Scrum Methodology

Cătuț Robert-Cristian

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Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................3
State of art......................................................................................................................................3
Developing the topic......................................................................................................................4
Conclusions.....................................................................................................................................6
Bibliography...................................................................................................................................7

Introduction

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 Scrum is known as a being a better way to building projects. It is
a framework where people can address sophisticated problems, while they
productively deliver products of a high value for the customers.
Scrum is a framework that helps organizations get value through adaptive
solutions for sophisticated problems. Scrum co-creators Ken Schwaber and Jeff
Sutherland have written “The Scrum Guide” to explain Scrum clearly to
everybody. This definition consists of Scrum’s accountabilities, events, artifacts,
and the rules that bind them together. 

Scrum requires a Scrum Master to take care of an environment where:

1. Product Owner orders the work for sophisticated and complex problems into
a product Backlog.
2. The Scrum Team works in sprints realizing the increment of value.
3. The Scrum Team and the stakeholders analyze the results of the present
sprint and adjust the work for the next one.
4. The process is being repeated until the work on the product is done.

This scrum method is simple, it is a small collection of interwoven mandatory

components. Scrum is not a methodology, but it implements the
scientific method of empiricis and it replaces a programmed algorithmic approach
with a heuristic one, with respect for people and self-organization to deal with
unpredictability and solving complex problems.

State of art

In reference [1] Perera and Chandana Ranasinghe explained how problems

and challenges of offshore development(OSD) are reduced by the scrum method
and also discussed about the success in OSD.

In reference [2] the fact that students will usually use their learning style as
they are exposed to different teaching methods is confirmed by the authors. To
help the MH method (meshing hypotheses method) they suplied exhibits in order
to demonstrate this.

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 Raj, from reference [3], presented a revised scrum practice, where test as a
service method is used to obtain the faster outputs with low cost. Survey says that
in order to test a product a lot more efficiently these agile practices like scrum are
also used.

Developing the topic

Scrum consists of predefined roles and which also has a group of processes.
Scrum roles include:

 SCRUM Master who Keeps up scrum processes.

 Owner of the Product.
 Scrum Team.

Usual software development models are not enough, there is a need to produce
an effective software product which these cannot offer. For example, if we think
about waterfall model, it’s best suited for small and not complex products with the
well defined and clear requirements. But it’s not enough for the projects or for the
products where the customer needs are frequently changing. This model is a
sequential method so in middle of the development process we can’t go to previous
steps to modify anything with respect for the customer. Agile with scrum is
introduced as an iterative process in order to avoid this kind of issues. Because the
frequently changing requirements this is a very usefull method for either small or
large products.

As example a product is divided into small increments which can be delivered

to be checked at the end of each sprint. The scrum application is done through
meetings. The main scrum meetings are the the daily scrum, the sprint meeting, the
sprint review and the sprint retrospective.

The Agile Release Train (ART) is a team of Agile teams, which, along with
other stakeholders, can incrementally develop, deliver and operate solutions in a
value stream.

Agile Release Trains align teams to a shared business mission. Each ART is
a virtual organization (typically more than 50 people) that can plan, commit,
develop, and deploy. These are organized around the enterprise’s significant

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Development Value Streams and exist only to realize the promise of the value by
building Solutions which delivers benefits to the end-users. ARTs are cross-
functional and have all the capabilities needed for defining, implementing, testing,
deploying, releasing and operating solutions.

Agile Release Trains work based on a set of principles: The schedule is fixed
as an example in which the train departs the station on a reliable and known
schedule, which is determined by the PI(Program Incremend) cadence. If there is a
Feature that does not get planned into the current PI and misses a timed departure,
it can catch the next one, meaning it can be moved to the next PI. A new system
increments every two weeks – Each train delivers a new system increment every
two weeks.

“The System Demo provides a mechanism for evaluating the working

system, which is an integrated increment from all the teams. Synchronization is
applied – All teams on the train are synchronized to the same PI length (typically 8
- 12 weeks) and have common Iteration start/end dates and duration. The velocity
of the train is known – Each ART can reliably estimate how much cargo (new
features) can be delivered in a PI. Agile Teams – Agile Teams embrace the ‘Agile
Manifesto’ and SAFe Core Values and Principles. They apply Scrum, Extreme
Programming (XP), Kanban, and other Built-In Quality practices. Dedicated
people – Most people needed by the ART are dedicated full time to the train,
regardless of their functional reporting structure. Face-to-face PI Planning – The
ART plans its work at periodic, mostly face-to-face PI Planning events. Innovation
and Planning (IP) – IP Iterations occur at the end of every PI and provide an
estimating guard band (buffer) as well as dedicated time for PI planning,
innovation, continuing education, and infrastructure work. Inspect and Adapt
(I&A) – An I&A event is held at the end of every PI. The current state of the
solution is demonstrated and evaluated. Teams and management then identify
improvement backlog items via a structured, problem-solving workshop. Develop
on Cadence, Release on Demand – ARTs apply cadence and synchronization to
help manage the inherent variability of research and development. However,
releasing is typically decoupled from the development cadence. ARTs can release
a solution, or elements of a solution, at any time, subject to governance and release
criteria.” [4]

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Existent scrum events:

 Sprint - Limits inflow overload.

 Sprint planning - Self assignment of tasks that initiates growth with regards
DoD/DoR (Definition of Done/Definition of Ready).
 Daily Scrum - helps with better coordination among the team for working on
the product.
 Sprint review - Takes feedback from the scrum team and analyzes the work
done. Also the stakeholders are invited to this.
 Sprint retrospective - Examine th issues and obstacles met by the scrum
team in the development work and plans for the next sprint.

Conclusions
If there is insufficient time to develop the software product, the project is
large and the requirements are frequently changing the best way to approach this is
to choose the Agile practices, because the waterfall model is only good for small
products with non-changing customer needs.
„Nowadays every software product or project is having the tight schedule
with high customer expectations, to deal with these kind of projects with customer
satisfaction the better way is the Agile methodology. Most of the software
industries treat and acknowledged agile practices are the best to develop an
effective and qualified software product.
Agile provides effective coordination among the team; Includes customers
or product owners to get the feedback; Have the ability to meet customer
requirements; Quick adaptability of frequently changing business and customer
requirements; Provides satisfaction, discipline and confidence among the team;
Proper planning guidelines by the Master; Deliver the products in terms of small
and frequent releases.” [5]

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Bibliography

[1] Chandana Ranasinghe, RK and Perera, I (2015) - Effectiveness of Scrum for

Offshore Software Development in Sri Lanka Moratuwa Engineering Research
Conference, Moratuwa, 306-311
[2] Scott, E, Rodríguez, G, Soria, Á and Campo, M (2016) - Towards Better Scrum
Learning Using Learning Styles Journal of Systems and Software , 111, 242-253
[3] Raj, G, Yadav, K and Jaiswal, A (2015) - Emphasis on Testing Assimilation
Using Cloud Computing for Improvised Agile SCRUM Framework 2015
International Conference on Futuristic Trends on Computational Analysis and
Knowledge Management, New Delhi, 219-225
[4] Agile Release Train - Scaled Agile Framework
[5] Scrum: An Effective Software Development Agile Tool - IOPscience