The Very Basics of the Scrum Process
What is Scrum?
Scrum is a set of conditions used by a business to create a framework to manage a project. Scrum can be applied to any type of business but is mainly used in agile software development. Scrum is an outline of the way a project will run with definitive jobs for each member of the team. The members of the Scrum are the Product Owner, the ScrumMaster, and the Team. Each member of the Scrum has a different role to play that will be vital to the success of the Scrum.
Roles in the Scrum Process
The Product Owner is the person who represents the voice of the consumer. The job of the Product Owner is to prioritize the needs of the product into a backlog which will be used by the team to initiate a sprint. The Product Owner will also make sure that the Scrum Team stays on task and is working with the right things as needed from a business perspective.
A ScrumMaster is similar to a project manager role only it is his/her job to not lead the team but to ensure the team is not distracted. Keeping the team focused on the task at hand is the main role of the ScrumMaster. He/She must ensure that the Scrum is being used properly and the team is on track to meet the sprint goal.
The Scrum Team is the group of people in charge of developing and delivering the actual product. The team may consist of 5 to 9 people who will be designing and developing the actual software to ensure its usability.
The Scrum Process
Once the Scrum team is in place it is time to start the actual process. The first step is for the team to hold a Sprint Planning Meeting to decide which part of the backlog will be done first and how long it will take to finish the work. Once this decision is made the team will then start a “sprint.” The sprint is usually a 2 to 4 week process in which by the end of the designated time the team will have developed a usable part of the software.
During a sprint the team will hold meetings daily known as the “Daily Scrum.” These meetings should be held at the same time and place everyday. The meeting should follow strict guidelines and only last approximately 15 minutes. During the meeting each team member will be required to answer what they have been working on and the plans for future work. The team member will also be asked if there is any problem they see with meeting the current deadline for the sprint.
After the sprint is finished a Sprint Review Meeting will be held to determine what work was finished and what work was not. The work will then be presented to the product owners. After this demo the team will then have a Sprint Retrospective Meeting in which all team members can discuss the things that went well during the sprint and the things that went wrong. This is the time to improve the process before the next sprint begins.
