To understand Scrum and how to implement it, start with Agile development. Agile refers to a software development model that responds to rapidly changing requirements, with rapid iteration at its core, including Scrum, Kanban, Lean, XP, and a number of other approaches. As detailed in Scrum Alliance’s 2018 Scrum Industry Survey, 94% of respondents adopted Scrum in their Agile practices, suggesting that Scrum is the dominant way to practice Agile. So what exactly is Scrum?

What is Scrum?

Scrum is a development framework based on agile development ideas for an iterative and incremental software development process. It is suitable for scenarios where requirements change frequently, internal and external environments change quickly, and rapid delivery and validation are required.

The “Scrum” in football

In fact, the word Scrum comes from a rugby term for the action of “Scrum”. Before each sprint in a rugby game, there is a planning process, but once the sprint has started, the players are left to improvise based on that plan. As you can imagine, when a development team uses Scrum as a development method to develop a project, it is praised by many development departments for being as quick, passionate, agile, and efficient as a game of rugby.

So what is the process for agile and efficient Scrum?

The Scrum development process and the “343” principles

The Scrum process can be divided into the following phases:

① Establish a Product Backlog, led by the Product Owner;

② The Scrum Team estimates and schedules the workload based on the Product Backlog.

③ With the Product Backlog, we need to use the Sprint Planning Meeting to select some Product backlogs to add to the Sprint to form the Sprint Backlog. The time frame for this goal is 1 to 4 weeks;

④ The Sprint Backlog is completed by the Scrum Team, and each member of the Team is then refined into smaller tasks based on the Sprint Backlog (so that each task can be completed in 2 days);

⑤ Daily Scrum meetings are held during the Scrum Team’s completion of the Sprint Backlog selected at the planning Meeting, and each Meeting is held within 15 minutes. The Daily Scrum Meeting is based on the kanban, where everyone speaks and presents to all members face-to-face what was done yesterday, what needs to be done today, and if there are problems that can’t be solved. The Burn Down Chart is updated after each person completes the answer.

⑥ When the Sprint Backlog is complete, it is completed in one Sprint. At this point, we have an Srpint Review Meeting, which both the PO and the client attend. Each Scrum Team member is expected to present their finished software product to them (this meeting is too important to cancel);

Finally, there is the Sprint Retrospective Meeting, which is a Retrospective of each person’s presentation, summarizing and discussing improvements to the product requirements for the next Sprint.

In the Scrum development process, “343” principles should be strictly followed, namely the Three outputs, four rituals, and three roles in the Scrum framework.

Three outputs

  • Product Backlog: A collection of Product Backlog items. Among them, the transaction has the priority judgment, and the item with the highest priority is handled first.
  • Sprint Backlog: During the iteration planning meeting, the team selects a product Backlog and identifies the tasks needed to complete each user story.
  • Burn Down Chart: A Burn Down Chart is a visual representation of the work that needs to be done before the project is complete. The burnout chart has a Y-axis (work) and an X-axis (time). Ideally, the chart is a downward curve that “burns out” to zero as the rest of the work is completed.

4 ceremony

  • Sprint Planning Meeting: An iteration Planning Meeting is held before the start of each iteration cycle to set the development goals for the current iteration cycle and the work that needs to be done.
  • Daily Scrum Meeting: A Daily Scrum Meeting is a short, tightly controlled 15-minute Meeting held each morning to update the team on their status. Everyone is welcome to stand, but only team members (in the core roles of development, testing, product manager, etc.) can speak.
  • Srpint Review Meeting: The Sprint Review Meeting is held at the end of the Sprint to Review the product increments delivered and adjust the product backlog as needed. The duration of the review meeting is 4 hours.
  • Sprint Retrospective Meeting: At the end of each Sprint, the Scrum team gets together for a Sprint review meeting. The purpose is to review what the team did and didn’t do well in terms of process, people, and tool use, identify potential improvements, and plan for future improvements.

Three kinds of roles

  • PO (Product Owner) : The PO plays a critical role in the Agile Scrum development process. The PO represents the customer’s desire to ensure that the Scrum team does the right thing from a business perspective; The person responsible for maximizing the value of the project on behalf of all stakeholders, prioritizing the Product Backlog, and writing itemized requirements (also known as “stories”).
  • Scrum Master: The Scrum Master’s main job is to remove the obstacles that hinder the team from delivering the sprint goal and to block outside interference with the development team. The Scrum coach is the rule enforcer and ensures that the Scrum process follows the Scrum process.
  • Scrum Team: The Team on the Scrum Team that is responsible for delivering the product.

