What is Scrum?
Scrum is an agile method. This way of working increases your agility and ensures that your projects match the wishes of your target group or end-users as closely as possible. With Scrum, you add value to the customer in a short time. You can use Scrum within different sectors, such as software companies, coaching or within other sectors. But how does Scrum work, and what do you need for it? We tell you more about Scrum in this blog.
The roles in Scrum
When you work with Scrum, you work with a self-organizing and multidisciplinary development team. You work on clear intermediate products in a short period of time. We call this short period a sprint. Each sprint consists of fixed meetings that give the process more structure. You use different tools: a product backlog and the scrum board. With Scrum, different fixed roles are used: development team, product owner, scrum master and the stakeholder.
- Development team
The Scrum development team is a self-organizing and multidisciplinary team. The team is able to deliver and produce 80% of the final product. The development team feels responsible for the result.
- Product Owner
The Product Owner is the closely involved client who bears product responsibility. He or she determines the priorities, directs the project and takes the decisions. The Product Owner maintains contact with various stakeholders and translates their wishes into items on the product backlog.
- Scrum Master
The Scrum Master is the coach of the development team and the product owner. He or she ensures that everyone can perform as well as possible. The Scrum Mater provides overview, speed, reflection and ensures that the process is monitored.
- Stakeholders
The stakeholders are those involved in the project or product. A distinction is made between users, decision-makers and stakeholders. They provide feedback on the delivered intermediate products. If they want to get in touch, they do so with the Product Owner.
The lists in Scrum
Scrum is known for flip charts covered with post-its. However, Scrum can also be done digitally, for example with the BiZZdesign tool. These posters are also referred to as ‘lists’ within Scrum. These lists make the work process transparent and clear for everyone. The following lists are used:
- Product Backlog
The Product Backlog is a prioritized list that translates all the characteristics and requirements of the end product into the concrete intermediate products. At the start of the process, the product backlog is made, during a sprint it is updated.
- Sprint Backlog
The Sprint Backlog is a selected collection of product backlog items for the current sprint. You make this list again every sprint. It contains the items that generate the most customer value at that time.
- Acceptance criteria
These are the criteria that have been drawn up before (or during) the sprint planning. This is assessed after the sprint to see whether the result meets the requirements.
- Scrum board
The Scrum board is Scrum’s best-known tool. It is a board that displays the ‘To do’, ‘Busy’ and ‘Done’ columns. Under ‘To do’, the team lists all tasks that need to be moved in the sprint to ‘Busy’ and ‘Done’. As a result, everyone knows what still needs to be done, what has been done and what obstacles there are.
The edifice of Scrum
Scrum is a structure made up of transparency, inspection, and adaptation. Transparency is important for everything in Scrum: the goals, roles, work, and responsibility. Each sprint consists of two moments of inspection: a review and a retrospective. The delivered products are examined, and necessary improvements are discussed: adaptation.
