Week 2 Scrum 101

Product owner

The person responsible for the business value of the project and for deciding what work to do and in what order when using a Scrum method. Build the right thing. They also must ensure everyone understands the why. For example, the Virtual Verde team needs a Product Owner to capture and promote the great ideas coming from the team about the new service, which is delivering plants to people who work from home.

traits of product owner

A Product Owner is tasked with ensuring that the team is building the right product or service. The Product Owner ensures that the team is building the right thing. Product Owner is responsible for: -continuously maximizing the value of the product delivered by the Scrum Team. -Their key activity is acting as the voice of the customer within the team. They represent and express this voice through their ownership of the Product Backlog. -The Product Owner's responsibilities also include helping the Scrum Team understand why their work matters within the overall goal and mission. -They also prioritize the Product Backlog to optimize the delivery of goals and deliver value to customers. -The Product Owner ensures that the Product Backlog is visible and transparent to all. -And finally, they're responsible for making sure that the product or service fulfills the customer's needs. -Developing and explicitly communicating the Product Goal -Creating and clearly communicating Product Backlog items (The Product Backlog contains all of the features, requirements, and activities associated with deliverables to achieve the goal of the project.) -Ensuring that the Product Backlog is transparent, visible, and understood A Product Owner's role requires them to be customer-focused, so they must understand a customer's needs and the industry of their business extremely well. Product Owners also have to be decisive, great communicators, and understand both sides of the issue so they can defend their decisions to the team.

product vision

A document that describes what the product is, who will use the product, why the product will be used, and how the product supports the strategy of a company. Agile team will also set a product vision making it clear what outcomes the team is responsible for and where your team's boundaries are.

Scrum Master

A person who ensures that the team is productive, facilitates the daily Scrum, enables close cooperation across all roles and functions, and removes barriers that prevent the team from being effective. Similar in role to PM.

adaptation

Adaptation means that we're continuously searching for ways to adjust our project, product, or processes to minimize any further deviation or issues. In Scrum, and in Agile as a whole, for that matter, we embrace change so that we are always improving. So when we adapt, we change aspects that do not work or could be better.

(Agile) Scrum Methodology

Agile=To make this really clear, Agile is the foundational philosophy and mindset Scrum=Scrum is a framework that materializes or brings that philosophy to life Scrum is founded on a scientific theory called empiricism. This is a fancy word for a simple concept: that true knowledge comes from actual, lived experience.

Openness

For Scrum to work, the team and its stakeholders agree to be open about all the work and the various challenges that come with performing the work. Openness is essential to a productive Scrum Team. In order to gather data, team members must be willing to share their observations and experiences. If a team member runs into an issue within the project that they aren't sure how to fix, they should share it with the team. Another team member may have a very quick and easy solution or at least valuable insight into some options on how to handle their issue.

incremental

Incremental refers to the work being divided into smaller chunks that build on each other. The product is built over time through work done during each iteration. Product = increment. Iterations and increments allow us to keep checking in on our progress throughout the life cycle of the project. This helps us become more predictable and manage the uncertainty in our project.

transparency

Inside Team: Transparency means that we make the most significant aspects of our work visible to those responsible for the outcome. Everyone must be transparent. This includes everyone from Scrum Team members to senior sponsors and even our users. It's easier to be transparent with a small team. And luckily, Scrum Teams are deliberately small—ranging between three and nine people. This way, you avoid mixed signals, breakdowns of communication, and unnecessary complications. Transparency inside a Scrum Team is critical to the team's productivity and the project's completion. Outside Team: In terms of transparency outside of the team, being transparent with all stakeholders, including customers, sponsors, and management builds a level of trust between everyone involved. Transparency also encourages more collaboration and fewer mistakes.

inspection

Inspection refers to conducting timely checks towards the outcome of a Sprint goal to detect undesirable variances. This means that we're always checking in on our progress and deliverables so that we can detect any undesirable changes. When teams work in an Agile way, a stakeholder review of their work is a necessary opportunity for growth and progress. The more inspections that take place, the more improvement a team experiences in their work. There's real value to be gained from deliberate inspection while you have a chance to change and improve.

Scrum Roles

Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Development Team.

courage

Scrum Team members must have the courage to do the right thing and work on tough problems. In any project, there's a body of work that needs to get done. Some of the work will be relatively simple, and some will be complex with many risks. An example of courage includes taking on a hard task that you know will require you to learn a new skill. Courage could mean telling your team that you're stuck and you need help. It might also mean calling out a negative behavior within the team to openly discuss and address the behavior. Demonstrating courage when responding to challenging situations can strengthen the team's resilience.

High Performing Scrum Teams

Scrum Teams are self-organizing. This may sound radically different from other organizations you've worked at before, where your managers dictate your tasks and request frequent updates. But because Scrum Teams rely on those five values—commitment, courage, focus, openness and respect—the Scrum Team is able to work together to deliver amazing results in a more organic and flexible environment. Although teams are self-organizing, high-performing Scrum Teams often have a manager who sits outside of the Scrum Team and provides strategic leadership and individual career development without disrupting the self-organizing nature of Scrum.

