SCRUM & AGILE

Scrum is one of the most popular Agile methodologies. It is an adaptive, iterative, fast, flexible, and effective methodology designed to deliver significant value quickly and throughout a project. Scrum ensures transparency in communication and creates an environment of collective accountability and continuous progress. The Scrum framework, as defined in the SBOK® Guide, is structured in such a way that it supports product and service development in all types of industries and in any type of project, irrespective of its complexity.

A key strength of Scrum lies in its use of cross-functional, self-organized, and empowered teams who divide their work into short, concentrated work cycles called Sprints.

The Scrum cycle begins with a Stakeholder Meeting, during which the Project Vision is created. The Product Owner then develops a Prioritized Product Backlog which contains a prioritized list of business and project requirements written in the form of User Stories. Each Sprint begins with a Sprint Planning Meeting during which high priority User Stories are considered for inclusion in the Sprint. A Sprint generally lasts between one and six weeks and involves the Scrum Team working to create potentially shippable Deliverables or product increments. During the Sprint, short, highly focused Daily Standup Meetings are conducted where team members discuss daily progress. Toward the end of the Sprint, a Sprint Review Meeting is held during which the Product Owner and relevant stakeholders are provided a demonstration of the Deliverables. The Product Owner accepts the Deliverables only if they meet the predefined Acceptance Criteria. The Sprint cycle ends with a Retrospect Sprint Meeting where the team discusses ways to improve processes and performance as they move forward into the subsequent Sprint.

The six Scrum principles

1. Empirical Process Control - This principle emphasizes the core philosophy of Scrum based on the three main ideas of transparency, inspection, and adaptation. Empirical process control aids learning through experimentation, especially when the problem is not well defined or when there are no clear solutions. More
2. Self-organization - This principle focuses on today’s workers, who deliver significantly greater value when self-organized, and this results in better team buy-in and shared ownership; and an innovative and creative environment which is more conducive for growth. More
3. Collaboration - This principle focuses on the three core dimensions related to collaborative work: awareness, articulation, and appropriation. It also advocates project delivery as a shared value-creation process with teams working and interacting together, as well as with the customer and other business stakeholders, to deliver the greatest value. More
4. Value Based Prioritization - This principle highlights the focus of Scrum to deliver maximum business value, from early in the project and continuing throughout. More
5. Time-boxing - This principle describes how time is considered a limiting constraint in Scrum and used to help effectively manage project planning and execution. Time-boxed elements in Scrum include Sprints, Daily Standup Meetings, Sprint Planning Meetings, Sprint Review Meetings, and Retrospect Sprint Meetings. More
6. Iterative Development - This principle defines iterative development and emphasizes how to better manage changes and build products that satisfy customer needs. It also delineates the Product Owner’s and organization’s responsibilities related to iterative development. More

The Scrum aspects must be addressed and managed throughout a Scrum project as explained in SBOK®. The five Scrum aspects are:

1. Organization - This aspect focuses on various facets of a Scrum project organization as well as core and non-core roles and how to form high performance Scrum Teams. More
2. Business Justification - This aspect focuses on the concept and purpose of Business Justification as it relates to Scrum projects. More
3. Quality - This aspect focuses on defining quality as it relates to projects and to present the Scrum approach to achieve the required levels of quality. More
4. Change - This aspect focuses on the importance of change in any project, regardless of its method or framework and expands on how Scrum development processes are designed to embrace change. More
5. Risk - This aspect focuses on management of risks in a Scrum environment by considering various tools that facilitate the management of risks. More

One of the key characteristics of any project is the uncertainty of results or outcomes. It is impossible to guarantee project success at completion, irrespective of the size or complexity of a project. Considering this uncertainty of achieving success, it is therefore important to start delivering results as early in the project as possible. This early delivery of results, and thereby value, provides an opportunity for reinvestment and proves the worth of the project to interested stakeholders. It is important to:

1. Understand what adds value to customers and users and to prioritize the high value requirements on the top of the Prioritized Product Backlog.
2. Decrease uncertainty and constantly address risks that can potentially decrease value if they materialize. Also work closely with project stakeholders showing them product increments at the end of each Sprint, enabling effective management of changes.
3. Create Deliverables based on the priorities determined by producing potentially shippable product increments during each Sprint so that customers start realizing value early on in the project.

In Scrum projects, User Stories are ranked in order of priority which is an effective method for determining the desired User Stories for each iteration or release of the product or service. The purpose is to create a simple, single list with the goal of prioritizing features, rather than being distracted by multiple prioritization schemes.

