Today it was SCRUM time (1)

in #blog5 years ago (edited)

As you may have read in my previous post (you can find it here) I started a training "Advanced SCRUM Master". Today we had our second day.

What is SCRUM


The official scrumguide describes scrum as:

"Scrum (n): A framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value."

This sounds a bit cryptic-theoretical so I try to explain it in some simple words.
Scrum is a framework based on Agile principles where a team (scrum-team) delivers high-quality working products based om Empiricism development. This means that on short cycles a team works on a product and in every cycle they deliver a (partial) product which can be ready to implement or use.
compared to traditional development methods or frameworks the scrum framework is more transparent and predictable.

Within scrum you work as a scrum team, and this is the whole team responsible for the end result. A scrum team consist of:

  • Product owner
    a product owner is the one responsible for the translation of the whishes of the stakeholders to items to develop. He or she is also responsible for the prioritization of the features to develop and has to achieve the most value for the business. The features are put on the "product backlog", this is a sort of list where all items which has to be developed are written down. The order (most valueable) is from top down.

  • Development team
    This is the team which actually develop the product(s). The team is self-steering and multi disciplined. They decide for them self how the product is developed but commit themselves to a (partial) delivery of the product in a certain timebox (the sprint).

  • Scrum master
    The scrum master is the one who manage that the scrum process goes smoothly and is there to support the team with situations which may occur during the work. He is there to help the product owner streamline the backlog and to remove impediments. He also can act as a coach to the team if necessary.

Scrum events


Within a scrum cycle there are a few events which has to be followed to get to highest value out of the framework and people.

  • Sprint
    a spint is a certain period in which the team develops their (incremental) product. It is a timebox of a maximum of one month (4 weeks). But can be shorter if that is what the team prefers. In this spint the team commits to get some items from the backlog done , and with done we mean ready to take into production.

  • Sprint planning
    Before the sprint starts there is a sprintplanning meeting. In this meeting the product owner shows the backlog to the team and shows which items are the most important to develop. The development team will estimate how many of those items they can deliver within the time of the sprint. In the estimation the product owner has no saying because it is solely something the developers decide. At the end of this meeting the product owner knows what he can expect , and the team knows what to do.

  • Refinement sessions
    In some occasions there will be refinement sessions needed. This are sessions in which the scrum team tries to drill down the work to be done on a more detailed level. In some cases there will be external expertise needed (for instance a business owner) to help the team to clear things out. Refinement sessions are nog obligatory but can help the team a lot.

  • Sprint review
    The sprint review is, again, a meeting where the scrumteam shows (demonstrate) the developed working product to the productowner and stakeholders. Within this meeting the stakeholders can tell if it satisfy their expectations or not. If not things have to be cleared why not and has to be decided or new work is necessary. If new work has to be done it again has to be put on the backlog and been prioritized.
    This meeting is very important for transparency towards the team and stakeholders to get the goal clear.

  • Sprint retrospective
    The sprint retrospective is a session with the development team only (a scrum master can join just to facilitate) In this session the team reviews the last sprint and the way the team has functioned. A outcome of this session can be that the way the team works has to be adjusted or that the estimation of the team is to positive. There can be adjustments for or to the team for a next sprint with the goal to make the team more efficient, predictable and stable. It is a good way to get internal feedback.

Is Scrum the Holy Grail?


No, I don't think so. But it can help a organization or a team to create a more efficient and predictable way of work. For stakeholders the advantage is that they can have a working product quickly and that they are able to respond to a change rather quick compared to other method (like the waterfall). The same goes for the development team. Because they receive feedback after every sprint they can respond much more dynamic to achieve the best result for the stakeholders.

The most important thing of practicing scrum is that is has to be implemented all the way which means that everybody has to commit to this framework, including management. Otherwise there is no support and with no support there is no result...

Well, looking back at the post, it's a quite long story... So I hope I didn't got you sleept....

Next post about scrum I will try to highlight some of the (soft) skills a scrum master can use and perhaps MUST have to escort a organization trough the framework to eventually get the best out of people..

Have a great day


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Too funny, I just did my first one of these the other day. I had never heard of it before and I hadn't tied it to your other post that I read. It was all very weird and the process really didn't flow that well. It might have just been the person that was leading it. I don't know if he is a certified SCRUM master. A lot of the terms seemed to be stolen from other programs. It was interesting though!

haha that's funny indeed. It take's some time before the process flows right. It's a mindset which has to be adopted by everybody and (important) working following the steps and events. In time you will see it can work, but of course the people implementing it have to have deep knowledge about the framework. But indeed funny :)... The terms are mainly taken from the agile way of work, and that is general indeed :)

There was one term that really struck me as funny. I think it was off-loading or something like that. It's when you move an idea or comment off your plate to be dealt with later. All of the jargon just seemed like it was piece-mealed. The guy that was running our group said that certified SCRUM leaders are becoming a hot commodity though and in the right circumstances they can fetch a pretty penny.

The thing with this frameworks is that it is volatile in sense of that there are developed a lot of spin-offs of these frameworks which then is instantly the holy grail :) In Holland Scrum is practiced quiet a lot, but the only one who are receiving a real penny are the instructors ;)

Great explanation of something that is not so easy to understand!
I'm working in an agile scrum environment since this summer, and it was quite an adaptation I must say :-)

Thank you very much. It is indeed a bit difficult to explain so that everybody can understand the meaning :) I have experienced the same. I am now working with a team developing infrastructure components (infrastructure as in IT infrastructure). They never have worked in a agile environment before and I must admit it is quite hard to get it "tussen de oren" , but as soon as the experience the benefits for their team I think things will go much more smooth... I already see a improvement in their way of work and planning ... :)

The improvement over the waterfall method is indeed easy to spot :-) Especially in IT environments :-)

Yes, for sure. that's a quick win ;)

It's bold not just minimal!

excuse me?

I think it is italic, but maximalistic...

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