What is Scrum Methodology


Scrum methodology is an agile development methodology to use in the development of Software based on iterative and incremental processes.

Scrum methodology is an adaptable, fast, flexible and effective agile framework that is design to deliver value to the customer throughout the development of the project. The primary objective of Scrum is to satisfy the customer’s need through an environment of transparency in communication, collective responsibility and continuous progress. The development starts from a general idea of ​​what needs to be built, elaborating a list of characteristics ordered by priority (product backlog) that the owner of the product wants to obtain.


Benefit of Scrum Methodology

  • Time to market and cost reduction : by developing on most priority features that customer’s needs only, it will reduce the time release of usable products to customers and also will reduce the cost to release the product.
  • Welcoming changing : with scrum changes can be support and integrated into a project currently in progress. Under Scrum the scope of the project (what is to be done) is variable but time and cost are constant.
  • User satisfaction : A key reason for user satisfaction is that the users are getting usable portions of completed products quicker. They can then try out what they received and report back their findings.

Role

Scrum Team

A small group of usually five to nine people who actually do the work. They are responsible for hopefully coming up with “done” product increments by the end of each sprint. The team is responsible for all aspects of the work to be done in the sprint and has no boss giving them orders on what to do.

Product Owner

One person who represents the customer’s and user’s wants and works closely with the Scrum team. He is responsible for the success of the team in realizing the project’s goals.

ScrumMaster

The individual who acts as coach and advisor to the team and is responsible for removing impediments to the team’s success. He is also responsible for the team following Scrum processes and rules.

Stakeholders

Users, customers, or vendors who are not members of the team but whose input is critical to the team’s success.

Business Owner

The owner of the product, like stakeholders, play an important role in the team’s success in an indirect way.

Related Article: How to create project time estimates

Events

Daily Scrum

  • The team meets for fifteen minutes at the same time each day to discuss problems and progress from the previous day’s work plus what is on the agenda for them to do in the next twenty-four hours.
  1. Sprint Planning
  • The team and product owner meet to agree upon what is to be accomplish during the next sprint.

2. Sprint Review

  • The team explains to the product owner what was done during the just completed sprint.

3. Sprint Retrospective

  • The team discusses the sprint just completed looking for ways future sprints can be improve upon.

4. Sprint Refinement

  • The team discusses the sprint to make sure that the team in the same page for the task and all detail requirement on each task in the upcoming sprint. (usually we do sprint refinement twice a week)

The Artifacts

  • Product Backlog

The product backlog is a list that collects everything the product needs to satisfy the potential customers. It is prepare by the product owner and the functions are prioritize according to what is more and less important for the business. The goal is for the product owner to answer the question “What should be done”.

  • Sprint Backlog

It is a subset of items of the product backlog, which are select by the team to perform during the sprint on which they are going to work. The team establishes the duration of each Sprint. Usually, the display of sprint backlog on Scrum boards makes the development process visible to everyone who enters the development area.

Increment

The Increment is the sum of all the tasks, use cases, user stories, product backlogs, and when the element develop during the sprint will be made available to the end user in the form of Software.

How Blankontech Implement Scrum Methodology to Our Clients


First of all, Blankontech has a standby team to handle when a new client comes. The standby team consists of product owner, scrum master, and scrum team. When clients come, the product owner will do product backlog creation with the business owner. It will define a general idea of ​​what needs to be built, elaborating a list of characteristics order by priority (product backlog) that the product owner wants to obtain. Instead of big features or epic, we will make it into a very small piece From product backlog. the team and business owner will discuss to create the user story for each feature or epic.


After product backlog and user flow is create, the product owner will give suggestions to release the minimum viable product(MVP) with time estimate and priority for each feature so rather than release all features, we offers to release product with usable features. At this point, the business owner can reduce the time to market and developing cost.


With approved product backlog, the team will work on design and prototype and discuss it with the business owner. The prototype will be use for product-market fit. When the product-market fit phase is done, the product owner will do sprint backlog and sprint planning. The sprint backlog will contain the task that the team will be working on. And sprint planning will contain what is to be accomplish during the next sprint. The sprint will start after the sprint planning event and for each sprint generally will takes 1-4 weeks time period.


In the active sprint, we do sprint refinement twice a week just to make sure that the team has a same page for upcoming sprint. We reduce discussion time when we work on the task when the upcoming sprint started. The team will also do sprint review every completed sprint for reviewing the task that has done in the sprint. Sprint retrospective event also done at the end of the sprint. The purpose of retrospective event is to improved the things that happened in the last sprint.
We will do all the events repeatedly until the products release.