Scrum Methodology Being the Ultimate Option for Project Management

There are numerous Agile methodologies like Lean project management, Scrum, Kanban, Six Sigma and many more to choose from. If you are new to the field of project management, it can be a lot to grasp. You may have heard about a common approach of Agile project management, 'Scrum.' But what exactly is it? What does it do? Why such a technique in business? The positive sides of Scrum and much more in detail shall be covered in this article.

What is Scrum?

Scrum is an Agile development principle leveraged in software-based development on incremental and repetitive processes. It is a flexible, swift, adaptable and efficient framework that is created to offer value to the end-users throughout the project development.
We can say the framework motivates teams to learn through experience, self-organize while working on an issue, and reflect on their failures and success for continuous enhancement.
The prime aim of the Scrum principle is to meet the demand of customers through an environment of transparency in communication, continuous progress and collective responsibility.
The project development begins from a basic idea of what's required to build, explaining a list of properties ordered by the product backlog that the product owner wants to achieve.
While Scrum is frequently used by software development teams, its principles can be applied to all sorts of teamwork, making it a reason for its popularity.

The History of Scrum Methodology

The term 'Scrum' was coined in 1986, with an article by Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) titled - The New Product Development Game. The article explains how organizations like Fuji-Xerox, Honda and Canon introduced new products globally, leveraging a scalable and team-related method for product development. This methodology highlights the significance of promoting self-organized teams.
The Harvard article led the path to develop several concepts that generated today's Scrum. The term was drawn from Rugby, which refers to how the game restarts after a foul or when the ball has left the game.
For the software development process, Jeff Sutherland and his team at Easel Corp in 1993 invented the Scrum methodology by combining the 1986 article with object-oriented development concepts, actual process control, repetitive development and incremental, software procedures, productivity enhancements, and the development of dynamic systems.

Why Scrum?

Scrum is one of the most popular-gained agile approaches evolving in all aspects. The entire project is divided into smaller chunks to deliver some features to the testing teams. With the Scrum methodology, an organization can provide small working software products after each interaction and shareholder feedback to enhance or modify the project according to their demands.
Scrum provides several benefits to its end-users, and the most significant ones are listed below:

• Update and review as per client's demands.
• Frequent collaboration among teammates leads to interpersonal relations and loyalty among them.
• Involve in the sprint review discussions with shareholders to hence the team outcomes.
• Offering swift delivery of software product in short turnaround time
• Work completion using the definition of done addresses the creation, incorporation, testing and documentation with production.
• Simple to learn, but following the process might be complex.
• Conducting routine Scrum retrospective permits the teams to enhance work efficacy with the methodology factors.

Organizational Benefits

• Early detection of fallacies leading to minimized budget and work
• Better quality results in maximized sales profit and reduces customers' negative perceptions and support expense.
• Delivers Scrum performance against deadlines, quality, and budget significant for an organization.
• Involves shareholders in sprint review meetings to minimize the unforeseen problems in the early phase of the project cycle.

Customer Benefits

• Defects recovery in the early phases to satisfy the customers.
• Quality ensures client satisfaction that generates benefits of excellent references and repeats business.
• Responsibility of the Product Owner (PO) for customer changes to adopt better business engagement.
• Short cycle delivery of product results in loyalty with shareholder satisfaction.

Product Manager Benefits

• PO's responsibility is to ensure client satisfaction by fulfilling their demands.
• Prioritizing the demands to operate on a project for successful delivery.
• Confirmation regarding the entire team member strategy before starting with the work.
• Product manager plays a crucial role of a PO in the Agile principle, maintaining their focus on product development.
• Active participation in sprint planning meetings and user stories review before landing on sprint.
• The product manager is a facilitator who clarifies each team's individual doubts.
• Involves effective communication with shareholders, overseeing resources and expenses, followed by product updates according to market value and client needs.

Financial Benefits

• Regular feedback from shareholders and clients in review meetings helps make early rectifications resulting in low cost and time.
• If the execution expense is less, teams enhance the margin with resources and minimize the investment.
• If sprint goes to failure mode, it fails easier within the iteration, thus reducing failure cost.
• The involvement of workforce efforts results in better outcomes with minor defects.

Product Owner Benefits

• Clear communication and updates on product backlog items to achieve targets.
• Assists the PO to ensure the product backlog is clear, visible, and transparent to move the work to the next phase.
• Assists in managing the product backlog progress and status.
• Minimizes the team work's development and ensures they have a basic idea on product backlog items.
• Increasing product values that result from development teamwork.

Development Team Benefits

• Removal of blockers to meet the sprint goal.
• Enhances the team working through sprint review meetings.
• Assists the team to manage their task more efficiently for boosting efficiency.
• Helps the team with the skills to develop a product increment.
• Enables the unit to operate on continuous delivery of product in incremental iterations.

What is Scrum Process?

