What is SCRUM?
SCRUM is an agile methodology/framework for software development. A SCRUM team is usually consisted of 3 to 9 developers who breaks down their work into timeboxed, usually called sprints of 2 to 3 weeks, user stories. The development is done in an iterative fashion in order to provide realized value/working product to end user in quick time.
There are typically three roles in SCRUM teams:
1. Product Owner(PO): Represents voice of customer and accountable that SCRUM team delivers value to the business. A product owner defines business requirements of a product in a breakdown fashion called a user story and collections of such user stories is called product backlog. These user stories are elaborated enough so that development team can start work on them during sprint execution. These user stories can be prioritized in a sprint during a sprint planning session. The product owner spends most of his time with business liaising with business stakeholders so that he bridges the gap from business functionalities perspective to development team. Product owner is a key communicator to business community whenever sprint review meetings are conducted with desired outcomes and also helps business stakeholders to understand the outcome of a sprint in case they are not able to make it to these meetings. A product owner also educates business on development process and challenges on their side. A product owner should not be taking any work of SCRUM Master who is primarily responsible for helping product owner in maintaining the product backlog in such a way that team can be continually working towards achieving business goals.
2. Development Team: Primarily responsible for development of shippable product incrementally. A team of 3 to 9 who is responsible for analysis, design, coding, unit testing, system and integration testing, building and deploying incremental shippable product. It is a self-organizing and mature setup of delivery team members who adhere to ethos of SCRUM methodology.
3. SCRUM Master(SM): SM is a facilitator. The primary job to remove any kind of blockers/impediments at the earliest so as development team works seamlessly to deliver shippable product incrementally. SM is not to be confused with a Project Manager or a typical team lead. SM is responsible for:
- Helping/Coaching development team to stick to SCRUM ethos and values
- Helps team to self organize, defining the definition of DONE for user stories
- Helps PO so as product backlog is loaded with user stories that are detailed enough to be developed when sprint is in execution.
- Eliminating blockers/impediments(internal/external)
- SCRUM ceremonies execution(Sprint Planning, Daily SCRUM, Product/Sprint Review Meeting, Retrospective and tracking actions thereof)
There are typically three roles in SCRUM teams:
1. Product Owner(PO): Represents voice of customer and accountable that SCRUM team delivers value to the business. A product owner defines business requirements of a product in a breakdown fashion called a user story and collections of such user stories is called product backlog. These user stories are elaborated enough so that development team can start work on them during sprint execution. These user stories can be prioritized in a sprint during a sprint planning session. The product owner spends most of his time with business liaising with business stakeholders so that he bridges the gap from business functionalities perspective to development team. Product owner is a key communicator to business community whenever sprint review meetings are conducted with desired outcomes and also helps business stakeholders to understand the outcome of a sprint in case they are not able to make it to these meetings. A product owner also educates business on development process and challenges on their side. A product owner should not be taking any work of SCRUM Master who is primarily responsible for helping product owner in maintaining the product backlog in such a way that team can be continually working towards achieving business goals.
2. Development Team: Primarily responsible for development of shippable product incrementally. A team of 3 to 9 who is responsible for analysis, design, coding, unit testing, system and integration testing, building and deploying incremental shippable product. It is a self-organizing and mature setup of delivery team members who adhere to ethos of SCRUM methodology.
3. SCRUM Master(SM): SM is a facilitator. The primary job to remove any kind of blockers/impediments at the earliest so as development team works seamlessly to deliver shippable product incrementally. SM is not to be confused with a Project Manager or a typical team lead. SM is responsible for:
- Helping/Coaching development team to stick to SCRUM ethos and values
- Helps team to self organize, defining the definition of DONE for user stories
- Helps PO so as product backlog is loaded with user stories that are detailed enough to be developed when sprint is in execution.
- Eliminating blockers/impediments(internal/external)
- SCRUM ceremonies execution(Sprint Planning, Daily SCRUM, Product/Sprint Review Meeting, Retrospective and tracking actions thereof)
