Agile Scrum: Learn How To Bring Complex Projects To Life!

Traditional development models often focus on efficiency over value and apply processes that sometimes don’t work. They have the chance of running over schedules and budgets. What is the result? The product may be outdated by the time they enter the market. 

Now, what can be the solution here? 

Scrum is the answer. Scrum is used by over 12 million people around the world for products big and small. 

Agile scrum methodology is a popular choice for companies of all sizes because it offers high-end collaboration and efficiency for project-based work. While agile and Scrum are two different methods, their combined benefits make agile scrum methodology.

For example, agile is often considered more flexible and promotes team leadership. On the other hand, Scrum is more rigid and supports cross-functional teams. 

The agile scrum methodology focuses on delivering several iterations of a product to provide the users with the highest impact in lesser time. It possesses several advantages.

Firstly, it initiates the development to be built faster, encouraging each goal to be completed in the given time frame. The methodology demands constant planning, which helps the team members to focus on the sprint’s goals and increase productivity. 

Watch our video on Agile Scrum Mastery By Our Agile Expert Arun 👇

What Is Scrum?

Scrum is a framework in which a team can address complex issues while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest quality. It is nothing but a project management system that depends on gradual development.

Therefore, every iteration includes two to four-week sprints. The goal of each sprint in scrum is to develop the most-crucial functions first and eventually develop the potential product. 

Scrum can benefit in a wide variety of situations and projects; 

1. Solves complex projects: Scrum is ideal for projects requiring teams to solve bottlenecks. It breaks down each process into small chunks (also called sprints) that make the complicated tasks easier.
   Related Read: How To Define The Project Scope The Foolproof Way
2. Delivers values: Scrum benefits companies that value results over everything. Scrum focuses on efficiency and innovation to drive results instead of following a rigid process.
3. Allows user feedback to be inculcated: Scrum helps companies develop products according to the user’s requirements and specifications. As scrum is flexible to change, responding to users’ requests becomes easier. 

Related Read: Step-by-Step Process Of Agile Scrum Methodology

Scrum Skeleton

Fig. Scrum Skeleton

Scrum is a lightweight framework based on some common project management guidelines. It follows an empirical process control that applies the experience rather than rigid steps of processes.

It starts with the owner, who represents the users and other stakeholders. The product owner drives the product backlog, which means a dynamic list of all work needed for the product. 

Scrum Roles

There are three main roles in Scrum methodology: Scrum master, Product owner and Development team. 

The Scrum Master is similar to the project manager in traditional development. He/she is responsible for ensuring the team is productive and efficient, but their role is more like that of a coach.

The Scrum master helps the team to follow the scrum principles by keeping iterations within the time frame, removing obstructions, fostering collaboration and so on. 

The Product Owner is the key decision maker regarding what features or products to develop next. They work closely with the team to ensure everyone is always on the same page.

Therefore, the product owner must always be highly available to the team to answer questions and clarify unclear requirements. 

Related Read: Setting Up KPIs Of A Development Project

The Development Team in Scrum includes developers, QA and business analysts. In a scrum team, the development team facilitates estimations and works accordingly.

However, the development team does not decide what features should be developed- that is the product owner’s job. Instead, once an iteration starts, the development team self-organizes and determines who will perform each item and what is the best way to implement it.

Each team member works closely during each iteration to ensure the work is properly designed, coded, tested, fixed, and potentially deliverable at the end of the iteration.

Scrum Artifacts

Scrum’s artifacts represent the work or value, which provides transparency and opportunities for inspection and adaptation. In addition, artifacts are designed to increase the transparency of key data so that each team member has the same understanding. 

The term artifacts refer to the key information required while developing the products. Artifacts are developed during the main activities of Scrum, such as planning work and goals, creating tasks, or executing them. The main artifacts of Scrum are 

Fig. Scrum Artifacts

The Product Backlog consists of new features, enhancements, bug fixes, or work requirements to be built into a product. It is created with the help of internal sources like customer support, competitor analysis, market demands and business analysis. 

The Sprint Backlog is a set of product backlog items promoted to development during the next product increment. They are created specially by development teams to plan the delivery for future releases. The sprint backlog is updated during the sprint planning phase of Scrum. 

A Product Increment is the deliverables produced by completing the product backlog during a sprint. Remember, there is always one increment for each sprint. The product increments are useful for version tracking and rollback of the product.