Scrum Essentials

Overview of Scrum Essentials

Software development is one of the tough processes, it is complex and brainstorming. Over the years many practices are done for developing the good software. It requires a large amount of good work and a good team. Initially waterfall model came into run for developing software, which had defined stages for execution to reach the goal. The later agile process was into the run and was adopted because it overcomes the short comes of the traditional model that is waterfall model. In this topic, we are going to learn about Scrum Essentials.

Definition of Scrum Essentials

Scrum (essential scum) is a combination of a small set of principles, values, and practices. It has tried and tested approach for software development, it says that approaches are consistent but is not mandatory, may vary for different scrum framework.

Example of Scrum Essentials

• Scrum is part of the agile software development method. It also works in stages, but it put the focus on the customer. The customer is kept under loop throughout the process.
• The working style walk of iterations, which lies from a weak to a month. During the functioning of iterations, the self-organized team is engaged for preparing the essentials which can be put into production.

Principle Set of Scrum

1. Variability and uncertainty
2. Prediction and adaptation
3. Validated learning
4. Work in progress
5. Progress
6. Performance

The set of principles is a belief and it draws a clear picture of problems with uncertainty to make a high level of predictability. The principle set had six essential steps. Variability and uncertainty, prediction and adaptation, validated learning, work in progress, progressive approach, and performance.

1. The Variability and Uncertainty

During the time when a problem arises the need for an innovative solution is there so the scrum leverages the variability and uncertainty in project development.

• Embrace helpful variability- for product development the team must get engage to develop a unique single piece. The product once made cannot be repeated so some amount of variability is the necessity to create and produce a unique product each time. Once the planning is done variability will be needed in each level of manufacturing also.
• Need for Iterative and incremental development- scrum working is considered iterative in nature. Iterative nature follows the re-work to get correct philosophy. Iterative development is one of the best practices to brush up the product or can say improve the already made product. For incremental process, the development process is done by dividing it into small pieces and then every piece is worked on differently for assembling later. There are few short comes in iterative and few in incremental development, so to overcome these short come scrums make use of both incremental and iterative development.

2. Prediction and Adaptation

While using scrum development process, it is desired that it need to be balanced with predictions and with the need for adaptation. It works best with five related principles that are –

• Options need to be kept open- the development process demands the respective phase for designing, reviewing and approval, these all must be done before the transition to the next phase. The scrum keeps the strategy of keeping options open for redesign and other changes at every phase. This principle is termed as the last responsible moment (LRM). For making decisions the generic view is not considered, it must be clear and accurate to save the cost and time else may suffer losses.
• Acceptance of getting correct up front- in scrum process, the requirements and the plans are right up front this is because it is very well known that it is not full proof to know plan driven full requirements and a complete plan. And importantly assumptions may not take the process anywhere. It is needed to keep modifying the requirements and keep the plan on a current reality check.
• Adaptive and exploratory approach- as explained above scrum does not work on prediction-based planning, it focusses on the adaptive approach also with the trial and error approach by making use of the exploratory approach. The cost of exploration is influenced by tools and technologies. In today’s time, scrum must have (even have) enough knowledge to make out a valuable step with a great solution.

3. Validate Learning

The scrum process organizes the functioning to quickly validate its learning. It is needed because as explained, it does not rely on assumptions, it needs knowledge by learning and it follows three basic principles for validating the information for the process.

• Validation of important assumptions on the initial state.
• Keep a hold on multiple and concurrent loops.
• Faster feedback control and workflow organization accordingly.

4. Work in Process

This stage is a reminder for the teams that whatever work has been started initially but left unfinished need to be kept in the loop and focus on finishing the same. During the development phase, the work in progress must be focused and managed to provide the perfect finish. It has few defined principles to keep the WIP on track-

• The sensible batch size needs to be used which is economically sensible.
• The inventory record is must, must be recognized and manage carefully to keep the functioning unstoppable.
• The team management also needs to keep in mind, the idle work should be appreciated not the idle worker.
• The delay cost should be back in the mind.

5. Progressive Approach

The scrum measures its scale by the rate of delivered projects and its validation. It does not measure by half work done but has the predefined plan for the completion of the project. Principles for the same progress kept focus is-

• Real-time information adaptation and re-planning of the development as needed.
• Validating work progress with working assets.
• The large focus is on value-centric delivery not on just delivery.

6. Performance

Scrum development is all about specific performance characteristics. It is followed by a set of rules-

• Working fast and going through is good for development but going in a hurry is the worst thing to rely on.
• Developing a product is not just delivering the product, it must be good in quality and should possess a satisfactory customer view.
• Scrum does not follow the same approach which was followed in plan driver development methods which were a high ceremony and document-centric. Scrum approach is a value-centric.

Recommended Articles

This is a guide to Scrum Essentials. Here we also discuss the Overview of Scrum Essentials with Definition, Example and the Principles of Scrum. You can also go through our other suggested articles to learn more –

1. Scrum Principles
2. Agile Lifecycle
3. Agile Benefits
4. Scrum Jira