How to Use SCRUM to Deliver Project on Time and Budget
The terms agile, scrum, and sprint tend to be confusing for even experienced developers and small IT agencies. But don’t worry, these concepts are not as difficult as they seem. In fact, we believe that anyone can understand them with a little bit of explanation. With this blog we have tried to create the most comprehensive and easy to understand guide for understanding and implementing Scrum framework for your own project.
To help you get started, let’s use a simple analogy. Imagine that you are building a new house. This is going to be a complex project with many different tasks to complete. But if you break it down into smaller, more manageable sprints, it will be much easier to manage.
For example, the first sprint might be to buy a plot of land. This sprint would involve tasks such as finding a suitable location, contacting a real estate agent, and negotiating the purchase price. The team members for this sprint might include you, the homeowner, a real estate agent, and a lawyer.
Once the land is purchased, you can move on to the next sprint, which might be to hire an architect and contractors. And so on, until the house is complete. By breaking the project down into smaller, more manageable sprints, you can make it much easier to plan, execute, and track your progress.
This might not be the most accurate representation of Srum, but it is the easiest explanation to understand this incredible approach of managing projects.
Common terminologies
Now let’s start understanding the most used terminologies with agile scrum approach, these are the terms that create most confusion.
Agile:
A mindset that emphasises flexibility and adaptability in project management. In other words you can say it’s just an idea.
Scrum:
A is a framework that provides a practical approach for managing agile projects.
User Stories:
Descriptive narratives outlining user requirements.
Epics:
Large user stories that are divided into smaller tasks.
Sprint:
A short, time-boxed period of work (typically 2-4 weeks) in which a team works to complete a set of specific goals.
Backlog:
A list of all the work that needs to be done for a project.
Sprint planning meeting:
A meeting at the beginning of each sprint where the team determines what work will be done in the sprint.
Daily stand-up meeting aka SCRUM Meeting:
A short meeting held every day during a sprint where the team members share their progress and identify any blockers.
Sprint review meeting:
A meeting at the end of each sprint where the team demonstrates the work that was completed.
Sprint retrospective meeting:
A meeting at the end of each sprint where the team reflects on the sprint and identifies ways to improve.
Burn-Down Chart:
A visual representation of work remaining over time.
Velocity:
The measure of work a team can complete in a sprint.
The key elements of SCRUM framework
Earlier we touched upon the analogy of building a house, but it will be difficult to create a plan for a house for the sake of an article 😉. So, for the sake of simplicity let’s imagine you and your friends want to build a treehouse instead of a real house. We will use the SCRUM framework for this project to explain the main elements of this approach.
Roles
- Product Owner: Your friend Sarah, who decides what the treehouse should have, like a slide, a swing, and a lookout.
- Scrum Master: Your friend Abdul, who helps keep things organized and makes sure everyone follows the plan.
- Development Team: You and your friends who will build the treehouse.
Artifacts
- Product Backlog: A list of things the treehouse should have, like a slide, a swing, and a lookout.
- Sprint Backlog: The specific tasks you choose to work on this week, like building the slide steps and attaching the swing.
Events/Sprint Cycle (the core of the framework)
- Sprint: A week where you work on parts of the treehouse.
- Sprint Planning: You all meet and decide what to work on this week, like the slide and the swing.
- Daily Standup: Every day, you and your friends chat for a few minutes to say what you did yesterday and what you’ll do today.
- Sprint Review: At the end of the week, you show the others what you built and talk about what’s next.
- Sprint Retrospective: You and your friends discuss what went well and what could be better in building the treehouse.
Exploring Sprints in Detail
Sprints are the heartbeats of Scrum, time-boxed iterations ranging from one to four weeks, during which a set of backlog items is completed. Let’s delve into the anatomy of sprints with a more realistic example:
Let’s say that an ecommerce business wants to add a new feature to their website that allows customers to pay with PayPal.
Sprint Planning
The team would first need to have a sprint planning meeting to discuss the following:
What are the specific requirements for the new feature?
What are the team’s capabilities and limitations?
How much time do they have to complete the sprint?
What are the risks and dependencies that need to be considered?
