What is Scrum and Why You Should Use it in Your Software Development Project?

When you put the fate of your project in the hands of another team, you want to feel confident that they will execute that project with swiftness, effectiveness, and organization. Without it, your project can derail at any moment, causing you to decide between putting it on hold or increasing the budget. 

Avoiding this at all costs will be anyone’s priority. Though many will feel it’s an impossible task to keep under control, scrum methodology can turn this into a reality. It will give a sense of transparency between the scrum team and the owner of the product. 

So, what is scrum?

Scrum is an Agile project management framework that unifies everyone involved in the development of your software. If you’re unaware of what Agile is, it’s a set of values that are used when trying to reduce the time-to-market for software development. 

Scrum, which enhances the core values in Agile software development, not only details the tasks that need to be completed before reaching the end goal, but it will also detail how those tasks are to be completed and when they are to be completed by.

This popular methodology is used by nearly 70% of all software development teams — and for good reason. Since there’s a great deal of complexity involved in the process, having a reliable system of keeping everything together is a must. 

How does scrum work?

While there are a lot of moving parts involved in scrum methodology, a strong majority of it will be out of the client’s hands — allowing them to focus on tasks that matter to them. The beauty with scrum is the client will have full accessibility to the progress behind your software development. 

First, let’s take a look at the people involved in the scrum process, also referred to as the Scrum Team:

1. Owner of the Product – also referred to as the key stakeholder, the owner of the product’s main responsibility is being the bridge between the scrum team and the customer (those who will utilize the software).
2. Scrum Master – this is the person that will keep the Scrum values or practices under control at all times and keep the project moving forward smoothly. They will be the main liaison between the owner and the rest of the scrum team.
3. Developing Team – that leaves the development team left, which are the people executing all the work and tasks at hand. Their progress will be monitored by the Scrum Master throughout the life of the project.

Secondly, you’ll want to understand what Scrum Events are. There are five things that make up scrum events:

1. Sprint – a visual timeframe that normally consists of 1-4 weeks. A sprint is used to define how long the development team has to complete a set of tasks.
2. Sprint Planning – a meeting between members of the scrum team that outlines the what and how for each sprint.
3. Daily Stand-Up – a brief meeting (10-15 min) between members of the scrum team to determine the progress made since last meeting.
4. Sprint Review – at the end of each sprint, you’ll perform another meeting with the scrum team to go over what was completed during the sprint.
5. Retrospective – before moving on to the next sprint, one last meeting will be held to detail the successes and failures of the last sprint, and how to fix them moving forward.

Lastly, there are several terms you’ll want to understand that are known as Scrum Artifacts. These will be important deliverables maintained throughout the project. Let’s take a look:

1. Backlogs – there will be two backlogs that come into play here. A product backlog will be the master list maintained by the owner of the product that details what the customers are asking for in their software. A sprint backlog will be a list of tasks that need to be completed during each sprint. 
2. Increments – when you are ready to release a software update, the Scrum Team will pull an increment. It’s a list of tasks that have been completed since the last update release. 

As you can see, your entire project is well-organized from start to finish — and you’ll have the ability to track progress every day with a limited amount of time and effort on your part.

Want to start your own startup?

What are the benefits of scrum methodology?

When your software development team utilizes and practices proper scrum methodology, you’ll know your project is in good hands. You’ll see a variety of benefits from day one, such as the following:

• The ability to release your product in increments
• Constant communication and tracking of progress leads to a more quality product
• Complete transparency each and every day
• Any risks and concerns are detected and dealt with early
• Allows for flexibility and easy changes to be made without compromising time and money
• Confidence knowing you’re building a software that is well-perceived by your customers
• Speed-to-market is improved

With all the benefits surrounding scrum methodology, many software owners are probably wondering why they haven’t gotten started much earlier.

If you’re looking to learn more about scrum and how your project can benefit from it, contact us and we’ll be glad to share more information with you. We use scrum with all of our development projects and couldn’t imagine completing our work without it. 

Don’t hesitate to reach out to us today, we can’t wait to speak with you!

—

Photo by NicoElNino on AdobeStock