Scrum
Scrum is an agile software development methodology. Scrum was invented in 1993 by Jeff Sutherland, John Scumniotales and Jeff McKenna. According to latest surveys Scrum is the most popular agile project management methodology in software development. Often Scrum mixed with Extreme Programming engineering practices like TDD and refactoring for better results.
Scrum widely adopted inside many leading companies and proved to be effective agile development process. The list includes such giants as Yahoo, Sun, Nokia, Microsoft.
Core Scrum practices are:
- Backlog. Product, Release, Sprint Backlog - lists of all functionality in product, release and sprint respectively. Product Owner responsible for the backlog management and maintenance.
- Iterative development.The whole project gets divided into sprints usually 4 weeks duration each. Sprints have fixed duration (time boxing). Time boxing enables regular deliveries, supports project heart beats and helps development teams to focus on a shippable product in the end of each sprint.
- Scrum meetings. Daily meetings where team members answers the following questions: What have you done since the last scrum meeting? What has impeded your work? What do you plan on doing between now and the next scrum meeting?
- Burn Down Charts. Scrum Sprint Burn Down chart shows implementation progress during a single sprint. It provides answers on the following questions: When sprint could be completed based on previous progress? What is the most possible scrum team Velocity in future sprints?
- Sprint review meeting. Facilitated by Scrum Master and provides an inspection of project progress at the end of the every Sprint. The goal is to improve development process by introducing new practices, changing existing practices, etc.
Scrum roles:
- Product Owner. In scrum the Product Owner manage all requirements (add requirements with detailed description, prioritize requirements, plan releases). Product Owner represent a Customer in scrum team and should have authority to make decisions about product functionality.
- Scrum Master. In scrum the Scrum Master helps team to follow scrum process. The Scrum Master facilitates the daily scrum meetings, manage impediments, supports Product Owner, removes obstacles in team progress.
Why Use Scrum?
- Productivity increases (from 10% to 400% depending on team, environment, project, agile experience, etc.).
- Continuous development process improvement.
- Communication improvement inside development team and between scrum team and customer.
- Minimized time-to-marker via frequent releases.
- Scrum builds "Successful team" attitude where everybody likes work in.
How TargetProcess supports Scrum?
Scrum Resources