A rugby union scrum is structured but still agile enough for the team to work together, quickly deal with what comes at them, and move forward.
In project management, Scrum is arguably the most structured framework that is used within Agile. The 1986 developers designed it as a way for “teams to work as a unit and reach a common goal”.
The framework allows for changes or problems to be continuously reassessed along the way. It’s like a pulse check.
Scrum breaks a project into phases that can be completed on their own. Each phase is allocated a “sprint” which is a two to four-week time slot dedicated to moving forward. There are also daily sprints allocated to each task.
Clifford D’Cunha, director of business consultancy and training programs at Performance Improvement Methodologies Training and Consultancy (PIMTC), says Scrum is basically a governance method within Agile.
Meetings and communication are a vital part of Scrum. There are approximately five types of scrum meetings. They are:
- Backlog grooming: Held on day one of each “sprint”, this planning phase looks at tasks that remain from previous sprints and also the whole project.
- Sprint planning: This meeting helps the team understand the common goal. It also divides or delegates tasks.
- Daily scrum: Theoretically these should be 10 minutes and allow for progress reports – What was done yesterday? What will be done today or before the end of the sprint? Also, possibly flag bottlenecks.
- Sprint review: Stakeholders see what team members have completed. This enables accountability and ensures all stakeholder goals are being met within the project.
- Sprint retrospective: Allows for collaborative feedback and review and an opportunity to improve the next sprint.
“So the scrum is probably done every day or twice a week within an Agile program to ensure that things are on track,” D’Cunha says.
“The scrum masters are basically doing the scrum, there’s a product and obviously the project delivery affects each and every scrum.”
A scrum master is the person who liaises between the product owner and the actual project delivery team.
They ensure that discipline within the scrum is maintained and everybody who is required to attend the scrum does so. D’Cunha says the scrum’s success often depends on how experienced or robust a scrum master is.
Anyone who has completed Agile and Scrum program training can use scrum. Training can cost between $700 and $1200 per person. The training includes approximately 100 hours or e-learning and practice sessions.
Training to be a scrum master is more intense and costs between $3000 and $4000 per person.
