The scrum – it conjures up images of two teams battling it out on the rugby pitch for possession of the ball. In the context of this post though, nothing as sporty I’m afraid. However, scrum is a very useful methodology that can be applied to your business projects.
Scrum is a way of working that, as part of your project, you deliver pieces of the project that can be understood by the end-customer. To help you along, lets design and build a house as our project.
The Product Catalogue (as it’s known) is where you start and is the “end-game” i.e. what you will have when you finish the project – in this case, the house design, the building itself and the fittings.
The sprint is the “mini-delivery” that you will undertake into which you create the scrum-backlog which is basically the contents of that “mini-delivery”. A sprint normally lasts between 2 and 4 weeks and the team determine what they can achieve in that time-frame. Of course, a sprint can last alot less, but rarely is longer than this. An example of the mini-delivery could be the first set of architects plans or perhaps the foundations of the house.
A daily meeting is held with the people involved in the sprint (known as “pigs” – nice eh, so called because their bacon is on the line!). This meeting should not take more than 15 minutes and is where progress is discussed and issues are raised that the project manager needs to handle (outside of the session). These meetings occur until the end of the sprint i.e. until the mini-delivery is taken care of.
Once a sprint is complete, the mini-delivery should be demonstrated. E.g. the house design would be shown to the customer and also perhaps to the builders contracted to do the job. If feedback or changes are required as a result of this sprint, then the “mini-delivery” is fed back into the scrum backlog and the cycle starts again.
Why would I do this though?
The main advantage to the scrum is that you have a “something” to show your customers and other interested parties on a drip-feed basis. It keeps them engaged and involved, which is particularly true of longer projects e.g. building a house, designing a complex piece of software, designing and building a landscaped garden etc.
Another advantage is that if something goes pear-shaped, the costs and time required to fix a particular problem are greatly reduced because it is only the mini-delivery.
And lastly, if means that the team communicates regularly. The lack of regular communication is, I believe, the primary cause of failure for projects.
Would scrum work for you? Let us know!
Photo : Darkmatter with thanks!
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Scrum is a useful methodology for delivering projects that take more than a few days to complete. It keeps focus and demonstrates progress to the end-customer. It’s a great way of keeping your projects for customers relevant and fresh in everyone’s m…
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