How scrum defines roles, events and artifacts to simplify the organization of project management

Project management involves immense preparations that project managers and project teams that can too much for them sometimes. Unpredictability happens and sometimes obliges you to reinspect and evaluate the project again. And of course, even though, it is the project manager and team’s job to get the work done, it can prove to be tiresome at times. This is why, in order to alight some responsibilities and organize the project to simplify the project’s execution, Scrum has been created. It put simple in complex project and help get things done. Roles are attributed to, events that were maybe lost in the tons of information are classified, and the artifacts puts the organization in activities for the work. So, how does scrum define roles, events and artifacts to simplify the organization of project management?

All the information are cited and explained below:

Scrum is an agile methodology used in project management. It is led by a Scrum master, whose main job is to observe team tasks and remove all hurdles from the project in order for the team to get the work done.

Though, one would think that scrum is the same as agile which pertains to mindset, it actually focuses on a structure of work accomplishments which helps to adapt agility within your product team and organization.

Furthermore, even if scrum’s appearance is of a structured framework, scrum is extremely flexible because you can personalize it to the needs of the product team, your organization and that of any other company.

Finally, because scrum is made to facilitate the team’s process and progress on projects, it provides consecutive inspections throughout the tasks process, such as change of work conditions, issues with equipment and more for teams to follow. Scrum enables quicker work advancement for product finalization, i.e. Product increment, which will be explained further in the article.

The more the development team is aware of where the work on the product blocks and of where the work on the product moves perfectly forward, the better the team’s awareness at work will be.

• Define your scrum team: Note down how many scrum team members you have like the analyst, developer etc. Which type of work will be assigned to which member? Establish work for members according to their competence. Every job is different.
• Determine the length of your sprint: It is the time box that shows when and what backlogs the scrum team should do in a time period. To fill this box with product backlogs, a sprint planning usually takes place for everyone to be aware of their work and then the scrum team gets to work. Once that work day for the scrum team is over, a sprint meeting follows where the scrum team members showcase the work on the product they accomplished. After the presentation, it is reviewed by the product owner who most likely take notes for the next sprint plan and the team plan the activities to fill the sprint with.
• Choose a scrum master: He does not dictate, but resolves any issues that resurge for the scrum team members. He can also assist the scrum team in planning for future sprints and product work.
• Determine the product owner: He/ she is the one that clarifies the backlogs in sprints for the scrum team. He takes notes in the form of stories that clients require, to prioritize them and provide the clear and understandable end result to the scrum team in the sprint.
• Create the team backlog: It should be the stories (customer requirements) written by the product owner to accomplish. Place according to importance, so the scrum team knows which work to attack first, as it will show up at the top.
• Usually, two types of stories exist:
  • Epics, the more important with fewer details
  • Stories, the more detailed. Scrum flexibility provides the opportunity to add more stories, of course. And, the closer the scrum goes through the work in the sprint, the product owner should add more details, so the scrum team can attack it right away.
• Plan for your first scrum: Once the team sees what work to do according to prioritization, the scrum team start to think of strategies to carry it out. This is the sprint planning of the scrum team. And of course, once the scrum team comes to an agreement, they start to work.
• End of the current and beginning of the next sprint: At this stage, the scrum team has a sprint retrospective about what was successful and what went wrong so, as not to repeat in the next sprint. Finally, you plan for the next sprint.

Scrum contains a structure that is called 3-5-3. It is so essential that, without it, one would say that you are not applying Scrum in your work life or product development. To emphasize, it is the core of scrum. So how does the structure go and what does it stand for?

Scrum is defined by:

• Scrum Roles, for which the 3 represents 3 roles that are held by the Product Owner, Scrum Master and the Development Team
• Scrum Events, which concerns 5 events that are the Sprint, Sprint Planning, Daily scrum, Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective.
• Scrum Artifacts, for which 3 represents artifacts such as Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog and Increment.

  But these structures may or not have any meaning to you. So here is an in-depth description of what each of these roles, events and artifacts are.

As you read before, scrum roles are composed of 3 roles occupied by the scrum product owner, the scrum master and the scrum development team. First, you have:

The Product Owner:

The product owner decides on what needs to be built in the scrum for the scrum development team. To perfect the work of the scrum product development team to get a clear picture of what your business requires, the scrum product owner focuses on the business aspect and market requirements, so that the development team can satisfy the customer with a product increment of value.

The scrum product owner directs the team to be entirely proficient at all times. At every step of the product (listed in sprint) being built, the scrum product owner focuses on its users, the development team and so on.

The scrum product owner creates an intelligible, uncomplicated vision of the product in scrum which the product development team accesses through the backlog (work to be done) present in the designated sprint, to ease the scrum usage process for the development team.

Of course, when a company builds or works on a product for a customer, the goal for the work is not only for it to be totally accomplished at your leisure but also to meet the customer’s demands. And, to measure the development team’s progress, the scrum product owner deals with the return on investment (ROI) or the value delivered by the work on the product. This allows the development team to know whether they failed at their work or not. If their earned value is positive or negative.

Basically, the product owner’s goal is to focus on the product backlog (task to be done), market demands during the Scrum development, to guarantee, that the company’s organization and development team’s products are up to par.

The scrum master:

The scrum master is the boss of all bosses. The scrum master is the one in charge of explaining to the scrum development teams, scrum product owners, etc. about the scrum process. The scrum master’s goal is to look for possibilities to refine or tweak the scrum development team’s use of the sprints in scrum if there are any issues.

