How to Be A Great Project Manager Using SCRUM Principles

What is Scrum?

Scrum is a lightweight framework for solving complex dynamic problems to deliver high-value products with software development. Scrum Teams measures progress to optimize productivity and minimize waste.

Scrum avoids creating sets of rigid rules that must be followed sequentially. Instead, it is guided by flexible and adaptive best practices, that help the Scrum Team self-organize. This helps them deal with the unpredictability that arises when solving complex problems.

A Scrum Team has three primary roles. These are:

???????The Scrum Master – Creates and sustains an environment for optimal productivity for the team. They seek to deliver value, increase agility and eliminate waste.

???????A Product Owner – They have the vision, and care passionately about the solutions provided, the problems solved, and the customer. They are solely responsible for managing the order of and defining the priority of the Product Backlog. They also make key decisions about the product and are solely responsible for telling the Development team what, but not how, to do. They are responsible for signing off on the completion of deliverables.

???????Development Team – This is usually a cross-functional team with the skills needed to deliver the product. They self-organize to deliver value and are small enough to be nimble, but large enough to deliver the work within the allotted time.

The Scrum Team works in Sprints, a period of 1-2 weeks, or whatever the team agrees upon as a good time frame for accomplishing their project goals. Each Sprint is focused on completing items in the Product Backlog, an emergent, ordered list of requirements that lead to the completion of the Product Goal, the team’s long-term objective.??

The Scrum Board is an "information radiator" that holds all items being worked on during a Sprint. Team members move items from “to do” to “busy” to “done.” Each of these items has a Definition of Done with clearly defined parameters of success.

How Does Scrum Work?

The Scrum Team plans what they want to achieve during the Sprint Planning meeting. During this planning period, they also decide on a Definition of Done, so they know what it means to be successful.

?After they agree on their Sprint Goals, the team begins work.

?They check in on Daily Scrums, a 15-minute standup meeting led by the Scrum Master. During these sessions, team members discuss their progress, service dependencies, or impediments to completing Increments that will lead to achieving the Sprint Goal.

At the end of the Sprint, the Scrum Master and dev team meets with the Product Owner in a Sprint Review. They collectively inspect results, ensuring they fit the Definition of Done.

After the Sprint Review, the Scrum Master and Development Team runs a Sprint Retrospective. During this method, they discuss how they can optimize their way of work during the next Sprint.

?Upon completion of a Sprint, the cycle is repeated until the Project Goal is achieved.

What Does a Scrum Master Do?

?The Scrum Master promotes and supports the use of Scrum. They help everybody understand Scrum Theory, practices, and rules. They focus on transparency, measuring progress, and facilitating self-organization and improvement. They focus on enabling flow, driving the process, helping team members learn, removing impediments, and raising transparency.

Scrum Masters are servant leaders. They seek to serve others, promoting a sense of community and a holistic approach to work. They aren't “bosses”, telling people what to do. They encourage team ownership and are guided by a set of core values including: Courage, Focus, Commitment, Respect, and Openness.

They share decision-making power with the Product Owner and protect the team from distractions so they can drive value. Additionally, they are responsible for removing impediments and problems that might prevent the Development Team from succeeding.

They lead the Daily Scrum session.??

How is Scrum Useful in Project Management?

Scrum deals with the shortcomings of other project management methodologies, especially those in the fast-paced software development world.

For instance, in the Waterfall methodology, product requirements were created but often missed crucial details, especially since the customer often found it hard to say what they truly wanted. Product features would be built over long periods, followed by a period of bug fixing. At the end of these long development cycles, software features were often no longer useful because the way business is done changes quickly. Also, bugs would become embedded in software, and fixing them would be expensive.

Scrum seeks adaptability. It uses short iterative cycles of development to deliver the most desirable software features quickly. By shortening the build cycles, the Development team minimized the time and wasted financial resources.

Teams benefit from using Scrum because it:

???????Helps teams work together cohesively, leading to frequent collaboration and building strong interpersonal relationships to engender trust.

???????Minimizes distractions and removes obstacles that hinder development.

???????Provides a daily opportunity to improve efficiency through continuous feedback.

???????Provides quick delivery of software products in short periods.

???????Involves the stakeholders in sprint review meetings, thus improving the team’s work.

Organizations benefit from Scrum because:

???????Defects in the product can be found early in development.

???????Centralizes responsibility to the Product Owner to ensure customer satisfaction.

???????Increases trust and satisfaction by showing stakeholders results often.

???????Delivers performance against budget, quality, and timelines that are important to the organization.

???????It leads to increased sales while minimizing negative perceptions in customers and reducing support costs.

???????Minimizes QA issues by detecting errors early

???????Reduces risks from potential issues early in the development cycle

In Conclusion

Since 2001, Scrum has revolutionized the fast-paced world of software development. Today’s dev teams are more integrated, have higher transparency, and deliver software via constant iteration. In turn, organizations have been able to reduce development and support costs, while increasing their sales to more satisfied customers.