Scrum is a management framework for developing and sustaining complex products. Scrum employs a lean iterative and incremental approach with empirical process control.

 

 

The heart of Scrum are iterations (called Sprints) with a length of up to 4 weeks.

 

All Sprints use the same Scrum framework, and all Sprints end with an Increment. The Increment is the sum of all Product Backlog items completed during a Sprint and all previous Sprints.

 

One Sprint starts immediately after the prior Sprint ends.

 

Within each iteration, Scrum employs self-organizing, cross-functional Scrum Teams to optimize flexibility and productivity.

 

 

The Scrum Team:

• Scrum Master
• Product Owner
• Development Team

 

 

The Scrum Events:

• Sprint Planning One
• Sprint Planning Two
• Sprint
• Daily Scrum
• Sprint Review
• Sprint Retrospective

 

 

The Scrum Artifacts:

• Product Backlog
• Sprint Backlog
• Increment

 

 

Useful Scrum Techniques

• Planning Poker
• User Story
• Five Phases of a Retrospective
• Collocation
• Product Vision
• Sprint Burn Dowm
• Impediment Backlog
• Release Planning
• Release Plan
• Release Burn Down

While Scrum has its origins in software development projects, Scrum is now used for all kinds of product developments:

• Software Systems
• Cars
• Musicals.

 

 

A growing number of organizations have started to use Scrum -- with some modifications -- as a general management method, e.g. by marketing or service organizations.

 

Values

The Scrum framework builds on a foundation of agile values. The agile values shape everything that is done in Scrum. They are the foundation.

 

Many people say that Scrum is different from other project management approaches. The key to this difference are the values. These values are typical for organizations of the knowledge generation building on hyper performing teams. Scrum is an excellent choice for organizations that live by these values.

 

However, while Scrum is simple, living by the values is hard. Doing Scrum and following the values is key to its success.

• Empowerment and Self-Organization: The team is empowered and responsible for all decisions to deliver the product. It plans itself, and everyone takes tasks by himself. Teams are interdisciplinary.
• Deliver Early and Regularly: Everyone focuses on delivering the final product iteratively and incrementally. Early and regular deliveries ensure a continuous flow of results that enable everyone to inspect and adapt the product as well as the way of work.
• Inspect and Adapt: Inspecting and adapting is the key for improvement. It applies to the product as well as to the way of work.
• Transparency: Transparency means that everything is visible to everyone in order to allow decisions as early as possible.
• Timeboxing: Everything in Scrum is time boxed, meaning that it has a definite beginning and end that is never extended. This ensures discipline, focus and on-time deliveries.