Introduction of Scrum Agile Process - Development

Introduction to Scrum—An Agile Process

As a brief introduction, Scrum is an agile process for software development. With Scrum, projects progress via a series of iterations called sprints. Each sprint is typically 2-4 weeks long. Scrum is ideally suited for projects with rapidly changing or highly emergent requirements.

Introduction to Terms

A scrum team is typically made up of between five and nine people, but Scrum projects can easily scale into the hundreds. The team does not include any of the traditional software engineering roles such as programmer, designer, tester, or architect. Everyone on the project works together to complete the set of work they have collectively committed to complete within a sprint. Scrum teams develop a deep form of camaraderie and a feeling that “we’re all in this together.”

The product owner is the project’s key stakeholder and represents users, customers and others in the process. The product owner is often someone from product management or marketing, a key stakeholder or a key user.

The ScrumMaster is responsible for making sure the team is as productive as possible. The ScrumMaster does this by helping the team use the Scrum process, by removing impediments to progress, by protecting the team from outside, and so on.

The product backlog is a prioritized features list containing every desired feature or change to the product.

At the start of each sprint, a sprint planning meeting is held during which the product owner prioritizes the product backlog, and the scrum team selects the work they can complete during the coming sprint. That work is then moved from the product backlog to the sprint backlog, which is the list of tasks needed to complete the product backlog items the team has committed to complete in the sprint.

Each day during the sprint, a brief meeting called the daily scrum is conducted. This meeting helps set the context for each day’s work and helps the team stay on track. All team members are required to attend the daily scrum.

At the end of each sprint, the team demonstrates the completed functionality at a sprint review meeting, during which, the team shows what they accomplished during the sprint. Typically, this takes the form of a demonstration of the new features, but in an informal way; for example, PowerPoint slides are not allowed. The meeting must not become a task in itself nor a distraction from the process.


Note

The term “backlog” can get confusing because it’s used for two different things. To clarify: the product backlog is a list of desired features for the product. The sprint backlog is a list of tasks to be completed in a sprint.

A Visual Introduction to Scrum

Graphically, Scrum looks something like this:

a figure of the scrum agile process
Click image to enlarge. Image is also available in other formats and sizes.

This graphic is an introduction to everything essential in Scrum agile software development. On the left, we see the product backlog, which has been prioritized by the product owner and contains everything wanted in the product that’s known at the time. The 2-4 week sprints are shown by the larger green circle.

At the start of each sprint, the team selects some amount of work from the product backlog and commits to completing that work during the sprint. Part of figuring out how much they can commit to, is creating the sprint backlog, which is the list of tasks (and an estimate of how long each will take) needed to deliver the selected set of product backlog items to be completed in the sprint.

At the end of each sprint, the team produces a potentially shippable product increment — i.e. working, high-quality software. Each day during the sprint, team members meet to discuss their progress and any impediments to completing the work for that sprint. This is known as the daily scrum, and is shown as the smaller green circle above.

Introduction: Scrum Agile Trainer, Coach, and Consultant Mike Cohn

Mountain Goat Software founder Mike Cohn is a Scrum and agile specialist. Along with Scrum inventor Ken Schwaber, Mike was a co-founder of the non-profit Scrum Alliance, which is dedicated to worldwide support for Scrum and Scrum practitioners. Having run his first Scrum project in 1995, Mike is among the most experienced of Scrum trainers and coaches. He is also a co-founder of the non-profit Agile Alliance. To learn more about Mountain Goat and Mike Cohn, please read Why Mountain Goat?

Trainings

Mountain Goat Software can assist your team through onsite consulting, coaching, ScrumMaster mentoring, and our popular trainings, which are available as a public course or for onsite delivery and include these offerings:

Attendees receive a one-year membership in the Scrum Alliance.

Our other popular Agile courses include:

What Makes Mike Cohn a Great Trainer?

Mike has been an active participant on Scrum projects since 1995…and not just as a consultant. At four different companies, Mike was VP of Development where agile was instrumental to the company’s success. Three of those companies were startups and the other was a Fortune 40 company.

Mike has more than a dozen years of experience with Scrum, working in domains from banking aerospace to video game development—with companies ranging in size from 1 to 400,000. He has the hands-on experience to make his training and coaching relevant to the real business world; it’s not just theoretical with him. And his teaching style includes hands-on experiences for his participants.

Mike Cohn was also a co-founder and past chairperson of the non-profit Agile Alliance, and co-founded and served on the board of directors of the non-profit Scrum Alliance.

But don’t just take our word for it. To get a first-hand look at how Mike relates to an audience, check out this video of Mike presenting at Google. To find out what past participants have thought of the classes, check out What They’re Saying About Us, and our client list.

Mike is also the author of two popular agile books: Agile Estimating and Planning and User Stories Applied for Agile Development. He is a frequent contributor to various magazines, journals and websites and writes a popular blog.

Scrum or Agile Training is a big investment of time and money. Do your research when choosing someone to guide you along your learning path. Mountain Goat has had the experience, public record, and recommendations you need for Scrum and agile success.

To get started today, email Mike Cohn at mike@mountaingoatsoftware.com or call our office at (720) 890-6110.


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