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:
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:
Certified ScrumMaster
The two-day class is a popular way to introduce the fundamental principles
of Scrum and provide hands-on experience, not just to prospective
ScrumMasters but to entire teams as well. Our
ScrumMaster certification courses
are among the most popular and well-respected in the industry.
Following successful completion of the course, each participant will become a
Certified ScrumMaster after passing the online certification test.
This course counts for 15 Professional Development Units (PDUs).
Attendees receive a one-year membership in the Scrum Alliance.
Succeeding with Agile
Organizational change is hard. Too often, changes that seem at first to be working fail either stall or fail to succeed in the long run. Adopting an agile process like Scrum is no different. This course will give you the information you need to keep your organization’s agile transformation on track over time. Learn ways to overcome common obstacles, techniques for scaling beyond the initial effort, and how to cultivate agile throughout the organization. This advanced course is based on Mike Cohn's Succeeding with Agile book of the same name and is intended for those who have already taken an introductory agile course. Move beyond the basics and not only learn how to get started but also how to get good with agile processes, including Scrum.
Certified Scrum Product Owner
Just because you now have an agile team capable of moving very quickly
doesn’t mean they are moving quickly toward the right goal. Product
owners are responsible for pointing teams toward the right targets. Our
Certified Scrum Product Owner
course ensures you have the skills to
guide your agile team. Since over 50% of all projects fail and those that
succeed deliver products in which 65% of the functionality is rarely
or never used, you won’t want to miss this course. The
Certified Scrum Product Owner course equips you with what you need to
achieve success with
Scrum. Following successful completion of the course, each participant will
be designated a Certified Scrum Product Owner and be given a one-year membership
in the Scrum Alliance. This course counts for
5 Professional Development Units (PDUs).
Agile Estimating & Planning
Two of the most important questions asked on projects are “When will we be
done?” and “How soon can I have everything I’ve asked for?”
These are not impossible
questions. By taking an agile approach to estimating and planning, teams can
learn how to create useful estimates that lead to reliable plans.
Agile Estimating and Planning is also the title
of trainer Mike Cohn’s book, which advocates different, easy, lightweight
ways to plan projects that will be developed using agile or Scrum.
This course counts for 7.5 Professional Development Units (PDUs).
Effective User Stories for Agile Requirements
Projects start with their requirements— so it’s worth learning
how to get a project off on the right foot. This class helps you do just that.
A great way to build software that meets users’ needs is to begin with
user stories. User stories are simple, clear, brief descriptions of functionality
that will be valuable to real users. In this course, you’ll learn what
makes a great user story, and what makes a bad one, plus the six attributes of a
good story and how to achieve them. You’ll discover practical ways to
gather user stories, even when you can’t speak with your users. This agile
class is taught by
User Stories Applied For Agile Software Development
author Mike Cohn himself. This training counts for 7.5 Professional Development
Units (PDUs).
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 fifteen years of experience with Scrum, working in domains from banking and 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 Cohn is the author of User Stories Applied for Agile Development., Agile Estimating and Planning, and Succeeding with Agile. 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.
