Scrum Description
Link to Scrum.org:
https://www.scrum.org/
What is Scrum?
Scrum is an iterative and incremental
agile software development framework for managing product development. It defines "a flexible,
holistic product development strategy where a development team works as a unit to reach a common goal", challenges assumptions of the "traditional, sequential approach"
to product development, and enables teams to self-organize by
encouraging physical co-location or close online collaboration of all
team members, as well as daily face-to-face communication among all team
members and disciplines in the project.
A key principle of scrum is its recognition that during production
processes, the customers can change their minds about what they want and
need (often called requirements volatility),
and that unpredicted challenges cannot be easily addressed in a
traditional predictive or planned manner. As such, scrum adopts an
empirical
approach—accepting that the problem cannot be fully understood or
defined, focusing instead on maximizing the team's ability to deliver
quickly, to respond to emerging requirements and to adapt to evolving
technologies and changes in market conditions.
There are three core roles
[14]
in the scrum framework. These core roles are those committed to the
project in the scrum process—they are the ones producing the product
(objective of the project). They represent the
scrum team.
Although other roles may be encountered in real projects, scrum does not
define any team roles other than those described below.
[15]
Product owner
The product owner represents the
stakeholders and is the
voice of the customer,
who is accountable for ensuring that the team delivers value to the
business. The product owner writes (or has the team write)
customer-centric items (typically
user stories), ranks and prioritizes them, and adds them to the
product backlog.
Scrum teams should have one product owner, this role should not be
combined with that of the scrum master. The product owner should be on
the business side of the project, and should never interfere or interact
with team members on the technical aspects of the development task.
[16][better source needed] This role is equivalent to the
customer representative role in some other agile frameworks.
Role in requirements communication
Communication is a main function of the product owner. The ability to
convey priorities and empathize with team members and stakeholders is
vital to steer the project in the right direction. Product owners bridge
the communication gap between the team and its stakeholders. they serve as a proxy stakeholder to the development team and as
a project team representative to the overall stakeholder community.
As the face of the team to the stakeholders, the following are some
of the communication tasks of the product owner to the stakeholders:
[citation needed]
- demonstrates the solution to key stakeholders who were not present at a sprint review;
- defines and announces releases;
- communicates team status;
- organizes milestone reviews;
- educates stakeholders in the development process;
- negotiates priorities, scope, funding, and schedule;
- ensures that the product backlog is visible, transparent, and clear.
Empathy is a key attribute for a product owner to have—the ability to
put one’s self in another’s shoes. A product owner converses with
different stakeholders in the project, who have a variety of
backgrounds, job roles, and objectives. A product owner must be able to
see from these different points of view. To be effective, it is wise for
a product owner to know the level of detail the audience needs. The
development team needs thorough feedback and specifications so they can
build a product up to expectation, while an executive sponsor may just
need summaries of progress. Providing more information than necessary
may lose stakeholder interest and waste time. There is also significant
evidence that face-to-face communication around a shared sketching
environment is the most effective way to communicate information instead
of documentation.
[citation needed] A direct means of communication is the most preferred by seasoned agile product owners.
A product owner’s ability to communicate effectively is also enhanced
by being skilled in techniques that identify stakeholder needs,
negotiate priorities between stakeholder interests, and collaborate with
developers to ensure effective implementation of requirements.
Development team
The development team is responsible for delivering potentially
shippable increments (PSIs) of product at the end of each sprint (the
sprint goal). A team is made up of 3–9 individuals who do the actual
work (analyse, design, develop, test, technical communication, document,
etc.). Development teams are cross-functional, with all of the skills
as a team necessary to create a product increment. The development team
in scrum is self-organizing, even though there may be some level of
interface with project management offices (PMOs).
Scrum master
Scrum is facilitated by a scrum master, who is accountable for
removing impediments to the ability of the team to deliver the product
goals and deliverables. The scrum master is not a traditional
team lead or
project manager,
but acts as a buffer between the team and any distracting influences.
The scrum master ensures that the scrum process is used as intended. The
scrum master helps ensure the team follows the agreed scrum processes,
often facilitates key sessions, and encourages the team to improve. The
role has also been referred to as a
team facilitatoror
servant-leader to reinforce these dual perspectives.
The core responsibilities of a scrum master include (but are not limited to):
- Helping the product owner maintain the product backlog in a way that
ensures the needed work is well understood so the team can continually
make forward progress
- Helping the team to determine the definition of done for the product, with input from key stakeholders
- Coaching the team, within the scrum principles, in order to deliver high-quality features for its product
- Promoting self-organization within the team
- Helping the scrum team to avoid or remove impediments to its progress, whether internal or external to the team
- Facilitating team events to ensure regular progress
- Educating key stakeholders in the product on scrum principles
One of the ways the scrum master role differs from a project manager is that the latter may have
people management
responsibilities and the scrum master does not. Scrum does not formally
recognise the role of project manager, as traditional command and
control tendencies would cause difficulties.
How the team use Scrum?
The Ant Team used Scrum for their project, start from Scrum planning with using Scrum board to determine the task of every people to help the Scrum task finish on time. After that we do the retrospective moment to evaluate the Scrum task by giving the opinion of what is like, what we don't like, who is the best, and what to improve.
