What is Scrum?

Scrum is lightweight agile software development methodologies. Scrum is mainly used for software development, but it works well for any complex, innovative scope of work. It describes an iterative and incremental approach for project work. This article explains an introduction to Scrum. Summary of the article:

• What is Scrum?
• Scrum Roles
• Scrum Sprint
• Scrum Meetings
• What is Product Backlog?
• What is Sprint Backlog?

What is Scrum?
Scrum is an agile methodology. It is the most famous methodology used in agile software development. In rugby, ‘scrum’ (“scrimmage”) is a term for a mass of players engaged with each other to get a job done.

Scrum Roles
The scrum has three core roles and they are:

1. Product Owner – determine what needs to be built.
2. Scrum Master – build what is needed.
3. Team Member –ensure this process occurred smoothly and improves all the process.

Product Owner
The product owner is the project’s key stakeholder. He/she represents the product vision to the development team. Product owner is the most authority of the three roles and he/she prioritizes the process. Scrum teams should have one Product Owners and often someone from product marketing or management, a key stakeholder or a key user.

Scrum Master
The Scrum Master is not a traditional team lead or project manager. He/she acts as a facilitator for the Product Owner and the development team. Scrum Master does not manage the team. He/she removes any impediments that are obstructing the team.

Team Member or Development Team
The development team is responsible for completing each sprint. A Team is made up of 3–9 individuals with cross-functional skills (analysts, architects, software engineers, programmers, QA experts, testers, and UI designers, etc.). Everyone on the project works together to complete the set of task within a sprint.

Scrum Sprint
Sprint is a time period in which development occurs on a set of backlog items that the team has committed to. Typically it is 1–4 weeks. It is the basic unit of development in Scrum. Each sprint is started by a planning meeting and ending by a “Sprint Review Meeting” and the “Sprint Retrospective” meeting.

Scrum Meetings
All Scrum Meetings are facilitated by the Scrum Master and he/she has no decision-making authority at these meetings. The scrum meetings are given bellow:

1. Sprint Planning Meeting
2. Daily Scrum meeting
3. Sprint Review Meeting
4. Sprint Retrospective Meeting
5. Backlog Refinement Meeting

Sprint Planning Meeting
At the beginning of each sprint cycle a Sprint planning meeting is occurred. Product Owner, Scrum Master and Team Member attend the meeting. It is a one-day timeboxed meeting and limit is 8 hours (divided into two 4-hour sessions).
During the first session the Product Owner describes the highest priorities of the Product Backlog to the team. Product Owner and Development Team negotiate what work is to be done and delivered in the upcoming Sprint.
During the second session the development team discusses and plans how to full fill the sprint in time and generate Sprint Backlog.

Daily Scrum meeting
Every day during the sprint a Daily Scrum meeting is occurred at same time same location (even if some team members are absent). Scrum Master and all the Team Members attend the meeting. Its time limit is 15 minutes. Everybody must stand up. Only scrum master and team members can talk, all are welcome but not mandatory.
During the meeting, each team member answers three questions:

1. What have you done since yesterday?
2. What are you planning to do today?
3. Any impediment or obstacles? (Scrum Master notes that and worked outside of this meeting to solve this. No detailed discussions shall happen in this meeting.)

Sprint Review Meeting
At the end of a sprint cycle, two meetings are held. One is “Sprint Review Meeting” and another one is “Sprint Retrospective Meeting”. Product Owner, Scrum Master, Team Members, Management attend the Sprint Review Meeting and its duration is 2 hours. During this meeting the Development Team shows what they accomplished during the Sprint (demo). Product Owner checks and reviews the task against the Sprint Planning Meeting. Incomplete tasks are returned to the Product Backlog and ranked by the Product Owner’s for future Sprints.

Sprint Retrospective Meeting
After the Sprint Review Meeting, Sprint Retrospective Meeting is held. It is facilitated by the Scrum Master .Scrum Master, Team Members, Product Owner (optional) attend the meeting and its duration is 2 hours. In this meeting, the team considers three things:

1. What went well?
2. What didn’t?
3. What can be improved in the next sprint?

Backlog Refinement Meeting (Backlog Grooming)
Most Product Backlog Items (PBIs) initially need refinement or modification. Because they are too large and poor for understand.
Generally Backlog refinement contains estimation of effort, clarification of requirements, and decomposition of large Product Backlog Items into smaller ones.

What is Product Backlog (PBL)?
Product Backlog or PBL is a prioritized list of high-level requirements. It contains features, bug fixes, non-functional requirements, etc (features and functionality needed to complete a project). The product backlog items (PBIs) are ordered by the Product Owner based on business value, dependencies, time duration, etc. BPI can be changed at any time.

What is Sprint Backlog (SBL)?
Sprint Backlog or SBL is a prioritized list of tasks to be completed during the sprint. It contains committed BPIs during the Sprint Planning Meeting. All entries are estimated on a person-hour basis to track progress. Sprint Backlog is updated daily.
When team members start to works on an activity his name is recorded within the sprint backlog. Also new activities can be added to the Sprint Backlog during the Sprint. At the end of the day all tasks are updated and defines how much work is left until the Sprint Goal is reached.

The possibilities of Scrum software development frameworks are endless. The proper uses of scram can overcome project failure. That’s why we need to practice it in any type of development.