing the message.

Here are some of the most common formats used to capture functional requirements:

• User stories
• Use cases
• Prototypes
• Models and diagrams
• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
• Software Requirements Specification (SRS) document

Non-functional Requirements

Non-functional requirements describe the general aspects of the software. They are also referred to as the quality attributes of the product. Here are some of the typical non-functional requirements.

• Usability
• Security
• Reliability
• Availability
• Performance
• Scalability

Detailing Scrum: Understanding Scrum Values and Principles

The Scrum framework confines itself to software development activities. To get a proper hang of what Scrum is, we must know what could be addressed as ‘Scrum values and principles.’ The Scrum values and principles are what constitute the Scrum framework. 

Scrum takes into consideration the following values that revolve around it:

• Commitment

  Members within the Scrum framework are committed not only to the people but also to each other and the goals that are intended to be achieved. One of these goals is termed as ‘sprint-based goals’ in which team members are required to keep their goals realistic and be efficient enough to achieve them within a short period.

• Focus

  Focus is an iterative-incremental approach. Delivery on time and meeting the expectations of the target audience works as an impetus to stay motivated and focused on the goals. This further saves the company from jeopardizing its position and reputation.

• Openness

  Openness, which is also synonymous with transparency, is one of the primary criteria in every professional field. No person can handle the operations of a company or an organization alone and hence has to work with a team. To work with a team, one needs to be open about ideas and issues because being opaque can cause miscommunication, thereby dismantling the entire functioning.

• Respect

  Respect is very much the same as openness. Respecting each other’s ideas helps maintain harmony amongst the members of the team functioning within the Scrum network.

• Courage

  The Scrum framework has specifically been designed for the business sector where risks and the requirement to change under any circumstances or for any prospect in the future go hand-in-hand. Team members should be courageous to welcome any such change or challenge. This will increase the chances of the betterment of the performance of team members and inevitably of the company. It is one of the approaches that inspired the Agile Manifesto, articulating a set of values and principles to direct decisions on how to produce software of higher quality more quickly.

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Scrum Artifacts

Scrum artifacts are the main components of the Scrum process. These artifacts enable you to improve transparency and the team’s understanding of the work that they’re doing. The artifacts are:

Product Backlog 

The product backlog consists of a list of new features, the changes made to existing features, bug fixes, changes to the infrastructure, and other artifacts that need to be completed to ensure the team satisfies a particular requirement. It is a source of all things the team works on. 

Sprint Backlog

Before we understand the sprint backlog, let’s understand what a sprint is.

A sprint refers to a period during which the team completes a particular task. With sprints, teams can provide workable outputs at the end of each sprint. Sprints are usually one to four weeks long. 

The sprint backlog is a subset of the product backlog that contains tasks that the team aims to complete to satisfy goals that were decided based on negotiations between the product owner and the team. Tasks are identified from the product backlog and are added to the sprint backlog. 

Product Increment

The product increment is a collection of all the product backlog items tasks completed as part of a sprint and the value of the increments of earlier sprints. Increments refer to inspectable and usable work done at the end of the sprint. It represents a step towards the overall goal of the organization. The outcome must be in functional condition, even if the product owner doesn’t decide to release it. 

Now, let’s take a look at the Scrum framework. 

Scrum Framework

Now we’ve answered what Scrum is, and have covered concepts of the Scrum team and Scrum artifacts, let’s talk about the steps within the Scrum process.

Product Backlog

The first step is to create a list of tasks that need to be completed to achieve the requirements of the stakeholders/ clients

Sprint Planning

During this stage, the team determines the tasks from the product backlog that they want to work towards completing during the sprint

Sprint Backlog

The tasks discussed during the sprint planning are added to the sprint backlog

Scrum Team

The Scrum team (usually consists of 5 to 9 members) works on the tasks mentioned in the sprint backlog.

Daily Scrum

The team will have daily Scrum meetings, which are 15-minute sessions, during which the team members synchronize their activities and plan their activities for the day.

Sprint Review

After a sprint is completed, a sprint review takes place. Involving the team, scrum master, product owner, and stakeholders, the sprint review shows what the team accomplished during the sprint. During the meeting, questions are asked, observations are made, feedback and suggestions are also given. 

Product Backlog

At this point, the product owner presents the product backlogs to the stakeholders for suggestions for tasks that can be added in the upcoming sprints, and so on. 

Sprint Retrospective

After the sprint review, the sprint retrospective takes place. During this meeting, past mistakes, potential issues, and new ways to handle them are identified. Data from here is incorporated when planning the new sprint.

Increment

A workable output is provided to the stakeholders. 

Next, let’s have a look at what exactly a Scrum board is.

Scrum Board

The Scrum board is a physical/ virtual tool that helps the team visualize items that are part of the sprint backlog. It shows all action items that need to be completed during the sprint, keeping the team focused on the task they must complete during the sprint. The board is present in a place that’s easily accessible to all team members and can be either physical (whiteboard/ stickers) or virtual (software tools). The board is divided into slots like to-do, in-progress, and done. When the new sprints are started, the board is reset, and a new board is created. 

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Conclusion

So in this article, we covered topics like what is Agile, what is Scrum, Scrum teams, artifacts, framework, and Scrum board. Now that you know the basic concepts, you must be wondering what the next step is?

You can check out Simplilearn’s Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM) Certification Training Course. We cover how Agile can be implemented in the course, different Agile methodologies, Scrum concepts, and much more in detail. The course will also enhance your ability to develop and deliver quality products to customers. 

And in case, you have any questions, let us know in the comment section below, and our experts will get back to you right away.