The scrum software development process is based on an iterative and incremental approach under which project requirements may change at any time. Build-out teams should be dedicated, self-organized, and efficient with collaborative teamwork.
Scrum in a nutshell:
The project’s timeline is broken down into short periods called sprints, during which the team commits to delivering a set of user stories. In a perfect world, each Sprint would provide a miniature version of the product that operates, is QA-approved, and can be handed over to stakeholders or end-users to get their opinion.
With the team catching up every day and at the end of every Sprint, work becomes transparent, and obstacles, if any, are ironed out before they become too complicated and hamper progress. By re-evaluating requirements and re-allocating task priorities at the end of every Sprint, the project becomes more flexible and quickly adapts to changes.
Below are a few benefits:
1. Better Project Plan: During project kick-off, planning too far in advance can be difficult with a high level of certainty. Fortunately, Agile Scrum methodology gives us a framework for handling this uncertainty.
2. Incremental Accomplishments: Practicing Scrum helps us deliver clients’ requirements efficiently by demonstrating progress after each Sprint. Since clients require short release cycles and more involvement, Scrum can streamline delivery. The team can accomplish successful sprints every 2 weeks as per the requirements.
3. Transparency: In Scrum, meetings planned to discuss the way forward provided the team with clarity. Therefore, both the team & client are alerted to any issues, such as blocks or bugs, which help collaborate and find a solution well in time. Room for mistakes is reduced as valuable feedback/insights are discussed during each Scrum event, and team members spend less time reworking on corrections.
4. Different Approaches and Ideas: Working as a Scrum team enables and widens the thought process and ideas within the group as the discussion is not specific to any roles. All members are allowed to participate and provide insights. Collaboration is the key, and team members quickly discover the benefits as answers come from unexpected places.
5. Leadership and Accountability: The team can take control of the processes and provide the best output with better leadership skills by practicing Scrum. Since Scrum does not restrict its application to specific roles, the whole Scrum team is equally responsible for project delivery.
6. Higher Creativity & Low Control: Team members must practice flexibility, compromise, and adaptability to make successful teamwork possible. As a result of Scrum’s decentralized power-sharing, these qualities can flourish naturally rather than being difficult to acquire under traditional management.
7. Inspect & Adapt: In Scrum, the team can step back and examine work that is “Done” by facilitating events such as retrospectives, enabling the team to identify any pattern or obstacle being encountered. Thus, the process is improved, and future instances of such scenarios are avoided. The team’s adaptability increases reliability, keeping customers satisfied and giving them a sense of trust.
Summary:
When a team moves to an Agile-centric environment, the benefits become apparent within the first few weeks of transition, as everyone learns the principles and processes. Positive results will likely be expected from clients.
Using Scrum, we can increase a team’s productivity, improve team member morale, generate financial rewards, or achieve specific goals.
About the author:
Kavya Sethuraman – Scrum MasterAt Direction Software LLP, Kavya works with cross functional teams by utilizing Agile principles to deliver customer centric projects. Hands-on in assisting Dev teams and supporting clients in removing impediments, enhance high quality deliverables and helping teams in adopting Scrum methodologies.