This is part two of my two part blog on scrum methodology.
Scrum Artifacts
Product Backlog
The Product Backlog is a log that consists of all of the work that needs to be done in a project. This work is split up into tasks and assigned to a sprint.
Sprint Backlog
The Sprint Backlog is a backlog of the work that needs to be done in a particular sprint. This backlog contains what needs to be done, what is in progress, what is in review, and what has been completed. This log is important because it is the way team members know what is going on in the project, and what needs to be done. This helps team members know where they fit into the plan and establishes trust and accountability for the team.
Increment
An Increment is a deliverable portion to the product produced at the end of the sprint. Though the whole product is not complete the sprint should produce a functioning piece of the product that can be demoed to the customer.
Scrum Events
All scrum events are time-boxed, meaning that they are supposed to occur in an allotted amount of time, with emphasis on efficiency and productivity.
Sprint
Sprints are typically timeboxed as 2 or 4 week projects that at completion produces an iterative or a functioning piece of the overall product.
Sprint Planning
Sprint Planning is the phase where the team plans and organizes the sprint and agrees upon a definition of done. As programming product are constantly being improved having a team standard as to what is the desired outcome is extremely important for productivity.
Daily Scrum
The daily scrum, also referred to as standup is a short, typically time-boxed at 15 minutes, meeting where the team shares what they have done, what they are now working on, and what is keeping them from getting their work done. As with all other scrum events the goal is to keep the team on the same page and enable them to work efficiently. This meeting is what I think of as "the meeting that could have been an email." However since it is better for moral to physically see that others are getting things done I do appreciate that the daily scrum is included in this methodology.
Sprint Review
A sprint review is held at the end of each sprint to inspect the increment of the product. This is also a change to adapt the product backlog for more accuracy and productivity. This meeting is timeboxed at about an hour per week spent working on the sprint.
Sprint Retrospective
A sprint retrospective takes place after the sprint review, but before the next sprints planning session. This event is time boxed at 3 hours for a one month sprint. /in retrospective the team discusses what went well in the sprint, what didn't go well in the sprint, and what the team is going to commit to changing in the upcoming sprint.
Repeat
When these events are over the next step is to start the process over until the product is complete.
Scrum is a fascinating methodology for project management. Certifications in are offered by scrum.org for someone to become a scrum master, or product owner. The agile development process is extremely useful in software development projects where goals may not always be clear or may be changing constantly. Being able to keep people on the same page is an important ability of any software development team.
Top comments (0)