What is Scrum?
Scrum is a framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value.
Scrum is:
- Lightweight
- Simple to understand
- Difficult to master
What does Scrum framework consist of?
The Scrum framework consists of Scrum Teams and their associated roles, events, artifacts, and rules. Each component within the framework serves a specific purpose and is essential to Scrum’s success and usage.
What does empiricism assert?
Empiricism asserts that knowledge comes from experience and making decisions based on what is known.
What are Scrum pillars?
Scrum pillars are:
- Transparency
- Inspection
- Adaptation
What are Scrum events?
Scrum defines 5 events:
- Sprint
- Sprint Planning
- Daily Scrum
- Sprint Review
- Sprint Retrospective
What are Scrum values?
Scrum defines 5 values:
- Commitment
- Courage
- Focus
- Openness
- Respect
What does the Scrum Team consist of?
The Scrum Team consists of the following:
- Product Owner
- Development Team
- Scrum Master
What is the Scrum Team model designed to optimise?
The Scrum Team model is designed to optimise:
- Flexibility
- Creativity
- Productivity
What is the Product Owner responsible for?
The Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the value of the product resulting from work of the Development Team
Is the Product Owner a one person role or can it be a committee?
The Product Owner is one person, not a committee.
What does the management of the Product Backlog imply?
The management of the Product Backlog implies:
- Clearly expressing Product Backlog items;
- Ordering the items in the Product Backlog to best achieve goals and missions;
- Optimising the value of the work the Development Team performs;
- Ensuring that the Product Backlog is visible, transparent, and clear to all, and shows what the Scrum Team will work on next; and,
- Ensuring the Development Team understands items in the Product Backlog to the level needed.
What does the Development Team consist of?
The Development Team consists of professionals who do the work of delivering a potentially releasable Increment of “Done” product at the end of each Sprint.
What are the characteristics of the Development Team?
- They are self-organizing. No one (not even the Scrum Master) tells the Development Team how to turn Product Backlog into Increments of potentially releasable functionality;
- Development Teams are cross-functional, with all the skills as a team necessary to create a product Increment;
Scrum recognizes no titles for Development Team members, regardless of the work being performed by the person; - Scrum recognizes no sub-teams in the Development Team, regardless of domains that need to be addressed like testing, architecture, operations, or business analysis; and,
- Individual Development Team members may have specialized skills and areas of focus, but accountability belongs to the Development Team as a whole.
What is the recommended size of a Development Team? What happens if the team is smaller than the minimum? And larger?
Optimal Development Team size is small enough to remain nimble and large enough to complete significant work within a Sprint. It is recommended a team of 3 to 9 people.
Fewer than three Development Team members decrease interaction and results in smaller productivity gains. Smaller Development Teams may encounter skill constraints during the Sprint, causing the Development Team to be unable to deliver a potentially releasable Increment.
Having more than nine members requires too much coordination. Large Development Teams generate too much complexity for an empirical process to be useful.
What is a Scrum Master? What is the Scrum Master responsible for?
The Scrum Master is responsible for promoting and supporting Scrum as defined in the Scrum Guide. Scrum Masters do this by helping everyone understand Scrum theory, practices, rules, and values.
The Scrum Master is a servant-leader for the Scrum Team. The Scrum Master helps those outside the Scrum Team understand which of their interactions with the Scrum Team are helpful and which aren’t. The Scrum Master helps everyone change these interactions to maximize the value created by the Scrum Team.
In what ways does the SM serve the PO?
- Ensuring that goals, scope, and product domain are understood by everyone on the Scrum Team as well as possible;
- Finding techniques for effective Product Backlog management;
- Helping the Scrum Team understand the need for clear and concise Product Backlog items;
- Understanding product planning in an empirical environment;
- Ensuring the Product Owner knows how to arrange the Product Backlog to maximize value;
- Understanding and practicing agility; and,
- Facilitating Scrum events as requested or needed.
In what ways does the SM serve the DT?
- Coaching the Development Team in self-organization and cross-functionality;
- Helping the Development Team to create high-value products;
- Removing impediments to the Development Team’s progress;
- Facilitating Scrum events as requested or needed; and,
- Coaching the Development Team in organizational environments in which Scrum is not yet fully adopted and understood.
In what ways does the SM serve the organisation?
- Leading and coaching the organization in its Scrum adoption;
- Planning Scrum implementations within the organization;
- Helping employees and stakeholders understand and enact Scrum and empirical product development;
- Causing change that increases the productivity of the Scrum Team; and,
- Working with other Scrum Masters to increase the effectiveness of the application of Scrum in the organization.
What are Scrum Events designed for?
each event in Scrum is a formal opportunity to inspect and adapt something. These events are specifically designed to enable critical transparency and inspection. Failure to include any of these events results in reduced transparency and is a lost opportunity to inspect and adapt.
Prescribed events are used in Scrum to create regularity and to minimize the need for meetings not defined in Scrum.
What is a Sprint?
A Sprint is a time-box of one month or less during which a “Done”, useable, and potentially releasable product Increment is created. Sprints have consistent durations throughout a development effort. A new Sprint starts immediately after the conclusion of the previous Sprint.
What do Sprints consist of?
Sprints contain and consist of the Sprint Planning, Daily Scrums, the development work, the Sprint Review, and the Sprint Retrospective.
What is the Sprint Planning?
Sprint Planning is time-boxed to a maximum of eight hours for a one-month Sprint. It is where the work to be performed in the Sprint is planned. This plan is created by the collaborative work of the entire Scrum Team.
The Scrum Master ensures that the event takes place and that attendants understand its purpose. The Scrum Master teaches the Scrum Team to keep it within the time-box.
Sprint Planning answers the following:
- What can be delivered in the Increment resulting from the upcoming Sprint?
- How will the work needed to deliver the Increment be achieved?
Can changes be done during a Sprint that endanger the Sprint Goal?
No. No changes are made that would endanger the Sprint Goal;
Can the quality goals decrease in scope of a Sprint?
No. Quality goals do not decrease;
