Janine Wolff
Janine Wolff is a business economist and design enthusiast, has a passion for blogging and logistics and is our Social Media and Content Manager at Saloodo!.
At Saloodo! we all together strive every day to simplify logistics by digitalizing the ordering and execution of shipments while also enhancing the lives of everyone who needs transportation in order to succeed in any type of job or area.
Digitalizing an entire industry is not a task that is done in a short manner – it’s a task you can only win in the long run. Scrum helps us a lot in achieving this.
But what exactly is Scrum? This blog article series is for business owners, project managers and everyone else, who wants to learn more about the Scrum methodology and how to implement it as a management process. With this blog we open our series and give you a brief introduction.
Let us first put it in one sentence: “A framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value.” (The Scrum Guide).
It all starts with understanding the Scrum framework, which is defined in The Scrum Guide and was first introduced to the world in 1995 as a better way for teams to collaborate on complex problems. Scrum is often also refered as “agile project management”.
So what exactly is agile project management? The first – and probably the most concise – definition of agile project management comes from the The Scrum Guide itself:
The Scrum framework is relatively simple, consisting of a Scrum Team comprised of
The Scrum Team attends five events and creates three artefacts. In the following months we will deep dive into all these key words and terms.
But: “Why is it called Scrum?” you will wonder. It is neither an acronym or an abbreviation. Indeed it was inspired by a “scrum” in Rugby. In Rugby, the team comes together in what they call a scrum. They work together to reach their goals, to move the ball.
If you like to get deeper knowledge and can’t wait for our next article, take a view at “The Scrum Guide”, written and maintained by Scrum co-creators Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland. The rather compact paper explains Scrum clearly and succinctly. The guide defines Scrum and describes the Scrum accountabilities, events, artefacts, and the guidance that binds them all together. You can read and download the Scrum Guide here.
The focus of scrum is on people. Scrum projects are organised utilising cross-functional teams, each of which has all of the capabilities required to provide a piece of functionality from concept to delivery.
The scrum framework guides people by emphasizing value and keeping progress visible. A team develops the product from a concept to reality using the scrum framework as a guide for transparency, inspection, and adaptation, working from a dynamic list of the most useful things to perform. Scrum’s purpose is to assist teams in working collaboratively to delight your consumers.
So it comes natural that the Scrum methodology is a lightweight framework. So when in Rugby the players put their heads together and find a short-term strategy during their match, in our case the team sticks their minds around complex problems.
The Scrum Lifecycle begins with a so called backlog, but no direction is provided on how that backlog is produced or prioritized and comprises of a sequence of Sprints that provide the final result as a possibly deliverable product increment, as depicted in the figure above. In upcoming articles we will focus more on the process of Scrum itself.
The following 6 points are some of the main advantages of Scrum and why you can benefit from the framework:
Scrum is an agile framework for managing projects and product development. Yes, it is commonly used in software development, but can also be applied to other types of projects as well. All kind of businesses can use Scrum to help them manage their product development and stay on track with their goals and objectives.
Here are a few ways that business, may it be a tech company, start up or other, can use Scrum:
Product development
Scrum can be used to manage the product development process from ideation to launch. The framework provides a structured approach for identifying and prioritizing user stories, tracking progress, and making adjustments as needed.
Team collaboration
Scrum promotes collaboration and transparency among team members. Through daily stand-up meetings, sprint planning and sprint reviews, everyone involved in the development process can stay informed and engaged, which can lead to better decision making and problem-solving.
Continuous improvement
Scrum framework includes a retrospective meeting at the end of each sprint, where the team reflects on the previous sprint, and identify areas for improvement. This can lead to a culture of continuous improvement and learning, where the team can optimize the process and get better with each sprint.
Flexibility
Scrum is flexible framework, it can be adapted to suit the specific needs of a startup. For example, startups can choose to use Scrum for specific parts of the development process or for the entire process. Additionally, startups can also adjust the duration of their sprints to suit the stage of their development.
It’s important to note that the scrum framework is built around principles, not rules, and it’s up to the team and the organization to adapt the framework to best suit their specific needs and constraints. As such, business using scrum should be mindful of the framework principles, but also be flexible in its application and use.
In our next blog about Scrum we will show the roles within the Scrum Framework, and introduce our Scrum Master Abhinavh Srivastava.
You like Scrum as much as we do? Apply as Saloodo!‘s Scrum Master here.
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