Scrum in easy steps

David Morris

• Publisher: In Easy Steps Limited
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781840787825
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Project Management
• Index: Business

An essential guide for anyone new to Scrum, and a valuable reference for the more experienced. Includes downloadable templates to get you started.

Scrum is the most widely used agile framework for developing software products.

Scrum in easy steps provides an introduction to Scrum, then steps through how a team gets going on a project and how they sustain performance and continually improve. It explores the three core roles in a Scrum team and how they work together effectively, and covers how a team works with others outside the team (an area most books on Scrum leave out).

The book then shows how to apply the Scrum framework throughout product development, from product discovery and definition, through the experience of working in Sprints on product delivery, to how teams inspect and adapt to improve themselves and find opportunities for their organisations to get better too. It finishes with a look at how Scrum could be applied beyond a single team and how the work of Scrum teams is integrated successfully with other parts of the organisation.

Whether you're looking to move into the field of software development, are currently in a Scrum team and want a handy reference, or you work in an environment with Scrum teams and want to understand how they work, Scrum in easy steps is for you.

1

Introducing Scrum

This chapter explains how developing novel products for complex markets requires an iterative design and incremental development approach, like Scrum.

Introduction

About Scrum in easy steps

Why development is hard

A feedback-driven approach

Iterative and incremental

The Scrum framework

Summary

Introduction

This book is intended for anyone interested in understanding the Scrum framework for agile product development. It serves as an introduction to those forming or joining their first Scrum Team. It provides a useful compendium of techniques to use at each stage of product Discovery and Delivery. And finally, it acts as a reference for anyone who needs to interact with Scrum Teams.

The use of agile approaches for product development continues to evolve as organizations face uncertainty and disruption. Scrum is the most widely adopted agile framework, often together with other methods, such as Extreme Programming (see here).

Learning Scrum in stages

As you begin using Scrum, you will go through development stages, often described using the martial arts term Shu-Ha-Ri:

•Shu (follow the rules): during the first stage of adoption, teams should stick to the basic techniques and rules of Scrum; this book is an essential companion to that journey.

•Ha (break the rules): in the second stage, teams rise above the basics to work together and drive organization change; Chapters Nine and Ten focus on how teams continually improve.

•Ri (form new rules): finally, teams who have mastered Scrum will typically require little outside guidance, such as provided by this book, and instead become role models for other teams.

Learning Scrum in easy steps

The In Easy Steps series of books is designed to take readers step-by-step through new topics, learning through the experience of doing, rather than forcing readers to work their way through pages of theory and being left to find their own way.

The best way to learn Scrum is to be in a Scrum Team and to experience it first-hand. For those who want to understand Scrum but are not yet in a team, the next best way is to see it play out step-by-step. Scrum in easy steps guides you through forming a team and then taking them through the whole product development life-cycle, from Discovery to Delivery and beyond.

To illustrate this, as you work your way through the book you will also be following the experience of a pizza takeaway business – called Dante’s – who want to start taking orders online.

All pages that include an example from Dante’s, the pizza takeaway used for illustration, will be highlighted with this pizza slice in the margin.

About Scrum in easy steps

This first chapter shows how the Scrum framework will help you to cope in today’s challenging environment. Chapters Two through to Ten walk through Scrum, step-by-step.

For those looking for a quick reference to the whole Scrum framework, start with Chapter Eleven.

Forming your first Scrum Team

One of the biggest shifts you will face when adopting Scrum is how people work together and the changes in role this requires. Chapter Two discusses the three key roles in Scrum: Product Owner, Scrum Master, and the Delivery Team.

Discovering the product

A key factor in successfully delivering great products is to prepare a good breakdown of the work required. Chapters Three to Five cover how Product Owners work with others to discover, define, and plan delivery of the product through the Product Backlog.

Delivering the product

The next three chapters step through the typical development cycle (the Sprint), detailing the events, artifacts, and techniques used. Chapter Six covers how a Sprint starts with the Delivery Team agreeing a Sprint goal, and the work required to achieve it.

Chapter Seven covers the typical daily routine of the team as they design, build, and test the product, tracking progress, handling impediments, and re-planning to achieve their Sprint goal.

Chapter Eight shows how the team reviews their completed work with their stakeholders and gets feedback on what should be their next priorities for the Product Backlog.

Continually improving and scaling Scrum

Just as teams review the product each Sprint, they also need to consider their approach. Chapter Nine explores how Scrum Masters work with the team to continually improve – while Chapter Ten deals with how they support the organization getting better at Scrum, especially at working with multiple teams.

The Scrum reference

The final chapter wraps up by providing a quick reference of the whole Scrum framework, the roles, the events, the artifacts, and the rules that explain how they interact and work together.

Why development is hard

Identifying a new product that will solve a problem, and getting it right first time is full of complexity, uncertainty, and risk. There is no single correct approach that will guarantee success.

When you are developing novel products in a new and growing market, there is much that remains unknown. You need to get feedback from potential customers as fast as possible, and follow an approach that allows you to improve and re-release the product as you learn more about what works.

As markets mature, however, the product becomes more defined and uncertainty reduces, at which point you will require a more scalable reliable approach. Should the product ever reach the point of becoming a commodity, you will then tend to focus more on reducing cost by making your processes as simple as possible.

Knowing what product you are developing and what market you are targeting will help guide your product development approach.

Understanding your product

The Pace-Layered Application Strategy was developed to help us choose the right approach to managing our products.

The Pace-Layered Application Strategy was developed as a decision support framework by Gartner Inc.

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