Other nouns

  • Sprint: The original meaning of a short race, in this case an iteration. The length of an iteration is usually 1-4 weeks, which means that we need to complete the development of an iteration as quickly as possible. This process is called a Sprint.
  • Kanban: Agile Kanban. Telegraphic service co., LTD., which uses the visual management concept behind Toyota’s lean production service, pronounced Kanban. Kanban can manage the development process and record the details and process of user story development.

Why Use Scrum?

Jeff Sutherland, Agile master and Scrum inventor: Scrum is the art of getting more done with less.

(1) Scrum responds quickly to change and iteratively develops with lightweight stories (user stories) as requirements to ensure that the most important things are done first and deliver more efficiently.

② Can continue to deliver valuable software products to users, as well as short software delivery cycle: this is the basic requirements of the current Internet development, is constantly through each iteration and upgrade, product optimization and improvement.

(3) The Scrum process requires more routine communication, including daily presentations, design discussions, asking questions and finding helpers, and regular summaries, so that all team members can fully understand current project progress and problems, thus facilitating communication and quick problem solving.

(4) Scrum development allows rapid trial and error with low trial and error cost; With low cost, and efficient mode of product iteration, the rate of return is high.

How can tools be used to help bring Scrum to the ground?

How does the Scrum process work? How can the ONES R&D management tool help?

1. Team management

ONES group and manage the rights of project members based on project Roles.

Team management

In an Agile project, the system administrator can set up three roles, PO, Scrum Master, and Scrum Team, and apply them to the actual project Team, and configure different permissions for different roles to manage and view projects and work item types. Project members can also have multiple roles to facilitate cross-functional collaboration and management.

2.Product backlog

In ONES, the “Requirements” task type and its components are used to manage the Product Backlog.

Requirement pool Management

  • The product owner enters the request form in the demand pool and sets the priority. A complete story structure can be formed by customizing the requirement status, supplementing various attribute fields, writing a complete description, uploading relevant product documents and high-fidelity prototypes, etc. to facilitate the review and subsequent flow of research and development process.
  • According to the actual scenario, the requirement workflow is customized to realize the full life cycle from feedback, transformation into user stories, scheduling iteration to the launch of functions.
  • Functionally complex stories can be refined and broken down into less granular requirements using “sub-work items.”
  • Requirements can also be associated with user feedback, research and development tasks, test results and other work items to facilitate other members to find references and trace sources.

3. Iteration planning and review

ONES manages the development process through an “iteration” component, through which project teams create and plan iterations.

Iterative overview

  • The Product owner first prioritizes the requirements from the Product Backlog to the iteration. The product owner can create a new iteration, set the iteration cycle and iteration phase, and customize various attribute fields to enrich iteration information.
  • At the Sprint Planning Meeting, the product owner explains the user story by priority, complements the story description or reprioritises, and works with the team to size the story. If the requirements review fails, it can be planned for a subsequent iteration or moved back to the requirements pool.
  • Once the requirements to be completed in the current iteration are identified, they can be broken down, estimated, broken down into various sub-tasks and associated tasks, and assigned to relevant team members.

4. Track iteration progress

The ONES system provides burnt-out chart, Agile Kanban, instrument panel, Gantt chart and other tools and technologies to intuitively reflect the working status of each member and the health degree of the current iteration progress.

Agile kanban

Daily stand-up meetings can be easily practiced through ONES Agile Kanban. Agile Kanban can place work item states in different swimming lanes based on actual work scenarios. Members can intuitively view the progress of different tasks on the daily stand, and can drag tasks directly on the Agile Kanban board to update the status. ONES also supports displaying general task kanban, which tracks project progress in the form of task cards and status distributions.

Burnout figure

  • Burnt-out diagrams are an effective tool for agile project tracking, a visual representation of the amount of work remaining before an iteration is completed. After each member completes the answer, the burnout chart should be updated to predict the expected end time and judge whether the iteration can be completed on time.
  • Iterative basic statistics and burnout charts can be added to the dashboard for quick viewing. It can also quickly obtain the progress of multiple iterations through the Gantt chart and understand the overall situation of the project through the time consumption.

5. Iterative reviews

At the end of each iteration, the Scrum team holds an iteration review meeting together to analyze the entire development process, review how the team is using the process, people, and tools, summarize what went well, identify potential improvements, and plan for future improvements.

  • The ONES system can generate quality reports according to the requirements of r&d scenarios. The report is used to calculate the defect distribution and task retention time within the scope of iteration.

  • The iterative analysis and summary results can be recorded in ONES Wiki, and the corresponding experience can be deposited in the form of documents. The global search can be accurate to the level of attachments, so that the team can quickly locate and obtain useful information.

This is the complete process of Scrum practice.