This simple list also provides a basis for incorporating changes and identified risks when necessary. Each change or identified risk can be inserted in the list based on its priority relative to the other User Stories in the list. Typically, new changes will be included at the expense of features that have been assigned a lower priority.

Minimum Marketable Features (MMF) are also defined, so that the first release or iteration happens as early as possible, leading to increased ROI.

Improve project delivery and client acceptance with Scrum

A project is a collaborative enterprise to either create new products or services or to deliver results as defined in the Project Vision Statement. Usually, the results generated by projects are expected to create some form of business or service value.

Since value is a primary reason for any organization to move forward with a project, Scrum focuses on Value-driven Delivery. Scrum facilitates delivery of value very early on in the project and continues to do so throughout the project lifecycle. Delivering value is ingrained in the SBOK® framework.

The concept of Value-driven Delivery in Scrum makes SBOK® framework very attractive for business stakeholders and senior management. This concept is very different when compared with traditional project management models where:

1. Requirements are not prioritized by business value.
2. Changing requirements after project initiation is difficult and can only be done through a time consuming change management process.
3. Value is realized only at the end of the project when the final product or service is delivered.

Scaling Scrum for Large Projects consists of following processes:

1. Create Large Project Components—This process defines how the multiple Product Owners work together and how the multiple Scrum Teams work together. Also common components and common and specialized resources are identified. Following figure shows all the relationship of the Create Large Project Components process to the fundamental Scrum processes in the Initiate phase.
2. Conduct and Coordinate Sprints—This process is usually only relevant for large projects and addresses specific aspects that should be considered during each Sprint. If required, Scrum of Scrums Meetings are conducted to coordinate efforts between multiple Scrum Teams. Following figure shows all the relationship of the Conduct and Coordinate Sprints process to the fundamental Scrum processes.
3. Prepare Large Project Release—In some large projects it may make business sense to do a special Sprint prior to a release in order to prepare for releasing the product (to be decided by the project team based on business needs). This process addresses such a preparation Sprint. Following figure shows the relationships of the Prepare Large Project Release process to the fundamental Scrum processes.

Scaling Scrum for Enterprise consists of following processes:

1. Create Program or Portfolio Components—In this process, the Program or Portfolio Product Owner and key stakeholders identify common components and resources required for the program or portfolio. The Minimum Done Criteria are defined and all stakeholders are identified. Following figure shows the relationship of the Create Program or Portfolio Components process to the fundamental Scrum processes.
2. Review and Update Scrum Guidance Body—In this process, the Scrum Guidance Body Recommendations are regularly reviewed by the members of the Scrum Guidance Body and are updated when and if necessary. In this process, changes in the membership of the Scrum Guidance Body are also handled. Following figure shows the relationship of the Review and Update Scrum Guidance Body process to the fundamental Scrum processes.
3. Create and Groom Program or Portfolio Backlog—In this process, the Program or Portfolio Backlog is created, updated, and maintained. Suggested improvements for the Scrum Guidance Body Recommendations may be made and implementation deadlines may be adjusted based on changed requirements and/or progress of the projects in the program or portfolio. Following figure shows the relationship of the Create and Groom Program or Portfolio Backlog process to the fundamental Scrum processes.
4. Coordinate Program or Portfolio Components—In this process, components of the program or portfolio are coordinated. Dependencies between projects are addressed, common impediments are discussed, and best practices are shared. Sometimes, recommendations for improvements of the Scrum Guidance Body are made. Following figure shows the relationship of the Coordinate Program or Portfolio Components process to the fundamental Scrum processes.
5. Retrospect Program or Portfolio Releases—In this process, the Program or Portfolio Product Owner and key stakeholders get together to retrospect a program or portfolio Release and internalize the lessons learned. Often, these lessons learned lead to agreed actionable improvements to be implemented in future releases. Sometimes, improvements to the Scrum Guidance Body may be recommended. Following figure shows the relationship of the Retrospect Program or Portfolio Releases process to the fundamental Scrum processes.

• Traditional project management emphasizes on conducting detailed upfront planning for the project with higher priority for fixing the scope, cost and schedule - and managing those parameters. Whereas, Scrum encourages data-based, iterative decision making in which the primary focus is on delivering products that satisfy customer requirements.
• To deliver the greatest amount of value in the shortest amount of time, Scrum promotes prioritization and Time-boxing over fixing the scope, cost and schedule of a project. An important feature of Scrum is self-organization, which allows the individuals who are actually doing the work to estimate and take ownership of tasks.

Following table summarizes many of the differences between Scrum and traditional project management: