10 USEFUL FACTS ABOUT AGILE SCRUM

Why provide 10 Useful Facts About Agile Scrum?

Agile Scrum has quickly established itself as one of the most popular project and task management methodologies. This breath of fresh air is sweeping not just the IT, Computing or the Media industries. It is increasingly taking over a wider range of other fields. The focus is on optimising efficiency in time and cost management, as opposed to functionality. Of course, the technique for delivering the outcome is still within the expertise of the field at hand. However, the fixes related to time and costs are more successfully handled by Agile techniques.

Waymaker Learning help you understand Agile Scrum through the provision of SCRUM diagnostic tests, SCRUM Training courses, articles with tips about SCRUM. This article is an example of the latter. It gives you a quick insight into SCRUM via 10 useful things you may or may not have known about Agile Scrum.

10 Useful Facts about Agile Scrum

1. Did You Know that the name ‘Scrum’ began as a term in Rugby? The term basically describes a team that organise themselves and begins moving down the field together, as one. This analogy clearly shows why the term ‘scrum’ works so well in your team work too.

2. Many Agile Scrum projects will involve learning as well as innovation and surprises. A major reccurring theme of Scrum will be to continuously inspect and adapt, for the success of projects that you and your team are working on.

3. As part of Agile Scrum, you will be involved in ‘sprints’. Sprints are times of intense activity (usually between 2–4 weeks) also referred to as iterations. This will often start with a Sprint planning session and at the end, a Sprint Retrospective will take place. This will cover what you should start doing, stop doing and continue doing for success on future sprints and projects.

4. Agile Scrum and Sprints are fast-paced. This is exactly why stand-up meetings are often recommended. These can be held daily and will quickly cover what each team member is doing, what they have finished, what they will do next and if there are any issues in their way.

5. The person responsible in an Agile Scrum for the product features is the ‘Product Owner’. They will create the to-do lists and prioritise these. They are therefore responsible for the return on investment.

6. The team in an Agile Scrum will often be a group of 5–10 dedicated people that have a wide range of skills. That variety in skill set allows the team, as a whole, to deliver the product.

7. It is important to remember that the Scrum Master is not the manager. He or she is more of a facilitator. They will be the person that guides the team to resolve issues and interfaces with the Product Owner.

8. The Product road map is created from the Product Backlog. This is a definitive list that prioritises a list of remaining features and tasks.

9. A ‘Sprint Burndown’ will track the estimated hours of work outstanding against the time-boxes sprint hours available. Thereby it will show the team how far you have come and how far you have left.

10. It is essential that you do not forget that Scrum is not just about the processes. Instead it is a different working methodology that is collaborative, flexible and most importantly, energetic.

Further resources

It is a useful start to get 10 such facts about the popular methodology. You are welcome to explore the subject further right her at WayMaker Learning UK. We are experienced Scrum and Agile practitioners and trainers as well as project management professionals. As such, we champion the methodology through regular use, training, coaching and mentoring of our trainees all the way through from discovery to learning to career development.

We offer free taster sessions, in the form of seminars and webinars. You may also want to attend one of our popular Agile Scrum courses. These include Scrum master certification (classroom) and the online autonomous counterpart, Scrum Master Certification (e-learning). We also provide Scrum product owner certification (classroom courses) and Scrum product owner certification (e-learning version). So don’t hesitate any longer, come and join our family of professionally trained Agile Scrum experts!