Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Scrum overview

Scrum is an Agile process that can be used to manage and control complex software and product development using iterative, incremental practices. Scrum has been used from simple projects to changing the way entire enterprises do their business. Scrum significantly increases productivity and reduces time to benefits while facilitating adaptive, empirical systems development.
The main roles in Scrum are the ScrumMaster who maintains the processes and works similar to a project manager, the Product Owner who represents the stakeholders, and the Team which includes the developers.
Scrum is based on what is called a Sprint – a focused effort for a 30-day period toward fixed goals of 5–9 people. During discussions with the Product Owner, the goal of the Sprint is determined and the prioritized functionality is broken down into detailed tasks.
The team is self-organized and the members have a joint responsibility for the results.
The Scrum Master coaches the development team, removes any possible impediments and constantly works to ensure that the team has the best possible circumstances for realizing the goals fixed for the Sprint.
Each Sprint enhances the product’s market value and adds new functions and improvements that can be delivered to the customer.
A key principle of Scrum is its recognition that during a project the customers can change their minds about what they want and need (often called requirements churn), and that unpredicted challenges cannot be easily addressed in a traditional predictive or planned manner. As such, Scrum adopts an empirical approach – accepting that the problem cannot be fully understood or defined, focusing instead on maximizing the team's ability to deliver quickly and respond to emerging requirements. There are several implementations of systems for managing the Scrum process which range from yellow stickers and white-boards to software packages. One of Scrum's biggest advantages is that it is very easy to learn and requires little effort to start using.

Next : Scrum roles

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