Scrum
In August, I penned an article that discussed the differences between waterfall and agile project management methodologies. As stated in that article, waterfall is more appropriate when requirements are clearly understood and there is not much fluctuation. Agile methods are more appropriate when there is flux and when requirements are not clearly understood.
One of the most popular agile methodologies out there is Scrum. Scrum was originally designed for the management of software projects, but has since been applied to other genres of projects. Scrum was first described in the 1980’s but did not become mainstream until the 90’s.
The scrum project is conducted by a product owner, a Scrum Master, and the project team (oftentimes developers).
The product owner is responsible for supplying the requirements from the viewpoint of the users. The Scrum Master is responsible for facilitating (not managing) the project and making sure the team is in a position to succeed. The team is responsible for the execution of the project.
The basic flow of a scrum project is the following:
- The product owner creates a list of desired features. This is known as the product backlog.
- The project team then determines how many of these features they can deliver within the Sprint (timebox of development and testing). They call this list of features they will deliver in the sprint the Spring backlog.
- Each morning the team meets to provide an update to eachother on the status of each item within the Spring Backlog.
- After the Sprint has completed (and hopefully all items developed and tested) the team provides a demonstration of the system to the product owner and other stakeholders. The team receives feedback and incorporates this into the product backlog.
- Steps 2 through 4 are then repeated until the product reaches a final state.
If you would like more information on Scrum, please visit http://www.scrumbasics.com.