The beginners guide to understanding, and implement, the Scrum Methodology. Agile is a methodology of project management that involves breaking the project into phases and emphasizes continuous collaboration and improvement. In Scrum the teams follow a cycle of planning, executing, and evaluating.
Getting Started
There is a lot of new terminology when learning the Scrum Methodology for the first time. The following terms will provide the context needed for us to continue forward.
Epic: An Epic defines a collection of Features that group together to deliver a single piece of business functionality to the end user.
Feature: A Feature defines a collection of User Stories that group together to deliver a single piece of business functionality.
Story (or User Story): A User Story defines a portion of functionality needed to complete the parent Feature.
Task: A Task is work done by the developer to complete a User Story.
Issue: An Issue is when there is a difference between expected behavior and actual behavior of the application(s).
Bug: A Bug is when User Acceptance Testing (UAT) finds a difference between expected behavior and actual behavior of the application(s).
Backlog: The Backlog is the collection of Epics, Features, Stories, Issues, Bugs, and Tasks associated with a team.
Sprint: A period of time, typically two weeks, for the team to complete the selected Stories.
The first thing that trips up most people when switching from a traditional waterfall approach to Scrum is the "Story Point". A Story Point is a relative unit of measure, decided upon and used by individual Scrum teams, to provide relative estimates of effort for completing requirements. The story point is the replacement for hour estimation used in waterfall. A story point allows for more flexibility in the duration to complete a given item.
Team Working Agreements
The Team Working Agreement defines how the team wants to work together, and what they want in the working environment and from each other to feel safe and free to learn, explore and discover. The working agreement typically includes rules/disciplines/processes the team agrees to follow to make themselves more efficient and self managing. The working agreement must be agreed to by all team members in order to be effective.
This agreement is the first step for any newly formed scrum team. The working agreement can be organized in any way, provided it is clear and unambiguous for all team members. The following are a few key sections to include in the working agreement:
Team Roles
Definition of Ready (DoR)
Definition of Done (DoD)
Agile Ceremonies (or Scrum Events)
Each sprint includes several scrum events that help the team plan for the future and iterate on the the current process. The following is a list of the scrum events:
Backlog Refinement
Daily Scrum (or Daily Standup)
Sprint Review (or Sprint Demo)
Sprint Retrospective
Sprint Planning
Final Notes
A consistent format for items in the backlog makes it easier for the team to review. A template for each is provided bellow as a starting point. Tasks are the exception as they will vary greatly between developers so no template is provided:
Epic
Feature
User Story
Issue
Bug
Use the following print offs, designed for 4in x 6in print, as a quick reference guide for relating story points to hour ranges. If your team can't print them out, or you want the official print out, contact us.
One optional Scrum Event our team participates in is Team Building. Our Team Building is after work hours, attendance is optional, and friends/family of team members are allowed to participate. Below are a few examples of Team Building activities. Each example is noted for the type of team they support; virtual, in-person, or both.
Board Game Night (In-Person)
Disc Golf (In-Person)
Golf (In-Person)
Wine tasting (In-Person)
Escape Room (In-Person)
Poker with fake money (In-Person)
Online Poker with fake money (Virtual)
Coop Multiplayer Video Games (Virtual)
Jackbox Games (Both)
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