Project Management with Agile – Scrum
Scrum
Scrum is a project management method for agile software development.
Although Scrum was intended to be for management of software development projects, it can be used in running software maintenance teams, or as a program management approach: Scrum of Scrums.
History
The approach was first described by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka in The New New Product Development Game (Harvard Business Review, Jan-Feb 1986). They noted that projects using small, cross-functional teams historically produce the best results, and referred to this as the “rugby approach”.
In 1991, DeGrace and Stahl, in Wicked Problems, Righteous Solutions referred to this approach as Scrum, a rugby term mentioned in the article by Takeuchi and Nonaka.
Ken Schwaber used an approach that led to Scrum at his company, Advanced Development Methods, in the early 1990s. At the same time, Jeff Sutherland developed a similar approach at Easel Corporation and was the first to call it Scrum. Sutherland and Schwaber jointly presented a paper describing Scrum at OOPSLA ’96 in Austin, its first public appearance. Schwaber and Sutherland collaborated during the following years to merge the above writings, their experiences, and industry best practices into what is now known as Scrum.
Schwaber teamed up with Mike Beedle in 2001 to write up the method in the book Agile Software Development with SCRUM.
How it works?
Scrum is a process skeleton that includes a set of practices and predefined roles.
Roles
ScrumMaster:
Maintains the processes and works similar to a project manager
Teaches and implements Scrum
Ensures Scrum is practiced properly
Maintains required documentation
Product Owner:
Represents the stakeholders / customers
Prioritizes product requirement
Team:
Develops product
Responsible for failure / success
Self managed and organized
Activities
Sprint Planning Meeting
Before every Sprint
What to do
How to do
Sprint
Release cycle of 15-30 days
No change in between
Daily Scrum
15 minutes meeting on a daily basis (while in Sprint)
What members did since last meeting?
What they plan to do till next meeting?
Any obstacles if any
Scrum Review Meeting After every Sprint
Demonstrate the work done
Feedback
Scrum Retrospective Meeting
Product Owner no required
Is done after review meeting
Discuss experiences / problems to improve further
Product Backlog
Prepared and managed by Product Owner
Same as project plan and monitors entire project
Prioritization done for better results
Requirements can be added
Burndown Chart
Helps in predicting problems
Works like an overall tracker
Useful for evaluating overall performance
Sprint Backlog
A real time picture of work in a Sprint
Product requirement that will be covered in a Sprint
Avoids problem that may delay / fail a release
Doesn’t allow any addition
Can be modified only my Team
Books
Agile Project Management with Scrum – Ken Schwaber
Websites
http://www.implementingscrum.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_(development)
http://hosteddocs.ittoolbox.com/AL12.06.06.pdf
Tags: Agile, Project Management, Scrum
March 20th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Impediment backlog – it is very important to watch and track impediments and track them.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:54 am
Hi Boris,
Can you please throw some light on Impediment backlog?
Thanks & Regards,
Nitesh Ambuj
April 4th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
The impediment backlog is a list of all impediments. The ScrumMaster owns this list. It is his working tool. The team can prioritize this list for the ScrumMaster, so he knows what he has to focus on.
April 5th, 2008 at 4:04 am
Hi Boris,
Thanks for the information.
Can you please refer some URL for self study on this?
Thanks & Regards,
Nitesh Ambuj