Scrum Overview

Learning Goals

- A basic understanding of scrum

- Dispel some scrum myths
- Create enthusiasm for scrum
- Set you on your agile journey
- Recognize past experience

Agile Manifesto

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documents

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

(That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more)

Agile Principles

4. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.

7. Working software is the primary measure of progress

10. Simplicity – the art of maximizing the amount of work not done – is essential.

12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its
behavior accordingly.

Key Benefits of Agile

Quality – goal: zero defect software

Predictability – can the release be reliably planned for?

Productivity – increased bang for the buck

Early Return On Investment – release smaller batches more often

Adaptability – smaller batches means more frequent customer feedback

Innovation – ability to try things out cost effectively

Staff Retention – team engagement promotes retention

“IT IS ABOUT HAVING THE RIGHT CONVERSATION AND THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF CONVERSATION AT
THE RIGHT TIME”

Agile and Scrum are:

- A light weight process framework, driven by the principles

- Based heavily on Lean
- Prescribed rituals that must all be adhered to, for it to work well.

Handoffs

Unfinished Work

Defects

Delays

Unnecessary Features

Relearning

Task Switching

Another concept: FLOW

Ideation > Commitment > Implementation and Quality > Delivery

“Takt”

Scrum Roles

The Agile Team

Ideally:

Autonomous

Sized 7 +/- 2

Dedicated
The team is a software production cell

Focused on an area of functionality

3 Amigos -> Product Owner > Dev > QE

Scrum Master

Product Owner: the single voice of the customer into the scrum team

The Product Owner

1. Sets the goals and the vision

2. Subject matter expert
3. Defines what to build
4. Defines the market order (ranking)
5. Owns and refines the backlog
6. Outlines acceptance criteria
7. Formally accepts the story
8. Makes trade off decisions
9. Co-proponent of scrum practice

The Scrum Master

1. Facilitator in chief
2. Servant leader
3. Impediment remover
4. Chief scrum proponent
5. Front line scrum coach
6. Owner of the process
7. Interference shield

AGILE TEAM

User Interface

Business Logic

Database

Vertical Slices Preferred

- Delivers completed end user value

- Can be demonstrated
 - Easier to test
- Discourages silo mentality
- Reduces integration risk
- Can be prioritized by PO

USER STORIES

Who?

What?

Why?

User stories a.k.a Product Backlog Increment

1. Main unit of work

2. Written from the user perspective
3. Keeps the customer in mind
4. Defines what is needed to accept the work
5. Act as a conversation place holder
6. Are not contractual
7. Drafted by the PO, refined by the team

“as a persona I want to do something so that I can achieve something”

Properties of a good user story

Independent

Negotiable

Valuable

Estimatable

Small

Testable

A Simple Example
As a high school student, I want to buy a parking pass, so I can drive to school.

- Only 1 pass per month

o Cannot buy back to back passes
o Cannot buy passes for others
- Sufficient payment required
- Student must be enrolled

PRODUCT OWNER > writes the acceptance criteria

Splitting User Stories

Other Units of Work

- Only user stories follow the format

- Other work items do not have a defined format
- But they still need to be in the backlog
- They should still be ranked
- They should still be demoed

Poker Planning