What is Agile Scrum? How is it Beneficial in Project Management?
In order to understand what is Agile Scrum, let us first get a brief overview of what is Agile. Agile is a project management approach which enables teams to innovate and respond to changing customer demands in quickly. As opposed to the traditional monolithic (waterfall) approach, agile allows developer teams to micro-manage the project based on constant feedbacks from the customers. It allows developers to apply changes more seamlessly and efficiently, through iterative developments, especially in uncertain market environments.
PenMyPaper experts say that it is important to understand that Scrum and Agile are not identical to each other, but scrum is in fact one of the several agile processes, hence often referred to as Agile Scrum. Thus, scrum can be considered as an agile project management framework, which is used to deliver small pieces a project in subsequent iterations. Scrum is a framework in which teams can address adaptive problems, while delivering projects of highest possible value. Now that we have established the basic definition of Scrum, we can now get into the details of the Scrum framework so that you can apply its in your formal essay on project management.
The Scrum Framework
As mentioned earlier, Scrum is a part or subset of Agile methodology. It is a widely popular lightweight process framework for agile development in a given project. The term ‘process framework’ refers to a set of activities that needs to be followed so that a process can maintain its consistency with the framework. The term ‘lightweight’ refers to keeping the process overhead as small as possible, in order to yield maximum possible productive time.
Agile Scrum is mostly used in complex software and product development that follows incremental and iterative practice. The key advantage of using Scrum is that it improves productivity of the teams significantly and also reduces the project lead time, as compared to the traditional waterfall model. It enables firms to seamlessly adjust to the rapidly changing customer requirements to offer products that align with the constantly evolving organizational goals.Here are some of the key benefits of applying Agile Scrum into a project:
- Improve the overall quality of deliverables
- Better change management
- Providing more accurate estimates
- Better control over project schedule and current state
The Process of Agile Scrum
Now that we have an overall idea of the Scrum framework, let us delve into its process. Below, our perfect essay helpers have elaborated on the process of scrum.
Scrum Roles
The Scrum is implemented in an organization by the employees who are allocated with different Scrum roles, which are:
- Scrum Master
- Product Owner
- Development Team
The Scrum Master holds the managerial position and bears the responsibility to apply Scrum so that all of its benefits can be reaped by the stakeholders. He/she also ensures that the Scrum framework is fully understood across the entire organization. Moreover, the Scrum master needs to hold authority high enough to be able to communicate at every level of the hierarchy.
The Product Owner owns the product in an entrepreneurial manner, thereby providing clear vision to the entire Scrum team about the value that the project needs to deliver. The product owner also has the responsibility of overseeing the value maximization by development team. He/she is often considered to be the value optimizer.
The Development Team delivers the ones who add value of the product, by carrying out the work in the Scrum team.
These three Scrum roles are the most crucial ones for you to remember for your assignment, as all the vital activities in the Agile Scrum are carried out by these staff members. Now let us look at the Scrum artifacts or tools that are used in the Scrum framework.
Scrum Artifacts
Product Backlog: The product backlog describes the vision of the product through the product owner, that adds items to the backlog, that will deliver the expected value from the product.Take a look at the Apple vision statement to understand how perceptive one has to be. The development team refines the items in the backlog that can be delivered in a sprint. Certain items in the backlog can be eliminated by the product owner which are no longer required or will not produce the expected value.
Sprint Backlog: Sprint Backlog contains the items which the development team expects to deliver in the sprint. The task items in the sprint backlog is often segregated into “Forecasts”, “To-do”, “In-process” and “Done”.
Increment: The increment is the consolidation of all the items in the product backlog that has been completed in a sprint and all the previous sprint values. Each time the product owner releases the increment to the customers, it creates a feedback loop to the product vision and the task items in the product backlog, depending on the reaction of the customer.
Now let us look at the Scrum events which links the roles with the artifacts and creates the feedback loops.
Scrum Events
Sprint Planning: The Sprint planning covers the tasks to be performed in the Sprint. It allows the Scrum team to plan the work taken from the Product backlog and deliver the value which is considered to be the output of the sprint. Firstly, the Sprint goal is identified, which comprises of the value heading for the deliverable outcome of the sprint. The development team then breaks down product backlog and selects the items that they think will help in delivering the sprint goal. These items are then broken down to create the sprint backlog.
Daily Scrum: The daily scrum is a short time boxed event undertaken by the development team, in which they synchronize the works of the last 24 hours with the planned tasks for the next 24 hours. It allows for daily inspection of the tasks and adapt their plans for the next day.
Sprint Review: It is the sprint event where the entire scrum team and also the stakeholders join to inspect the work that has been done to meet the sprint goal and how it progresses the overall project. The outcome of the inspection from the sprint review creates a feedback loop to product backlog and sprint planning.
Retrospective: The sprint retrospective allows the team to inspect themselves and to develop a plan for where the next sprint can be improved. It creates a continuous improvement feedback loop between the sprint review and the sprint planning.
Sprint: The sprint is the container event, as all the event of scrum as discussed earlier takes place within the sprint. It is to be noted that no activities are to be carried out outside the time box of the sprint.
The Scrum Roles, Artifacts and Events together form the entire Agile Scrum. The process of Scrum describe above will definitely help you prepare your essay on Scrum just as good as a professional essay writer. Why not go through the Starbucks mission statement if it helps with one of your assignments?.
The Scrum Values
The success of Agile Scrum depends on the five key values, which are:
- Courage
- Focus
- Commitment
- Respect
- Openness
The scrum team needs to have courage to try new things and to question the current status of the sprint, if they feel that there are room for further improvements.
The scrum team needs to be highly focused on the work at hand, particularly the sprint goals. The sprint goals must not be deviated under any conditions.
The team members should be fully committed to their job roles. Each scrum role is equally responsible for the successful delivery of the project.
Each team member, irrespective of their role should have mutual respect for one another. It is the joint effort of the entire team which brings the project to a success.
The team and the stakeholders need to be open and transparent about the work and the associated challenges in the project.
The Key Benefits of Agile Scrum
For Customers: The customers find that the firm is more responsive to the requested changes. High-value attributes and features are deployed quickly and in short cycles.
For Organization: The organization can now reduce wastage of resources and time. It can also put more focus on the development of high-value features and can reduce customer waiting time, leading to higher customers satisfaction and stronger brand image.
For Developers: Non-productive works are reduced to a minimum. Developer teams receive continuous feedback which allows them to improve their work constantly.
By this time, you should have a firm grasp on the concept of Agile Scrum and the underlying processes. The article aims at providing all the key concepts of Scrum in one place for your college essay examples so that you can prepare a good-quality paper for your semester.
Still Confused About Agile Scrum? Ask aProfessional
Undoubtedly, the agile scrum is one of the most complicated frameworks in operations management domain. For a student, preparing a paper on it, can be quite challenging, which is why we, at Penmypaper, are here to offer you the best academic help for your essay. Whenever you need to write papers from quality writers, just provide us your assignment instructions and our experts will provide you with top quality paper in no time.
