Scrum: Framework, Theory, Essence, Principles, Roles, Charac and Values

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May 28, 2024

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Introduction to Scrum

Scrum is an Agile framework that lets you create a lightweight process for developing new products. Since the early 1990s, Scrum has been used to manage complex product development. It is not a process or a technique for building products but is a framework within which various processes and techniques can be employed. Scrum makes it easier for development practices and product management to improve.

Scrum has been defined as "A framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value."

1. Scrum Framework

Scrum is a team process that begins when stakeholders request a product. The team builds the product incrementally in short sprints. A sprint is for a fixed period with a maximum duration of four weeks but with a preference for a shorter duration. The Scrum team builds and delivers a product increment during each sprint. Each increment is a recognizable, visually enhanced, operating subset of the final product.

Scrum encourages transparency with stakeholders and within the team. This leads to visible displays of plans and progress. Scrum binds together events, roles, and artifacts, managing the relationships, and communication between them.

Scrum includes three essential artifacts:

• Product backlog: List of requirements for the product, in the order in which they are to be built.
• Sprint backlog: Detailed plan for development during the next sprint.
• Product increment: An integrated high-quality version of the product that is ready to be delivered at the request of the product owner.
  
  
  

2. Scrum Theory

Scrum is based on empirical process control theory, or empiricism. This theory states that the basis of all knowledge is experience derived from what is already known. Scrum uses an incremental, iterative approach to improve consistency and control risk.

Each implementation of empirical process control is guided by the following factors:

• Transparency: Important aspects of the process must be evident to the responsible people. Transparency requires significant aspects of the process to be defined by a common standard so that observers share a common understanding of what is being seen.
  
  
• Inspection: The team needs to inspect Scrum artifacts and progress toward the goal of identifying unwelcome diversions. Inspections should not be too frequent that itgetst in the way of work. They are best performed by skilled inspectors at the point of work to identify unacceptable variances.
  
  
• Adaptation: If a process deviates from acceptable limits, it is adjusted quickly to prevent it from deviating any further.
  
  

Four formal opportunities for inspection and adaptation in Scrum are:

• Sprint Planning Meeting
• Daily Scrum
• Sprint review
• Sprint Retrospective
  
  
  

3. The Essence of Scrum

The essence of Scrum is:

• The team is given clearly defined goals.
• The team organizes itself around work.
• The team routinely delivers the most valuable features.
• The team receives constant feedback from customers.
• The team reviews the work done to improve its way of working.
• The entire organization has visibility into the progress of the team.
• The team and management honestly communicate about progress and risks.
  
  
  

4. Rules and Characteristics of Scrum

Scrum follows some common rules.

• Always have a product that is ready enough to be dispatched.
• Have a common language on a single development site.
• Continuously test the product as you build it.
  
  

Characteristics of Scrum are as follows:

• Breaking down large products into smaller manageable chunks.
  
  
• Enables the project to proceed systematically even when the team is not able to determine a complete product design at the beginning of the project.
  
  
• Facilitates large teams to divide work among multiple small teams developing projects in parallel. But synchronizing continuously, stabilizing in increments, and continuously finding and fixing issues. 
  
  
• Facilitates competition based on customer feedback, and short development times by incorporating customer inputs, setting priorities, completing the most important requirements first, and then changing less important features.
  
  
  

5. Scrum Principles

Scrum is the most popular of the Agile frameworks. The Agile manifesto values apply directly to Scrum. They are as follows:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools: Like all Agile frameworks and methods, Scrum relies directly on trust between the individuals in the teams and their interactions. Teams decide on the course of action and then work towards their goals. They also identify the difficulties on their path and resolve the issues which come under their scope. Teams also sort out issues with other people in the organization who are outside their team. Thus, the primary focus of Scrum is team responsibility and autonomy.
  
  
• Working software with comprehensive documentation: The output of each sprint is a working, finished increment of the product. Even though documentation for analysis, design, and testing will have to be done, it is working software that is the most important output for the team and the organization.
  
  
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation: The Scrum team's prime point of contact is the Scrum product owner with the end users of the product. The product owner is also a member of the Scrum team and works collaboratively with the team to make decisions. The product owner prioritizes tasks and ensures that the product has the highest possible value all the time.
  
  
• Responding to change over following a plan: The Scrum process is designed in such a way that the information needed to make good decisions is easily available. The progress of the project is represented by a working product increment at the end of each sprint. The overall progress and the progress from sprint to sprint is clear. The backlog to be done is available for all. Problems and concerns are discussed openly and dealt with immediately. Scrum is a good op for teams that openly inspect the process and adapt their actions to reality.
  
  
  

6. Scrum Values

The five values on which the Scrum team's process and principles are founded:

• Focus: The team works well together, produces outstanding results, and delivers valuable items sooner since it focuses on only a few things at a time.
  
  
• Courage: The Scrum team always has a lot of resources at their disposal and feels supported always which gives them the courage to undertake bigger challenges.
  
  
• Openness: The Scrum team communicates with each other about their progress and the challenges that they face. Expressing concerns helps the team sort them out faster.
  
  
• Commitment: The Scrum team is very committed to success since they are in control of their process.
  
  
• Respect: As the team works together sharing successes and failures, the members come to respect each other and help each other become worthy of respect.