Since the development of the agile manifesto some methodologies have been created for the development of software and, in some cases, adapted for the development of products in general and even for the management of teams and projects.
Agile Scrum Development is one of the most widespread and applied.
But before we check out the secrets from those who use agile methodologies in their daily lives, let’s recap (or learn): what is the agile scrum development process?
Learn more: Agile Scrum and Kanban: Don’t confuse them any longer!
What is the Agile Scrum Development Process?
First of all, the basis for understanding the Agile Scrum Process is to realize that they are organized in cycles.
A second important point to note is that for all team members to completely understand these cycles, you should define some ‘rituals’.
Finally, Agile Scrum Development determines certain roles and who should take them.
Therefore, let’s consider these three focal points in order to know the answer to ‘what is the agile scrum development process?’
Agile Scrum Process Cycles
These are called Sprints, which have a set period of time where staff should perform a series of activities.
Each new Sprint accumulates the achievements and experiences from previous ones, consequently leading to better performances in each subsequent Sprint.
Agile Scrum Process rituals
- Sprint Plan Meeting: Perform them at the beginning of each Sprint to align every task so that the end product meets the needs of the end customer.
- Daily Scrum: A daily, short morning meeting so everyone can talk about the day before. To discuss any problems that the team need to solve and what they intend to do on that day.
- Sprint Review Meeting: The team involved in the project presents to the group the features that were implemented during the Sprint in question.
- Sprint Retrospective: Cycle restart, using experiences from the previous Sprint’s to plan the next one.
Agile Scrum Process Roles
- Product Owner: The professional responsible for ‘defending the interests of the end customer’. This person determines what tasks to perform in each Sprint. They first put all necessary project tasks into a Product Backlog. They then transfer a select few to the Sprint Backlog, at the beginning of each new sprint cycle.
- Scrum Master: A kind of Scrum method best practices guardian who also tries to prevent the team from committing to do more than what is possible in each Sprint.
See also: Agile change management: Be quick, efficient and responsive
Tips for using an Agile Scrum Development Process at work
Rubens Stulzer, from VivaReal, confesses that he has never used a form of pure Scrum, he has always used something mixed, with XP influences (another agile scrum development methodology).
“At VivaReal we have certain Scrum rituals, such as daily stand-up meetings, sprint planning, pre-planning and retrospectives. The daily meeting, I believe is the most common of them all. Its purpose is to give us an understanding of how we are going with the sprint deliverables and what might be delaying someone.”
As for Sprint Planning, Stulzer emphasizes the importance of understanding the needs that the product must contain, and reveals a tactic that they use to make it very detailed and specific:
“In Sprint Planning we discuss the stories we’re going to develop in the sprint. We often break those stories into even smaller stories, where the bigger story breaks into an epic or feature.”
A story, for those who don’t know, is a ‘user story’, a short description of their needs. If you put together several stories, you can create an ‘epic’ with the goal of performing it in a single Sprint.
For Thais Goetz, Project Manager at Supersonic, agile scrum methodologies are not ‘one size fits all’. You should adapt them to the reality of a particular company:
“In Supersonic’s case, the home office factor demands special care and specific strategies. So, although we don’t officially use any specific methodology (like Scrum, for example), I’ve introduced some of its guiding principles to the day-to-day operations at Supersonic. I highlighted one in particular: daily feedback and collaboration.”
Therefore, the goal is for all staff to remain engaged and to actively participate in company deliveries.
So, for this to work on teams that work remotely, they use some collaborative tools:
“Our team is a heavy user of Slack and Basecamp.”
Companies use Slack mostly for informal feedback and to optimize communication, to avoid delays in deliveries. Basecamp has a workflow structuring function, which incorporates delivery dates, people responsible and task definitions.
Check out: Lean Kanban Board: How does it differ from other agile methods?
As you can see, you can adapt Agile Scrum Development, case by case. This can help facilitate process development modeling for any company .
So, in your business, do you use some sort of agile scrum process, or a variation of it? What is the agile scrum development process to you?
Leave your message in the comments!