Scrum is a revolutionary project management method: how it works

More and more people who are far from working on large and not so projects in the field of information technology are faced with the concept of Scrum.

In this regard, it becomes necessary to clarify the meaning of this term.

And many who have learned what is hidden behind it, begin to delve into the study of this method of teamwork on a single project.

We will consider why the management of the work of the development team went its own way, having separated from the classical management, and began to be used in many other branches of human activity with a similar attitude to the organization of the work process.

Historical reference

Alternative to management- Scrum appeared thanks to computers and the joint work of several people or teams on a single task.

Computerization of production has made it possible to automate and simplify business.

However, the introduction of technology into business required specialized software.

The time of its appearance in the countries of the former CCCP fell on the first post-Soviet years, when many students, engineers, electronics engineers, designers and other specialists were left without work and began to move into a young and promising industry - IT.

At this time, the so-called alternative management - Agile, appeared, where the personal qualities of each project participant were in the first place.

After it was formed based on the principles Agile Scrum - everyone who used it understood it, because everything is simple.

Those interested in sports, in particular rugby, have heard this word many times. In rugby, it refers to the scrum of players around the ball. If in sports people are divided into two warring teams, whose actions are based on the need to take possession of the ball, etc., then in business, no matter how many groups of people there are, they all work towards a common goal.

• basic ideas of Agile;
• details of the current project.

You can read more about the origin of the methodology for managing groups of people united by a common goal in the book "Scrum is a Revolutionary Project Management Method" by Jeff Sutherland.

What it is

In general, the term hides a flexible, unlimited concept of software development of any kind using the practices, theoretical knowledge and principles of Scrum.

The technique implies not so much a decrease in the volume of unnecessary operations, an increase in the efficiency and speed of the team, how much:

• increases controllability;
• increases control over the work of subordinates;
• makes it possible to control any of the stages of the workflow;
• make changes to the vectors of goals and make adjustments;
• to foresee the result of work with great precision.

And this applies to any stage of the project.

The popularity and the need for a methodology, subject to the correct approach, a well-chosen team and a skillful manager, are caused by a decrease in performance by 150-200%.

And this is an incredible result, given that other methods reduce the speed of work more significantly. After all, the speed of completing a task does not always have a positive effect on its result (s).

A builder can quickly lay the foundation and, once paid, disappear. Does he guarantee that the house on this foundation will stand as it should and in general will be erected?

In Scrum, from a quarter to half of the team's potential is spent in order to improve the manageability, control and predictability of the project.

And in many cases this is justified, if only because a more perfect technique, if it exists, has not been released to the masses.

Who is who

There are three equal sides to Scrum, without one of which there will be nothing:

• Product Owner;
• Development Team or Scrum Team;
• Scrum Master.

Product Owner (PO)- a customer, a person or a company that sets tasks and adjusts them if necessary, he can prioritize tasks, the timing of the demonstration of the result and pays for it.

This can be either the owner of the project, who needs the product, or the person who represents it.

Typically, a PO has a prioritized list of required tasks and a history of their implementation and adjustments.

Scrum Master- an intermediary between the customer and the team involved in ensuring the proper result.

Human tasks- to organize the working process of the team, sometimes to select it from the applicants, to monitor the quality, accuracy and timing of the implementation of the plan.

He is also obliged to provide team members with everything they need to solve the problem, eliminate obstacles that arise, help those who are lagging behind, teach those who lack experience, give prompts, sometimes demonstrate effectiveness by their own example and motivate people.

Development Team- developers, specialists, each in their own field, who know how to work in a team.

They are the ones who work to get the result.

According to the official documentation (a document that describes the methodology of its direct authors), the group of performers is obliged to fulfill the following requirements, or strive for this as much as possible:

• generally have all the skills, knowledge and experience(and in case of partial deficiency, acquire them), necessary for the release of a ready-to-use product that will satisfy the customer;
• be collectively responsible for each stage of work- do everything together, and therefore all are responsible for shortcomings, delays in schedule, errors, etc.
• be self-organizing- not all management functions lie with the Scrum master, even he cannot tell the employees how to transform the technical task into the desired result.

In the official documentation, regarding the size of the development group, it should consist of 5-9 people.

If there are more of them, this negatively affects coherence, requires significant costs for decision-making, communication, and reduces responsibility for deviations from the task.

Based on the ideology and practice, groups of 2-3 people increase the risk of not being able to cope with the work (if employees are young, they do not have enough experience and knowledge, rely on each other) and reduce the amount of work that would make the group larger per person ...

What the workflow looks like

It's time to figure out the terms thanks to which the technique exists, and the above people skillfully exploit it in business.

Let's start with a Sprint- this is the time interval given to the team to implement the specified list of tasks.

Usually, this time is determined by a group of developers once and is within, if the project is not large-scale and not quite scanty in volume, 1-4 weeks, plus or minus a few days.

After that, it does not change, and the same backlogs are given for each sprint (ideally).

In fact, the interval can be absolutely anything, and it is not always determined by the team of hard workers.

Backlog- a list of all works, a general diary and a report. There may be several of them for different stages of development.

There are a couple of types of backlogs:

• Product Backlog- a complete list of tasks with their priority, the implementation of which will allow you to get the desired result at the end of the work;
• Sprint Backlog- a list of tasks determined by the team and agreed with the customer (owner) or proposed by him unilaterally, which should be implemented in the near future (sprint). They come from Product B

Sprint planning- a meeting where all three parties involved in the Scrum are present. Can be arranged at any time, but usually occurs before work is done.

At the planning meeting, the owner announces the goals, sets priorities, determines the time intervals for the implementation of certain backlogs.

The team evaluates their strengths and the proposed conditions, compares them and speaks out.

As a rule, with an assessment of what of the desired in the allotted time frame can be done, if there are no obstacles, which low-priority tasks from their current list are better for postponing to the next stage so as not to violate the deadlines.

Sprints should have a well-defined goal and be properly motivated if it is achieved.

Before the end of the planning, the list of tasks must be ready.

As a rule, it does not change, but the dynamics of life and the market often require breaking the rules.

Daily Scrum- meetings organized by statute every day, which is not always realistic.

On them, each of the employees reports to the employees and / or the project manager about:

• what he personally did to achieve the result yesterday;
• plans for today (sometimes the next few days) and ways to achieve them;
• obstacles that appeared in the process of work and ways to eliminate them.

Purpose of daily meetings (flyers):

• identifying the current state of the project and progress;
• determination of the mood of the team as a whole and of each of its representatives;
• search for sources of obstacles to eliminate them;
• group development of solutions that will change the approach, if the situation requires it.

At the end of the sprint, the so-called Sprint Retrospective and Sprint Review.

Goals: defining and evaluating the effectiveness of teamwork in the past sprint, forecasting the expected return in the future based on previous experience and assigned tasks, identifying factors that can negatively affect the success of the sprint.