SCRUM

Not your average bacon and eggs

The Basics

• Product Backlog• Sprint Backlogs• Sprints– The Daily Scrum– Burn-down chart

• Sprint Retrospective

The Players

• The Scrum Team– Consists of five to nine people– No specific roles• Still allows for experts

– Primary tasks involve problem solving and design

The Players

• The Scrum Master– More the role of a coach– Daily Scrum• Keeps Scrum team focused• Provides Scrum team with most beneficial

circumstances possible

– Sprint Retrospective• Helps team evaluate progress and accomplishments• Motivates team for next Sprint

The Players

• The Product Owner– Voice of the customer– Maintains a business perspective– Responsible for the product backlog

The Process

• The Product Backlog– Contains a list of prioritized goals• May include upgrades, bug fixes, or the next steps in

development

– Can be broken down into segments• This should create business value• This should also allow it to be sub-deliverable

The Process

• The Daily Scrum– Consistent time every day– Involves Scrum Master and Scrum Team• “What has been accomplished since we last met?”• “What will be accomplished between now and our next

meeting?”• “Is there anything standing in our way?”

– No one else is allowed to talk• Bacon and eggs

The Process

• The Sprint– Consists of 30 days

• Often non-negotiable

– Series of predetermined goals• Specified by the Sprint backlog

– Uses a burn-down chart is used to display progress– Concludes with Sprint Retrospective

• Allows team to demonstrate product• A good time for evaluation and motivation for the next

Sprint

Pros and Cons

• Pros– The small size allows for agility– The Sprints allow for members to be remain focused

and motivated– Team members can put their strengths to use without

being confined to specific roles• Cons– Unorthodox in that there is no project manager– There is difficultly in overcoming inertia– Strict timing can sometimes be harmful

Conclusions

• Scrum has been successfully integrated into companies such as IBM, Microsoft, and Xerox.

• Scrum works best when the numbers relating to the team size, Sprint time, and overall project development time are reasonable.

• Its strongest aspect is continuous communication among the team members and the customers.