3 pillars of Scrum theory

Scrum, you're ensuring that each decision you make in your project is based on real experience and hard data. So each iteration and increment is understood as a mini-experiment where we can learn really valuable things to help improve the project. Empiricism: Pillar 1 Transparency Pillar 2 Inspection Pillar 3 Adaptation

respect

Team members should respect the opinions, skills, and independence of their teammates. When you respect the independence and contributions of others and feel respected yourself, you're more likely to listen and hear any feedback. This is crucial in making the product or business as successful as possible.

Development Team Characteristics

The Development Team is made up of the people who do the work to build the product. The size of the team ranges from three to nine people. This ensures that the team is small enough to remain nimble but large enough to complete significant work within each Sprint. Getting the team size just right is important. -Self-organizing, The Development Team also owns its processes and structures. -They continuously operate as a team, rather than as individuals, and they support each other in reaching the team's goals. -Lastly, the Development Team acknowledges that the best products emerge from teams who are customer-oriented and focus on the user when building their products. -Creating a plan for the Sprint, the Sprint Backlog (the set of Product Backlog items that are selected to be completed during the upcoming Sprint) -Instilling quality by adhering to a Definition of Done -Adapting their plan each day toward the Sprint Goal -Holding each other accountable as professionals -Executing sprints by designing, building, and testing ----Product Backlog items in increments Many Scrum Teams prefer to be co-located, meaning they work alongside each other in the same physical space. Many believe the team delivers higher-quality work and improves faster if they are co-located.

traits of Scrum Master

The Scrum Master promotes and supports the Scrum process by helping everyone understand and implement Scrum. This includes its practices, rules, and values. My favorite way to describe the role of a Scrum Master is that they're responsible for helping the team be their very best. They can achieve this by coaching individuals on the team to manage external forces, as well as maximizing the team's internal potential. Scrum Master must possess skills like organization, leadership, and the ability to facilitate, coach, and manage stakeholders. And a Scrum Master can be quite different from a project manager in terms of their responsibilities, but the role may be played by the same individual since they require a similar skill set.

Scrum master is responsible for

The Scrum Master's responsibilities include: - coaching team members on Agile and Scrum practices, rules, values and helping to find ways to manage the Product Backlog effectively. -The Product Backlog is the single authoritative source for things that a team works on. It contains all of the product features, product requirements, and activities associated with deliverables to achieve the goal of the project. -The Scrum Master facilitates Scrum events such as Sprint Retrospectives, which happen at the end of every Sprint. -The Scrum Master helps the team remove any blockers to their progress, such as missing information or access to training or tools. -The Scrum Master also prevents unhelpful interactions or interruptions coming from outside of the team. -Coaching the team members in self-management and cross-functionality -Helping the Scrum Team focus on creating high-value Increments that meet the Definition of Done (an agreed upon set of items that must be completed before a project or user story can be considered complete) -Causing the removal of impediments to the Scrum Team's progress -Ensuring that all Scrum events take place and are positive, productive, and kept within the timebox (a Scrum concept that refers to the estimated duration for an event)

Agile Mission

The best way to motivate individuals is to give them a mission and product vision that they really care about, so they can feel good about working towards it. In Agile, a mission is a short statement that stays constant for your team throughout the process and gives them something to work toward.

The Five Values of Scrum

The core values that guide how Scrum Teams work and behave: commitment, courage, focus, openness, and respect

commitment

This means personally committing to achieving the goals of the Scrum Team. For example, maybe a member of the team is struggling to overcome something that is blocking their work from getting done, like a new technology that is proving difficult to learn. In this case, another team member who is familiar with the technology can put their own work aside to step in and help their teammate learn the technology.

focus

This refers to everyone focusing on the necessary work within the Sprint and the overall goals of the Scrum Team. For example, a team member is working on a solution that involves a new technology and is very difficult. Allowing that team member to focus on that difficult yet necessary part of the solution is key, and their teammates help get it across the finish line. They know that focusing on the solution will speed up the team's progress in the long run, so it's worth the investment now.

iterations in Scrum

Time boxing. Iterative refers to the fact that project processes are repeated. We discussed this a bit in the last module, but as a reminder, iterative means that the project works in time boxes or iterations.

Development Team

the role within a Scrum Team accountable for managing, organizing and doing all development work required to create a releasable Increment of product every Sprint. The Development Team is responsible for how a team will deliver that product. For example, creating a new website is next on our to-do list so customers can order plants for the home office. The Development Team is building websites, integrating billing systems, and fixing issues. The Development Team's job is to build the thing right.

what is Scrum

what is Scrum? The Scrum Guide defines Scrum as a framework for developing, delivering, and sustaining complex products. That means a team can use Scrum to create valuable products for their users, even when the environment or industry they're in is hard to predict and there are many risks. Scrum uses an iterative and incremental approach. Iterative refers to the fact that project processes are repeated. We discussed this a bit in the last module, but as a reminder, iterative means that the project works in time boxes or iterations. Incremental refers to the work being divided into smaller chunks that build on each other. The product is built over time through work done during each iteration.