Sprint Backlog
Once the team has a good understanding of the work that needs to be done, they can start to create a sprint backlog. The sprint backlog might include the following tasks:
- Create a new PayPal payment integration
- Test the new payment integration
- Deploy the new payment integration to the production environment
Daily Scrum aka Standup Meeting
The team meets briefly each day to sync up and identify any blockers. This is a quick stand-up meeting where each team member answers three questions:
What did I do yesterday?
What will I do today?
Are there any blockers?
For example, if one team member is having trouble with the PayPal API, they could bring this up in the scrum meeting and the team could work together to resolve the issue.
Sprint Review
At the end of the sprint, the team would hold a sprint review to demo the new PayPal payment integration to the product owner and stakeholders. The product owner and stakeholders could then provide feedback and ask questions.
Sprint Retrospective
The team would also hold a sprint retrospective to reflect on the past sprint and identify ways to improve for the next one. For example, the team might discuss the following:
What went well in the sprint?
What could have been improved?
What are the team’s goals for the next sprint?
Backlog refinement
Finally, the team would review the product backlog and make changes as needed. For example, if the team learned that there is an issue with paypal in one of the countries where the client has their business, they could add implementing alternative options for that to the backlog for the next sprint.
By following the sprint cycle, the ecommerce business can ensure that the new PayPal payment integration is developed and deployed in a timely and efficient manner. The business can also get feedback from the product owner and stakeholders early on, which can help to ensure that the new feature meets their needs.
Tips for a successful sprint planning
Set clear goals and expectations
The first step in sprint planning is to set clear goals and expectations for the sprint. What do you want to achieve in the next two weeks? What are the most important features or improvements that need to be made? Once you have a clear understanding of the goals, you can start to plan the work that needs to be done.
Prioritize the work
Not all work is created equal. Some tasks are more important than others. Prioritize the work in the sprint backlog so that you focus on the most important tasks first.
Estimate the work accurately
It’s important to estimate the amount of time it will take to complete each task in the sprint backlog. Also make sure you include time for things like planning, communication, documentation, everything into account while planning. This will help you to stay on track and to avoid scope creep.
Communicate with the product owner and stakeholders
The sprint planning meeting is not just for the development team. It’s also important to communicate with the product owner and stakeholders to get their input on the work that needs to be done.
Be flexible and adaptable
Things don’t always go according to plan. Be prepared to adjust the sprint backlog as needed.
Use a tool to help you plan
There are a number of tools that can help you to plan your sprints more effectively. Using a tool can help you to keep track of the work that needs to be done, the time estimates, and the dependencies between tasks.
Tools we use for sprint management
Speaking of tools here are some of the best project management tools that we have personally used and recommend you to try:
Jira
The most popular and arguably the most comprehensive project management tool that offers a wide range of features for scrum teams, including task tracking, issue tracking, and reporting. Jira is also highly customizable, so you can tailor it to the specific needs of your team.
Zoho Sprints
Zoho Sprints is a cloud-based project management tool that is specifically designed for scrum teams. Zoho Sprints offers a variety of features, including task boards, sprint planning, and burndown charts. Zoho Sprints is also highly affordable and easy to use.
ClickUp
ClickUp is a powerful and flexible project management tool that offers a wide range of features for scrum teams. ClickUp has a very clean and thoughtful UI and has a lot of options for customization. It is affordable and integrates with a variety of other tools, such as GitHub, Google Drive, and Slack.
Asana
Asana is again one of the more popular project management tools out there. It offers a variety of features for scrum teams, including task boards, checklists, and time tracking. Asana is also highly integrated with almost any tools you require.
Sprint Automation
Sprint automation is when you use automation to make the sprint process go smoother. This can include automating tasks like creating and assigning tasks, tracking progress, and reporting. Apart from the automation that is used the most in testing and deployment, implementing automation for these two tasks can increase the productivity of your team and improve accuracy of results.
It is true that sprint automation can make your scrum team very productive, however it’s important to use it wisely. Automation shouldn’t replace human interaction, but rather make it easier. By automating repetitive tasks, teams can free up their time to focus on more strategic work and deliver software more quickly and efficiently. Though overuse of process automation without proper planning mostly has counter-productive outcomes.
To explore sprint automation options for your project
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