An introduction of the scrum world

All projects regardless of their context can be divided into four main categories based on their level of uncertainties. These categories are obvious, complicated, complex, and chaotic. The complex category is a domain in which there are more unknowns than knowns. This is the context of unknown unknowns. Scrum was designed specifically for addressing this type of problem. Knowing the Cynefin Model helps people choose suitable tools and solutions for various problems.

Before the year 2000, there was a big rate of failure in software projects. So, pioneer software players decided to think of the status to find a solution. At that time, each of them was fighting with a large rate of failure separately. Therefore, they collectively brought the agile concept into the Software world. Agile helps teams and companies to do their work in an adaptive way while control related risks simultaneously. Agile uses an iterative and incremental approach to combine customer feedback with the work throughout the project. It helps people to inspect their work iteratively and adapt themselves if needed.

Scrum is a framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value. It is the world leading Agile framework which is used by most companies working based on the Agile mindset. It has 11 mandatory elements which are divided into three main categories i.e. Scrum Events, Scrum Artifacts, and Scrum Roles. It was developed by Mr. Ken Schwaber and Mr. Jeff Sutherland. Its root goes back to 1986 and its first official paper was published in 1995 in OOPSLA conference.

There are just three roles in the Scrum framework as the Product Owner, the Scrum Master, and the Development Team. Each of them was added purposefully and serves the Scrum Team. Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the value of the product. Development Team is responsible for creating done Increments. Scrum Master is responsible for promoting and supporting Scrum in the team and wider organization. Together they create a Scrum Team without any other roles and are flat. Scrum Roles optimize creativity, productivity and flexibility of the Scrum Team.

There are five events in the Scrum framework as Sprint, Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, and Sprint Retrospective. All Scrum events are opportunities for inspect and adapt. Sprint is a container for all other events, with a time-box of one month or less. Sprint Planning is the first event in Sprint within which Scrum Team plans for the Sprint. Daily Scrum is an opportunity to inspect the progress towards the Sprint Goal. Sprint Review is an informal meeting with the stakeholders and customers to gather their feedback and finally Scrum Retrospective is the last event of Scrum in which the Scrum Team inspects itself and its way of working to adapt itself by defined improvements.

There are three artifacts in the Scrum framework as Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, and Increment. Product Backlog is the single source of the work for the Scrum Team, is a dynamic concept and never complete. Sprint Backlog is the plan for the Development Team on how it wants to convert the selected Product Backlog items into the Increment. Finally, Increment contains all done Product Backlog items and is potentially shippable and releasable. All Scrum Artifacts bring transparency and are a foundation for inspection and adaption.

There are four complementary concepts in the Scrum framework as Sprint Goal, Product Backlog Refinement, Definition of Done, and monitoring progress. Sprint Goal is the why behind the work that the Development Team does to create an Increment. Product Backlog Refinement is a continuous activity in which the Product Owner and the Development Team collaborate to make Product Backlog Items clear. Definition of Done is a shared understanding of what complete work means and when we can say a Product Backlog Item gets finished. Finally, we can monitor the progress of the Sprint work on a daily basis by the Development Team for the Development Team and also at the project level for each Sprint Review which is done by the Product Owner.

There are five Scrum Values in the Scrum framework as commitment, courage, focus, openness, and respect. People personally commit to achieving the goals of the Scrum Team. The Scrum Team members have courage to do the right thing and work on tough problems. Everyone focuses on the work of the Sprint and the goals of the Scrum Team. The Scrum Team and its stakeholders agree to be open about all the work and the challenges with performing the work. Scrum Team members respect each other to be capable, independent people.

There are several practices for estimation. Although we have estimation in the Scrum framework, there is no prescription on how the team should do that. Some of them are absolute measurement like hour and some are relative like story points. Relative estimation suits better to the Agile world so you can see practices like Planning Poker, T-shirt size, or even fruit size. The Development Team does all estimations and estimation is just a trigger for the Scrum Team to have the conversation for a better understanding of the work scope.

When a requirement is requested by a customer it should move throughout a pipeline to be converted into a usable and done feature. This pipeline is an abstract view and has three main stages as refinement, development and delivery. To have better transparency it is strongly recommended to have a separate board for each stage. We will dive into this concept and even bring some sample structures of the boards. Specifically, we will discuss how the team can manage unplanned and emergency work.

When a project is big and needs more than around 9 developers to do the project’s work, it is better to divide them into multiple teams. Indeed, when multiple teams work on the same product, we enter into the scaled world. Scaled Scrum is a concept in which multiple teams work together on the same product and manage dependency and integration issues. There is still one Product Owner and one Product Backlog in the scaled Scrum.

PSM I or Professional Scrum Master I is the most popular certificate that is issued by Scrum.org. Getting this certificate needs to pass the PSM I exam. If you pass the PSM I exam, you will receive the industry-recognized "PSM I" certification that you can use to identify your achievement. It evaluates you knowledge of Scrum foundation, theory, and practices. In this module, we will bring a lot of tips and tricks for people who want to take the PSM I exam and pass it.