What is Scrum?

Scrum is just one of a collection of software and software delivery methods known as “Agile Methods” and has evolved from the need to develop software in an increasingly competitive environment.

In a nutshell…

Scrum defines a time-scale of 30 days for each iteration of a software product. These iterations are known as “sprints”.

Throughout the sprint the team is managed by a Scrum Master who acts as a facilitator, organising the short daily scrum meetings used to monitor progress.

There are very few artefacts involved in the Scrum process. The Product Backlog is used to store the required functionality that a product might have. The “product owner” owns this log and prioritises each item and others such as users, customers, sales and engineering give input into its contents.

At the beginning of a Sprint, a Spring Planning Meeting is held. The outcome of this meeting is the “Sprint Backlog” which details the product features to be included in the current Sprint. The development team estimate how long the tasks will take and whilst applying the prioritisation, the Product Owner determines what can and can’t go into the sprint based on time and resources available.

At the end of the Sprint a Post-Sprint meeting is held to review progress and to demonstrate the new features of the product.

The goal of each sprint is to deliver “executable functionality” and the goal of the last sprint is the delivery of a shippable product.

Scrum is characterised by the Agile principle of Simplicity ensuring that the product created is always fit for purpose but never over-engineered.

To find out more about Scrum please read

Schwaber. K. and M.Beedle (2002) Agile Software development with Scrum New Jersey, Prentice Hall.