Mar 05, 2018

Scrum is an Agile framework for completing complex projects. Even though Scrum was initially intended for software development projects, Scrum has become recognized as one of the best project management frameworks for handling rapidly changing or evolving projects. Scrum well done can improve team productivity as well as the product development process.

Benefits of Scrum
Scrum has been proven to deliver value to the end customer up to 40 percent faster than traditional methods. Because of the continual feedback the Scrum framework provides, Scrum will make sure that quality is as high as possible. The shorter time to market is and the high quality that is delivered are also the main reasons that Scrum projects realise a higher return on investment, because the company can tap into the quality benefits sooner.

Working with Scrum can also improve morale of the team, because every decision is made by the team. Being part of a self-managing and self-organising team allows people to be innovative, creative and acknowledged for their expertise. The team will take responsibility for projects and products. By taking ownership of quality and project performance, the team can produce great results.

Read more about Managing Projects Using Agile Methods

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Scrum Teams
Scrum teams are self-organising and cross-functional. All decisions about how the work is done, are made by the Scrum team itself. There are three different roles within the Scrum team.

1. The Product Owner, who is responsible for maximising the value of the work and the product of the Development Team.
2. The Development Team is a cross-functional and self-organising, usually consisting of three to nine team members.
3. The ScrumMaster, who is responsible for Scrum Well Done by acting as a guide to Scrum theory.

The Scrum Framework in short
At the start of the cycle, the product owner creates a list with priorities, called a product backlog. Using this Product Backlog, the team will now start Sprint Planning. The Scrum Team takes a few points of the top of that list to work on, which is then names the Sprint Backlog. The Scrum Team defines a timeline for the Sprint (which is usually two to four weeks) to complete the work on the Sprint Backlog. To assess the progress the Scrum Team will meet for a daily Stand-Up mini meeting each day. All the while, the Scrum Master is responsible for keeping the Scrum Team focused on its goal.  At the end of each sprint, the work should be potentially shippable. Ready to show to the world. The Sprint ends with a Sprint Review and Retrospective, after which the next chunk of priorities will be taken from the Product Backlog to work on. And so, a next sprint begins.

The Scrum method seems easy to comprehend, but the complexity of mastering it is often underestimated. If you want to learn more about Scrum, take a look at our Project Management Courses.