Scrum

Scrum is a set of principles for managing the developers work, which helps the team of several members (usually, from 3 to 9) to structurise the work, dividing the tasks in hard-fixed and short-term iterations, called sprints, to track progress and provide the user with running software and new capabilities, and to coordinate the changes on-stream if necessary.

Scrum is one of the realisation of Agile methodology.

Software capabilities required for implementation in the next sprint are determined at the beginning of the former in the planning stage - this cannot be changed throughout its entire length. At the same time, a strictly fixed, short duration of the sprint gives the development process predictability and flexibility.

Sprint is an iteration in Scrum, during which the functional growth of software is created. It is rigidly fixed in time. Normally, duration of one sprint is from 2 to 4 weeks. It is believed that the shorter the sprint, the more flexible the development process:

• the releases go out more often;
• the feedback from the consumer comes faster;
• less time is spent working in the wrong direction.

On the other hand, with longer sprints, the team has more time to solve the problems that have arisen in the process, and the project owner reduces the costs of meetings, and product demonstrations, etc.

Core roles in Scrum:

Scrum Master - holds Scrum meetings, monitors compliance with all Scrum principles, resolves contradictions, and protects the team from distractions. This role does not imply anything other than the correct conduct of the Scrum process. The project manager is more likely to relate to the owner and should not appear as a spammer.

Product Owner - represents the interests of end users and other interested parties in the product.

Development Team - a cross-functional team of project developers, consisting of specialists of different profiles: testers, architects, analysts, programmers, etc. The size of the team is ideally between 3 and 9 people. The team is the only fully involved development partner and is responsible for the result as a whole. No one, except the team, can interfere with the development process during the sprint.

Ancillary roles in Scrum:

Users - people who will use the end product.

Stakeholders - the persons who initiate the project and for whom the project will be profitable. They are involved in Scrum only during the sprint review meeting.

Managers - people who manage personnel.

Consulting Experts

Different teams select the sprint length according to the specifics of their work, team composition and requirements, often via trial and error. To evaluate the amount of work in a sprint, you can use preliminary estimations, recorded in the project backlog.

Scrum, as well as the whole Agile technology, is a modern and a very complicated approach to software development. This method is implemented only by advanced IT companies with high level of self-motivation and team-work.