Scrum - In a Nutshell - Paradise in Portfolio Management

What Is Scrum?

Scrum is a subset of Agile and one of the most popular process frameworks for implementing Agile. It is an iterative software development model used to manage complex software and product development. Fixed-length iterations, called sprints lasting one to two weeks long, allow the team to ship software on a regular cadence. At the end of each sprint, stakeholders and team members meet to plan next steps. 

Scrum follows a set of roles, responsibilities, and meetings that never change. For example, Scrum calls for four ceremonies that provide structure to each sprint: sprint planning, daily stand-up, sprint demo, and sprint retrospective. During each sprint, the team will use visual artifacts like task boards or burndown charts to show progress and receive incremental feedback.

Jeff Sutherland created the Scrum process in 1993, taking the term “Scrum” from an analogy in a 1986 study by Takeuchi and Nonaka published in the Harvard Business Review. In the study, Takeuchi and Nonaka compare high-performing, cross-functional teams to the Scrum formation used by Rugby teams. The original context for this was manufacturing, but Sutherland, along with John Scumniotales and Jeff McKenna, adapted the model for software development.

Advantages of Scrum

Scrum is a highly prescriptive framework with specific roles and ceremonies. While it can be a lot to learn, these rules have a lot of advantages. The benefits of Scrum include:

More transparency and project visibility: With daily stand-up meetings, the whole team knows who is doing what, eliminating many misunderstandings and confusion. Issues are identified in advance, allowing the team to resolve them before they get out of hand. 

Increased team accountability: There is no project manager telling the Scrum Team what to do and when. Instead, the team collectively decides what work they can complete in each sprint. They all work together and help each other, improving collaboration and empowering each team member to be independent. 

Easy to accommodate changes: With short sprints and constant feedback, it’s easier to cope with and accommodate changes. For example, if the team discovers a new user story during one sprint, they can easily add that feature to the next sprint during the backlog refinement meeting.

Increased cost savings: Constant communication ensures the team is aware of all issues and changes as soon as they arise, helping to lower expenses and increase quality. By coding and testing features in smaller chunks, there is continuous feedback and mistakes can be corrected early on, before they get too expensive to fix.

§Accelerate Time to Market

§Early and Continuous Customer Validation

§Greater Visibility into Project Progress

§Early Defect Detection and Prevention

§Risk Reduction and Quality Improvements

§Improve Team Morale

Disadvantages of Scrum

While Scrum offers some concrete benefits, it also has some downsides. Scrum requires a high level of experience and commitment from the team and projects can be at risk of scope creep. Here are the disadvantages of Scrum: 

Risk of scope creep: Some Scrum projects can experience scope creep due to a lack of specific end date. With no completion date, stakeholders may be tempted to keep requesting additional functionality.  

Team requires experience and commitment: With defined roles and responsibilities, the team needs to be familiar with Scrum principles to succeed. Because there are no defined roles in the Scrum Team (everyone does everything), it requires team members with technical experience. The team also needs to commit to the daily Scrum meetings and to stay on the team for the duration of the project. 

The wrong Scrum Master can ruin everything: The Scrum Master is very different from a project manager. The Scrum Master does not have authority over the team; he or she needs to trust the team they are managing and never tell them what to do. If the Scrum Master tries to control the team, the project will fail.

Poorly defined tasks can lead to inaccuracies: Project costs and timelines won’t be accurate if tasks are not well defined. If the initial goals are unclear, planning becomes difficult and sprints can take more time than originally estimated.

§It’s hard.

§Makes all dysfunction visible

–Scrum doesn’t fix anything. The team has to do it

–Feels like things are worse at the beginning

§Bad products will be delivered sooner, and doomed projects will fail faster

§High risk of turnover

–Some people will refuse to stay on a Scrum team

–Some people will refuse to stay if Scrum is abandoned

§Partial adoption may be worse than none at all

§If adoption fails, time will have been wasted, and some people may leave

Roles in Scrum

There are three specific roles in Scrum. They are:

Product Owner: The Scrum Product Owner has the vision of what he or she wants to build and conveys that vision to the team. The Product Owner focuses on business and market requirements, prioritizing all the work that needs to be done. He or she builds and manages the backlog, provides guidance on which features to ship next, and interacts with the team and other stakeholders to make sure everyone understands the items in the product backlog. The Product Owner is not a project manager. Instead of managing the status and progress, his or her job is to motivate the team with a goal and vision. 

 Scrum Master: Often considered the coach for the team, the Scrum Master helps the team do their best possible work. This means organizing meetings, dealing with roadblocks and challenges, and working with the Product Owner to ensure the product backlog is ready for the next sprint. The Scrum Master also makes sure the team follows the Scrum process. He or she doesn’t have authority over the team members, but he or she does have authority over the process. For example, the Scrum Master can’t tell someone what to do, but could propose a new sprint cadence.

Scrum Team: The Scrum Team is comprised of five to seven members. Everyone on the project works together, helps each other, and shares a deep sense of camaraderie. Unlike traditional development teams, there are not distinct roles like programmer, designer, or tester. Everyone completes the set of work together. The Scrum Team owns the plan for each sprint; they anticipate how much work they can complete in each iteration. 

Meetings in Scrum

There are 6 types of meetings in scrum:

-Daily Scrum / Standup

-Backlog grooming: storyline

-Scrum of Scrums

-Sprint Planning meeting

-Sprint review meeting

-Sprint retrospective

Time and Material (T&M) type contracts are a good fit for Agile Engagements.

Fixed Price / Fixed Capacity (FPFC) contract is most suitable for Agile whereas a contract with Fixed Price / Fixed scope must be avoided.