Scrum & Agile Development
"Scrum" is a project management method developed in the late 1990s to drastically improve software development practices. Scrum is an agile project development methodology, meaning it is focused on delivering something useful to the customer quickly and continuously. It involves less documentation than traditional methods and easily accommodates changes in requirements.
The primary feature of Scrum is a monthly development cycle, called a "sprint," that results in releasable code. During the development cycle, a daily 15-minute meeting, called a "scrum," ensures communication among project team members.
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Scrum and Agile Development
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In 2001, initiators of Scrum participated in a summit that led to the Agile Manifesto, which outlines common project management principles to which all agile methodologies adhere. The manifesto enunciates 12 principles revolving around early and continuous delivery of valuable software to customers, adaptation to changing requirements, daily meetings of project team members, with teams being self-organizing.
Scrum Planning
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Scrum focuses on the development process in a flattened hierarchy with just three roles: project owner, scrum master and team member. Each 30-day sprint begins with an eight-hour planning session.
During the first half of the planning session, the team decides what it will commit to achieving during the sprint. It chooses from a prioritized list of features for the project, called the "project backlog," maintained by the project owner. The goal is to end up with a releasable product at the end of the sprint.
In the second half of the session, the team discusses the tasks involved in the project. The result is a task list, known as the "sprint backlog."
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The Scrum
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During the sprint, the team meets daily for 15 minutes in a scrum. In the scrum, each team member goes over what he has accomplished since the last scrum, what he intends to do by the next scrum and any impediments to completion. The scrum master makes sure that parties necessary to remove an impediment communicate immediately after the scrum to resolve the issue.
Sprint Review
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At the end of the sprint, the team reviews and demonstrates its accomplishment to the project owner. Team members also review their effectiveness during the sprint, developing plans for improvement. The project owner reviews the project backlog, which may be modified based on results of the completed sprint and possible changes in the business environment or market for the final project deliverable.
Benefits
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Benefits of the agile methodology include frequent delivery of a functioning product to the customer, reducing concerns about progress. This frequent delivery also provides feedback, allowing the team to improve functionality or design earlier than a more traditional process.
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References
- Photo Credit hand and pda on table at meeting image by Dmitry Goygel-Sokol from Fotolia.com
