Scrum as a Blessing on the Self-Practiced Level
My way up the hill to the sacred Scrum knowledge was bumpy with its ups and downs, and certainly took huge effort and dedication to practice and make it smoother. However, having passed the bumpiest part of the road and having paid the price for my own mistakes I can now state with all responsibility — Scrum rocks when used properly!
The time of me working as a Scrum Master is steadily rolling towards the 4 year mark, so I thought- why not share some of the benefits of Scrum with those interested? Get me right, I am by no means implying that sticking to Agile Scrum is optimal for everyone. Even with two practitioners in the same room, opinions will vary. What I do believe is that, given you implemented it in the right way and for the right project, you can really get the most out of your Scrum using experience.
So, let me start with what you need to know!
1. Small projects don’t need Scrum
Got a small project that’s gonna last up to couple of months? Don’t waste your time running through every Scrum practice. Small projects run exceptionally well with Waterfall or Kanban (and several more development practices), and there’s no use complicating your life. Here at SFL we have one very important value that states- Simplify! And by adding sprints, daily standups and grooming to your small project you do nothing but complicate!
2. Big projects are the ones to benefit
For bigger projects, things are quite different! You start with an initial plan with features being added and modified, with some changes in preferences and other stuff. It’s here that agile Scrum works at its best. When planning is done in advance, your team is enabled to rapidly react to requirement changes. The concepts of time boxing, daily stand ups, status checks and user involvement make it so much easier to get feedback on a given deliverable and change your priorities. When you practice Agile Scrum, you opt for small incremental releases made visible to the product owner, clients and end user. So, through the development of one single feature you are able to identify issues early and respond to change more efficiently! This clear visibility into project features helps to ensure that any necessary decisions can be taken at the earliest possible opportunity, while there’s still time to make a material difference to the outcome.
3. Scrum brings in value!
A key principle of the Scrum methodology is that deliverables are all tested throughout the lifecycle. This enables regular inspection of the working product as it develops. So, every new feature is properly made and tested before it’s released, reducing quality issues and making the overall project less of a mess!
4. Scrum enables better visibility
Many offices are into outsourcing today, while others develop their own product(s). Whichever option applies to you, there’s management or the client that is eager to know how things are going so that they don’t end up receiving a buggy software disaster at the deadline. Scrum principles encourage active client and user involvement throughout the product’s development and a very cooperative collaborative approach. When you get feedback early and often, it’s so much more probable that the project will live up to the client’s expectations! This ensures constant visibility for key people in the project and the clients, both of the project’s progress and of the product itself, which in turn helps to ensure that expectations are effectively managed.
5. Scrum works best with self-organization principles
I figured out early that each and every member of the Scrum team can handle the authority to pick what to do and when for the given iteration. They are to decide how to manage their own time. Into playing computer games for 3 hours? Cool! Just make sure your tasks are delivered in the time you estimated for the deliverables. This takes time when people are not used to it, but ends up making team members happier because nobody is dictating who gets to do what. Also, they can easily see the impact they make to the project! The Team decide and then take responsibility. So while freedom is available for making decisions and scheduling personal time, responsibility is still there. All the mistakes and victories are yours simultaneously. Believe me, that’s a cool feeling when you have impact and make a change!
Hope driving you through the initial cycle of benefits didn’t mess your head up with too much info. I do plan to break down into points and thoughtful pieces of advice in my next posts. So, tune in later, let’s learn and have fun!
About the author
Margarita Gevorgyan is an agile practitioner and project manager with rich experience in running IT projects.
