Scrum Introduction

The Scrum approach was first described by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka . They noted that small, cross-functional teams often produce the best results and likened these high-performing teams to the scrum formation in Rugby. Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber used this new process in the early 90s and are known as the first to call this new project/process management framework; Scrum. Another person I always like mention when starting a Scrum discussion is Mike Cohn who has been a driving force of Scrum for over 15 years and is definitely someone I relate to when it comes to the Scrum Process.

I assume you are here either because you are trying to learn about Scrum or can attest that many large companies are using Scrum today including yours. Every time I start to talk about Scrum I always point to the Agile Manifesto that encapsulates 12 principles.

The goal of Scrum is to manage complexity, unpredictability and change through transparency, inspection and adaptation. Scrum is also an empirical approach where teams must self-organize supported by adaptive project management. The key principle is that Scrum == Adaptive.

·         Scrum is an empirical approach:

o   Empirical process adjusts and adapts based on feedback from experience

·         Sprint team must self organize:

o   Team determines optimal organization to achieve goals

o   Team acts much like a startup company

·         Adaptive project management:

o   Frequent deliveries, risk and mitigation plans

o   Daily status discussion

o   Transparency in planning ensures accountability

The Scrum promise:

·         Useful product functionality is delivered with every iterate as requirements, architecture, and design emerge

·         Closely synchronizes market requirements with iterative deliverables

·         Causes the best possible software to be constructed given the available resources, acceptable quality, and required release dates

·         Scrum naturally focuses an entire organization on building successful products

·         Without major changes teams are building useful, demonstrable product functionality

·         Enhances communication between team members (Scrum & Sprint)

·         Reinforces a sustainable pace

·         Optimized development environment

·         Reduced organizational overhead