Unlike the name leads you to believe, the scrum master does not give the development team orders to work, but rather his goal is to guide them to be their best at tasks while aiding them to use scrum and particularly sprints. He is like the scrum team’s guidance. And no guide can properly steer without thorough research, so the scrum master makes it his goal to understand the development team’s work as well, so he can help the scrum team elevate their transparency and that delivery of products of value proceeds.

In addition, the scrum master has a foot in the scrum event because he is the one to seek workforce if needed, for sprint Planning, sprint Review and sprint Retrospective.

And, last but not least, the scrum team:

The scrum development team is the MVP of scrum because it is thanks to the development team that the backlogs get done. The development team are the manpower of your workforce, the skills implemented in your backlogs.

Furthermore, the team is its own decision maker. Moreover, the development team chooses what they will work on in sprints, making them a self-organized group that determines its work in the scrum sprints and whose goal is to increase value.

The team is cross-functional and unified, there is no separation between developers or analysts as they work as one to effectively deliver the product and as sprints are equally accessible to everyone on the team.

And finally, the development team’s goal is being committed and dedicated to delivering the finished product within a set timeframe to increase value. The development team relies on clarity amongst everyone in case an issue arises, so it can be fixed and dealt with efficiently or in most cases, the product owner detects it before while surveilling scrum sprints.

These scrum events are probably the most notable of the scrum. The scrum events are time-boxes, in which the scrum team goes to check their actual work and figure out what should or shouldn’t be applied in the next activity. It is a part of the business’s goal.

They go by the name of 5.

The sprint:

The sprint is the actual timeframe the scrum team uses to realize their valued product increment that could potentially be shipped to the customer. The sprint usually never exceeds 4 weeks. And if so, it could be tricky for the development team as the market could change and make their product increment a waste of time, decreasing their earned value.

The team can choose the element “done” at the end of every work day in sprint and the perks is that unlike traditional methods, where the team would waste time building a whole product only for it to be useless and redo it, the team can cancel backlogs (work) in sprints at any time of the product activities. Because everything is shared in sprints, created for every development or stages to a product, the product owner can always cancel a sprint. If there are any major issues, of course.

You know by now that technology can be handy sometimes. Scrum details the work and meetings via sprint for the team. All the events that take place in the company could be found in sprint. There are a few, and you’ll find scrum events like:

Organizing the backlog:

This step is in the hands of the product owner. The product owner’s goal is to check if the backlog in sprint is going smoothly, if it is meeting customers’ needs. If products are relevant to what is available on the market and, of course, if the work is of value for the company. Remember the point is not to finish a product to then, have it be useless. This backlog list allows for constant inspection and changes through sprint so that everything is on point, not wasted and the company’s value remains intact. The product owner or development team could remove tasks in of products in sprint that no longer serves a purpose for the team or product itself in the backlog, while adding activities that work better.

Sprint planning, which is where the scrum team plans the work to do in the sprint.

Daily scrum, that is short meetings that usually happen every day at the same time, to see what everyone in the team has done the day before, is currently doing and if there are any issues to address.

Sprint review, is a scrum team meeting where the development team presents/ delivers its product sample or product increment (product end result), to find out if it’s good enough and of value to release and deliver to the customer. This decision is entirely up to the product owner to take. If, the product owner feels it is not quite ready, he can send it back to product improvement. Though, this process rarely happens.

Sprint retrospective, is where the team gathers to discuss the issues and accomplishments. Sprint retrospective doesn’t have to be centered around the project, it could involve problems within the team. Sprint retrospective lets the team envision better solutions for the next activity, to make it more successful.

They are composed of three.

They could be considered as the tool you make to solve a problem, which constantly needs to be revisited to avoid major issues. It is the part that also focuses on the aspect of the software. Everything is done through scrum.

The first one is product backlog:

Product backlog is considered to be the main tasks of the development team, it includes the functionalities of what the product might include. Product backlog is basically the team’s “to-do list”. The product owner is in charge of this backlog list, which should constantly be updated and revisited as the market changes, demands evolve. He looks for the team to deliver proactivity and value.

The sprint backlog:

The sprint backlog is the subpart of product backlog’s activities needing to be accomplished by the team. It’s the activities in sprint, the team looks to implement. But of course, as organization should not be neglected in projects, in order to create a sprint backlog, the team chooses items from the product backlog that they hope to accomplish within a fixed timeframe.

Increments:

Is the usable part of the sprint. It’s the work the team delivers at the end of every sprint in scrum. The product that the team can present to the customer.

It is called a Product Increment (PI).

Even though, your development team planned everything by setting a goal to finalize a product, the team can never truly predict the outcome. But, with scrum, you can somehow change that. That’s because, due to scrum having a scrum master who always surveys market changes, the team’s advancements, the scrum team progress at work, it is easier to stay updated on everything. Sprint gives you that clarification you never thought you needed when you access it. Each work activity is also divided, which makes it easier to know your activity of the day and focus on that one only.

So here are a few benefits:

• Scrum is easy to groom, you can modify backlogs at any given moment in scrum.
• Money saver: If things are organized, then the scrum team saves time and money and the quicker the product increment can be shipped. Also, as you previously read, scrum is flexible, you can cancel any work or add at any time, even before the finished product as known as product increment.
• Direct: because the scrum team is aware of each other’s progress on scrum in the sprints.

Scrum is a great solution for a quick and successful project for almost any type of project. It is effective in creating agility for any company’s team and head of company’s organization. It is flexible and personalized for your business and any other out there. Once the necessary steps are taken into consideration, scrum can become a relief for the team as they have the scrum master and product owner to guide them through their work. So, why wait? Get you a scrum.