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Barriers to success in project management:
Project management is a complex discipline that often comes with a variety of challenges. One such challenge lies in the dynamic nature of projects, which can often change as they progress. These unpredictable changes can lead to delays, budget overruns and frustration. In such situations, a flexible and adaptable methodology is crucial to ensure the success of the project. One method that comes into its own here is SCRUM.
This knowledge article will give you a concrete insight into the SCRUM framework and its application.
SCRUM as the key to project management success
Scrum is a framework for tackling complex customization problems in order to deliver products of the highest quality. The Scrum process is clearly structured and follows simple rules. Three pillars support control over the process.
- Transparency: The key aspects of the process must be clearly defined. Transparency requires jointly defined standards that are shared by those involved. One example of this is the definition of "Done" as soon as work has been completed.
- Inspection: Users of the Framework Scrum should check details and work towards a sprint goal that prevents undesirable deviations as far as possible. However, inspections should not occur too frequently so as not to hinder the process.
- Adjustment: If the results that arise from a process deviate from the specified targets, the product must be further processed. An adjustment must be made as quickly as possible to prevent further deviations. Sprint planning, daily scrums, the sprint review and the sprint retrospective help here.
SCRUM events: key events in the development process:
Scrum consists of short development cycles, known as sprints, which last between two and four weeks. The tasks for a sprint are taken from a product backlog, which is managed by the product owner. The product backlog contains all pending tasks, which are prioritized in a sequence. A sprint consists of four actions that take place regularly: Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective.
- Sprint planningThe tasks to be carried out in the sprint are discussed in the sprint planning. The collaboration of the entire team is compiled in this plan. The Scrum Master takes care of the event and acts as a moderator. The tasks are taken from the product backlog and prioritized by the product owner. Each developer can decide for themselves decide for themselves how many tasks they want to work on within the sprint and distribute so-called story points, which reflect the level of difficulty of the task. Which tasks can be processed and, above all, how they can be completed are the questions that need to be answered during the planning phase.
- Daily Scrum: The Daily Scrum takes place daily and must not last longer than 15 minutes. In this meeting, all Scrum members come together to discuss the current development status. The next twenty-four hours are also planned. The Daily Scrum enables the team to know the current status of each individual and provides an overview of obstacles a developer has faced, what has been worked on the previous day, what will be worked on the following day and information on progress towards the sprint goal.
- Sprint review: A sprint ends with a sprint review, in which the development team presents the completed tasks of the sprint to the product owner and selected stakeholders. The product owner can then see which tasks have been completed and which are not yet finished, as well as which will play a role in the next sprint planning. The development team presents the work done and answers questions about it. The product backlog is then adjusted.
- Sprint retrospective: The sprint review is followed by the sprint retrospective. In the retrospective, the team discusses the obstacles that were encountered during the sprint and the difficulties that arose as a result. Suggestions for improvement can also be made during the retrospective, which should be incorporated into the next sprint. The cycle then begins again with sprint planning.
The SCRUM artifacts: Tools for project success
With Scrum artefacts, Scrum describes three standardized products of project management in order to meet all requirements. The product backlog, the sprint backlog and the progress indicator.
- Product backlog: The product backlog contains all the elements for the sprints in an ordered list that are required for the product. The product owner is responsible for the product backlog and its content. It represents the functionalities with requirements and acceptance criteria. The list is ordered according to the prioritization of the elements it contains. The elements contain all customer requirements and technical requirements for the product. Each element contains information about the role of the user, the desired functionality and the benefits it is intended to bring the person. The story points it contains reveal the level of difficulty of the element, and an "acceptance criterion" also describes when an element can be considered complete.
- Sprint backlog: The sprint backlog consists of a number of elements that the development team should have completed by the end of a sprint. The elements are added to the sprint from the product backlog.
- Progress bar: The progress indicator shows the daily progress over the entire length of the sprint. This allows the remaining elements to be added up as the remaining total work. The total work is logged by the product owner. The product owner also compares the remaining work with previous sprint reviews in order to evaluate progress. The information must be transparent for everyone. In complex environments, it is not known what will happen. Only what has already happened can be used for future decisions.
The three key roles in the SCRUM team:
Product OwnerThe Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the value of the product created by the work of the development team. He is the only person responsible for managing the product backlog. Backlog management includes a clear description of the product backlog items, ordering the items in the product backlog to best achieve goals and maintaining transparency and clarity about the information displayed to the Scrum team. The decision of a Product Owner becomes visible to the team with the defined order of prioritization in the Product Backlog.
- Scrum Master: A Scrum Master helps the development team build the product to a high standard by ensuring that the team adheres to the theory, practices and rules of Scrum. He helps the team understand which of their interactions are helpful and which are not. He also protects the development team from any outside obstacles and disruptive influences that may arise in achieving the sprint goals so that the development team can work as efficiently as possible. He works closely with the product owner to manage the product backlog and prioritize the elements it contains. Furthermore, the Scrum Master is responsible for ensuring that all Scrum members understand the elements of the product backlog as well as possible and that these are also precisely and clearly defined. He ensures that the product owner knows how to arrange the product backlog in order to maximize its value. Leading the individual meetings and coaching the development team is another task of the Scrum Master to ensure value maximization within the team. They help to understand the products and thus increase productivity.
- Developers: The development team consists of specialists who do the work to deliver the finished product. They work on the individual elements or tasks from the sprint and complete them up to each sprint review of a sprint. A developer works independently and organizes themselves. The development team works cross-functionally and has all the skills required to achieve the sprint goal. The individual members may have special skills and areas of focus, but responsibility for these lies with the development team itself. The optimum team size is not precisely defined, but it should be able to act in an agile manner and still be large enough to complete important tasks in a sprint. A team that is too large requires too much coordination and also creates too much complexity, which would impair agility.
Be successful with SCRUM:
In summary, it is clear that SCRUM is an extremely effective method for successfully meeting the challenges of project management. Through its flexibility, transparency and focus on continuous improvement, the SCRUM framework enables teams to adapt effectively to change and realize their full potential.
If you are interested in introducing SCRUM into your team and benefiting from the many advantages of this methodology, do not hesitate to contact us at Mentix Consulting GmbH. Our experienced team is always on hand to help you implement SCRUM and ensure that your project management becomes even more successful. We look forward to hearing from you and working with you on the path to more efficient and successful projects.
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