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15 AUGUST 2011 Advertisement

Learn the Scrum Basics

By Michele Sliger, MBA, CST, PMP 10 Votes

By now, many project managers are familiar with agile practices. But what about the subsets of agile, like Scrum; how can this method effectively be applied to your projects? There is a common misconception that agile is Scrum. Scrum is indeed agile because it offers a way to implement the agile philosophy, but it is one of many agile approaches to project delivery that adheres to the Agile Manifesto and its associated principles. Simply put, Scrum supports iterative and incremental project delivery using frequent feedback and collaborative decision-making. It consists of three pillars: transparency, inspection and adaptation. Who Works in Scrum? There are three roles involved in the application of Scrum in projects. These roles include: ScrumMaster keeps the process and advocates for and protects the team (often, a project manager assumes this role) Product Owner represents the customer and has authority to make decisions Team is jointly responsible for delivering the product (usually 710 people) Characteristics of Scrum Like all projects, the Scrum project begins with a clear vision which helps shape the scope provided by the business and a set of product features in order of importance. These features are parts of the product backlog, which the product owner maintains. A time box, or sprint, is the set amount of time that the team has to complete the features selected. Sprints are generally from one to four weeks in length, and that length is maintained throughout the life cycle of the project so as to establish a cadence. During the sprint planning meeting, which happens on the first day of each sprint, the team selects items from the product backlog that it believes can be completed in the sprint and creates a sprint backlog consisting of these items. Once the team has planned the sprint, the task work begins. During this time in the sprint, the team is protected from interruptions and allowed to focus on meeting the sprint goal. No changes to the sprint backlog are allowed; however, the product backlog can be changed in preparation for the next sprint.

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Community Post

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Scrum at Work During the sprint, team members check in daily with each other in the form of a 15-minute meeting known as a scrum. The team stands in a circle and each member states what he or she did yesterday, what he or she plans to do today and what is getting in his or her way. Team members track their progress on a task board and through the use of a burndown chart, which shows the amount of work still left to do. At the end of the sprint, the team demonstrates the work theyve completed to the stakeholders, and gathers feedback that will affect what they will work on during the next sprint. The team also holds a retrospective meeting to learn how to improve. The team applies its lessons learned to the next sprint and continues this loop until the project is completed. Scrum is an excellent method that supports the agile philosophy. It promotes continued inspection and adaptation without dictating specific project management methods. When you use Scrum for product development or other appropriate projects, you can deliver value to the customer early and often and obtain and incorporate feedback as the project progresses.

Michele Sliger, MBA, CST, PMP, has worked in software development for over 20 years, and has applied agile for the last 10 years. She owns Sliger Consulting, Inc., where she helps small start-ups and Fortune 500 companies with their adoption of agile and to prepare for the changes that agile adoption brings. Ms. Sliger co-authored the book The Software Project Managers Bridge to Agility (AddisonWesley Professional, 2008). For questions, comments or your feedback, please contact Ms. Sliger.

Learn More Deepen your understanding of agile principles and techniques at the PMI Global Congress 2011North America, 2225 October, in Dallas/Fort Worth Texas, USA. There, Ms. Sliger will be one of many presenters in the agile educational track. Past Community Post articles include: AgileIts Not Just for IT Projects Beyond Traditional or AgileThink Hybrid. Discuss Start a discussion about Scrum or other agile techniques at the PMI Agile Community of Practice. Get Certified Already have experience in working with agile techniques? Demonstrate your professional skills with the new PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)SM certification.

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