Kanban, Lean, Scrum, FDD (Feature Driven Development), and XP (Extreme Programming). Many frameworks follow Agile Methodology. If you are a new bee, it is pretty challenging to take in. You might be aware that Scrum is one of the most common approaches to Agile project management. But what is Scrum actually?
What is Scrum?
Scrum is one of the Agile project management frameworks that lead teams in iterative and incremental software delivery. It emphasizes the use of a practical process that enables teams to quickly, effectively, and efficiently respond to changes.
Old school project management methods adjust user requirements to manage time and price. Whereas, Scrum methodology adjusts time and prices to manage user requirements. It gets done using time boxes, interactive protocol, a prioritized product backlog, and continual feedback.
An organization’s engagement in the whole project is essential as the Scrum approach largely depends on team collaboration and customers to build the right software in a lean fashion.
What is the Scrum Process?
Let’s begin with the main three roles in Scrum methodology.
- The Scrum Master is responsible for controlling the processes, making sure that the team has all the resources they need, and enabling flawless operations across the project. Instead of guiding the team, Scrum Master focuses on providing essential things teams need.
- The Product Owner performs as a customer’s voice across the internal project activities. They prioritize and clarify deliverables for the best result. Any data or guidance on the vision, queries, and software details comes from the product owner.
- The Team includes individuals with certain skills required for the specific project. This team is independent and self-managed. So make sure you choose a person who is self-motivated and can interact effectively. The product owner identifies what they are building, and a team decides the way to develop it. Superior quality maintenance is key, so these individuals need to be engaged in a single project at a time.
Along with particular roles, Scrum needs certain portions and processes that shift the product from concept to real-life product. It includes,
- Backlogs– The team is responsible for organizing the project. However, the product owner initially defines the required features and activities according to users’ needs. Then product owners prioritize the list of activities for the team so that a team can focus on different tasks accordingly. Across the project, each task of the list is necessary to conclude.
- Sprints– To keep up with the Agile Methodology, teams need to finish and submit each deliverable within a defined time frame. Sprints are also known as an iteration complete with a cycle of feedback from a team and a client.
When you leverage these basics, you can begin with the Scrum method implementation to the project.
Steps for Agile Project Management with Scrum
1. List out all the tasks needed to be performed by you and your Scrum team.
Make each task very specific to reach your goal efficiently. Splitting your tasks enables precise estimation of how long it takes to conclude each one of them. It is easy for you to determine priorities and dependencies.
Your planned features, and improvement points, need to be fixed issues, everything gets listed in a backlog and managed on different boards. It provides transparency, aligns all, and makes sure each team member works for the same objective.
2. Make a new task board that lists all the tasks you will complete within the upcoming week or two weeks. It is a “Sprint” or “Iteration.”
Agile project management focuses on working on time. They emphasize everything individual team members accomplished within a specific timeframe. Usually, the Scrum approach supports working within two weeks of iteration.
The concept of Sprint is to generate a feeling of urgency to accomplish everything possible before completion of the time frame of two weeks.
3. Shift your tasks from backlog to task board. It is an Iteration/Sprint planning.
Along with being ambitious, you also need to be realistic about what your team can accomplish within the upcoming two weeks. Spend time on sprint planning where you leverage agile management software or software development tools. Also, undergo different backlogs to ensure you have covered all the bases.
You can give 30% of your time to bug fixing, 50% to new feature development, and 20% to work on other improvements. Each of these areas of focus is known as epic. Epic is a chunk of work with a common goal. It aids you to monitor how every small task fits with each other in the broader view.
4. Assign each task in your Sprint.
When a task has a person’s role defined next to it, it encourages the owner to be responsible and go through it up to the end. Clearly viewing every phase of the owner also enables flawless teamwork.
5. Prioritize each task in your next sprint.
Agile project management assists in the categorization of each activity based on four priorities.
- Critical
- High
- Medium
- Low
As planning schedules face many changes and it takes a long time in the sprint compared to the estimated timeframe, each task in the next sprint might not get concluded. But when you have clearly defined priorities, it helps to choose the highly-prioritized task.
6. Calculate the approx time frame of every task.
While assessing every task, think about your work’s quantity, complexity, or uncertainty you might address while performing the tasks. This effort is called “Story Point” in the Classic Scrum Methodology. You can monitor it hourly, daily, etc.
7. Begin with your sprint.
Unexpected changes can stop a task from completion. When a task gets delayed, update each team member by changing the status of your column. So team members can discover where specific tasks stand.
You can also notify your team members by mentioning them with @ sign about what is going on. The changes in your board will save all the related documents and details for everyone to watch out for.
8. Arrange short daily scrum meetings.
Hold a 10-15 minute Scrum meeting at the start of each working day. It enables each team member to deliver a short sprint review about yesterday’s work and present day’s planning.
It is also the best time to discuss specific challenges and the approaches to resolve them successfully.
9. Sprint completed.
Once a sprint gets completed, wait as a team member for sprint recollection to celebrate what you accomplished, what was mistaken, and schedule how to manage things in the upcoming iteration.
10. Shift complete sprint to the board’s bottom portion and begin with a new iteration from the top.
When you store all the iterations within the board, it enables the maintenance of a clear record of all the finished tasks.
Any incomplete activities need to be added to the upcoming sprint. When a task from the preceding sprint comes into execution, just drag and drop it back into your existing sprint.
Summing Up
Agile project management is a user-friendly tool that offers rapid response by adhering to a simple process for project completion. It helps to determine and anticipate the risks and work on them. The customer stays engaged throughout the process, so you can receive feedback quickly and change accordingly.
You now should have a basic knowledge of Agile project management with Scrum Seems and some of the dominant ways to utilize it on your teams.
