Skip to content

Scrum

Basically, next-big-thing that everyone wants to hope onto. Choosing the methodology according to the team and project is long gone.

"Age of methodologies is over, the time of one methodology has come." -Probably some orc

It is a framework

Short story:

Waterfall bad, agile gud. Sprint is 1 week of work. Daily standup meetings to check if colleagues are still alive. Scum maste- Ehm, Sorry. Scrum master manages the whole thing. Story estimates defines a task's effort, negotiate it with the master.

Conclusion

TBA


Glossary

  • ROI: Return on investment
  • Responsible: The one who accomplishes the task/work. The actual person, directly.
  • Accountable: The one instructs or delegates a responsibility/tasks.

Agile doesn't mean scrum

It is a common misconception to think agile and scrum are the same. Well, no. Agile is a methodlogy group that consists scrum and many other methodologies. Scrum is the most famous one, hence it's like the cover-face of the agile. But it is certainly not.

Agile aims on release features regular basis. It is so waterfall to deploy the whole product in single action. - Focuses on ROI - Req changes are often - Allows discovering issues early on - Periodic replanning

Agile manifesto

  • Individuals and interactions, over process and tools
  • Working software, over comprehensive documentation
  • Customer collab, over contract negotiation
  • Responding to change, over following a plan

Foundation of Scrum

Scrum Theory

  • Transparency: Done means done, be honest.
  • Inspection: Check progress. Shouldn't be so frequent where it just gets into the way of work.
  • Adaptation: Change product based on inspection

Scrum Skeleton

minus the calcium

  • Product Backlog: Or just backlog. The list of things that needs to be done. Can grow over time, don't worry. I've never seen a project with clean backlog. It always contains tasks so old, the backlog is just like deep-freezer at that point. I remember a tasks so deep in the backlog... It is said if you read the description to the mirror at 3AM, ghost developers of the forsaken past shall haunt you. Those poor men who attempted it...
  • Sprint backlog: Just a bunch of tasks gathered from product backlog. Team members may take tasks from here.
  • Sprint: Work plan for interval/period of X. Sprint period could be 1 week, 2 week, 30 days, 1.5 eons, 3 falls, 2 stories... JK, it's gotta be less than 30 days otherwise it's just stooped. Important thing here is that you have to deliver a deployment-ready product at the end of the sprint.
  • Daily scrum meeting: just gather up with the team and check how's everyone doing. Review progress. See potential failures in advance.

Scrum Events

  • Sprint Planning
  • Daily scrum meeting
  • Sprint review
  • Sprint retrospective

You have to be doing these events. Or not! At least some of them.

Scrum Team

Developers of 10 are usually the top limit. Try not to excess that. If you have more than 10 people then try to diverge them into sub-projects.

  • Product Owner
  • Scrum master
  • The developers

Scrum Master

Usually project manager or team lead. Since scrum rules are not really followed anymore, he decides what will be accomplished this sprint and who-will-do-what.

  • Remove impediments for the team
  • Expert on scrum rules
  • Help the team to self manage
  • Organize meetings
  • Aid the product to boost ROI

Product Owner

Just the boss of the whole thing. If you are not sure who is the product owner, follow the money. Audit who payrolls your arse. That is the guy. He keeps the money flowing which keeps the show running.

  • Define scenario in detail
  • Create product backlog (nope, not really)
  • Prioritize requirements by business value, basically by money
  • Make decisions for maximum ROI
  • Product owner is responsible/accountable for managing product backlog
  • Gotta order priority of product backlog items.
  • Constantly seeks out opportunities to increase ROI, by optimizing developers.
  • Entire ORG must respect his/her decisions

Developers

***Bottom of the caste, poor fellas who does the actual work. Feed them and you shall see the bottom of the backlog. Respect them and do not push them to the limit. ***

*** Scrum master found me guilty sir, then i was condemned to extra workload. For life-cycle of this product, developer i sentence you to gruelling. ***

  • Build potentially releasable product
  • Self managing and collaborative
  • Experts in their field
  • Gets the job done
  • Looks up to the scrum master for guidance, and asking for removal of obstacles