Scrum is based on defined principles and roles involved in software development. This flexible practice rewards the 12 agile principle applications in a context agreed by product team employees.
The methodology is performed in temporary blocks that are short and periodic, known as Sprints. Sprints usually range from 2-to-4 weeks, which is for feedback and reflection. Each Sprint is a unit in itself, delivering a product increment, a variation of the final product that can be shipped when requested. 
Since transparency is a critical factor of Scrum; hence teams and shareholders review each Sprint's outcomes together. This ensures that everyone follows the same priorities and deliverable patterns. Any modifications, if necessary, can be done right away.
The Scrum process has a starting point with a list of requirements leading to a project plan. The project client prioritizes these requirements, considering value balance and the cost. Moreover, the market requires quality, swift delivery at less cost. To achieve short development cycles, an organization must be flexible and agile in product development. It is a streamlined practice to implement and is famous for its quick results.

What are Scrum Events?

The Scrum process motivates professionals to work with what they possess and continually evaluate what is working and what is not. Effective interaction is vital and is carried out through meetings known as Events.
Following are the Scrum Events:

Sprint

It is the fundamental work unit for a Scrum team. Being a crucial aspect, it marks the difference between Scrum and other methodologies for Agile development.

Sprint Planning

Its goal is to define what is going to be done and how it's done in the Sprint. This meeting is held at the starting of each Sprint and is explained how it will address the project coming from the product backlog phases and deadlines. Each Sprint is composed of different aspects.

Daily Scrum

Its goal is to evaluate the pattern and trend until the end of the Sprint, synchronizing the activities and creating plan for the next 24-hours. It is a short meeting that happens daily during the Sprint period. In these meetings, the team reviews work progress on the previous day and today, followed by what sort of help these team members need. The Scrum Master should strive to find solutions for the obstacles that arises.

Sprint Review

Its objective is to highlight what task has been accomplished with regards to the product backlog for future deliveries. The finished Sprint is reviewed, and there must be a precise and tangible product progress to present to the end-users.

Sprint Retrospective

The completed targets of the finished Sprint are then reviewed by the team, note down the bad and the good to avoid mistakes. Sprint retrospective serves to implement enhancements from the point of view of development. Its goal is to determine potential process enhancements and generate a plan to implement for the next Sprint.

What are Scrum Artifacts?

Scrum artifacts are information that stakeholders and teams leverage to detail the product being created, actions to generate it, and the actions executed during the project.
The following artifacts are defined in Scrum Process Framework:

Product Backlog

Product backlog refers to what has to be done. During this artifact, the development team collaborates with the business owner to prioritize the task that has been backlogged. The product backlog may be calibrated during the backlog refinement process.

Sprint Backlog

This task list must be accomplished before delivering selected product backlog items. These are differentiated into time-based user stories.

Product Increment

Sprint backlog refers to what has been completed during a Sprint, all the product backlog items, and developed during prior Sprints. The increment reflects on how far progress has been made.

Burn Down

The burn-down chart visual represents the amount of task that needs to be completed. This chart has X-axis that displays time and Y-axis that shows a task. It portrays a downward trend, as the number of unfinished tasks over time burns down to zero.

What is a Scrum Master?

A scrum master is a professional who leads the team using Agile project management throughout the project course. They act as a coach to facilitate effective communication and collaboration between leadership and team employees for successful results.
A good scrum master is dedicated to scrum values and foundations but remains flexible and open to opportunities for the team to enhance their process flow.

What are the Responsibilities of a Scrum Master?

In an agile world, a team would manage its own tools and practices. However, several teams making a sudden jump to agile often rely on a scrum master. For a proficient scrum master, certain duties must be followed. Some of the essential roles and responsibilities are as follows:

• Eradicating hurdles so that the team can follow Scrum practices and focus more on the task.
• Manage the process flow in coordination with the scrum team.
• Work as a servant leader and a facilitator who promotes self-organization
• Safeguard the tram from external and internal problems.
• Conduct retrospective meetings.

What is the Career Scope of Scrum Master?

According to Scrum Alliance, a certified scrum master (CSM) course will help increase the probability of the overall success of a project by deploying the Scrum methodologies most appropriately. 

By understanding the application, value and practices, one can work as a servant leader rising beyond a standard project manager and aiding your company to achieve targets. This course is beneficial for professionals that are in a position of managing massive teams across various departments.

According to a recent survey by Payscale.com, the average salary of a CSM professional is $17,755.23 (INR 1,331,456) per year.

How to be a Certified Scrum Master (CSM)?

To earn your CSM certification, you must have a thorough knowledge of the lifecycle and framework of Scrum. Then you will have to attend an in-person, 2-day training course conducted by a Certified Scrum Trainer (CST) or Endorsed Scrum Trainer (EST).
The next step after course completion is to demonstrate your progress by taking an online CSM exam conducted by Scrum Alliance. To attain a passing score, you must answer 37 out of 50 questions correctly with a 1-hour time limit.
Once you pass the exam, you will be asked to accept the License Agreement and complete your membership profile in Scrum Alliance.

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