Everything You Need to Know About Scrum

Process

Scrum projects are organized in short iterations, during which the team works to add incremental value to the end product.

Task Size

One task should fit within a single sprint. Usually split into smaller tasks if it exceeds.

Task Assignment

Team self-assigns tasks by pulling them from the Sprint Backlog.

New Task in Iteration

Once the sprint starts, no new tasks can be added.

Roles

• Product Owner

  Represents the customer's interests and prioritizes requirements in backlog. Core responsibility: Communication.

• Scrum Master

  Facilitates Scrum application and communication between the team and the PO Core responsibility: Scrum application.

• The Team

  Cross-functional group of people that self organizes to meet the sprint goals. Core responsibility: Delivering value

Terms

• Product backlog

  First column on board that holds all the prioritized user stories and represents a project plan curated by the Product Owner

• Sprint backlog

  A place for the team to divide the selected user stories into clear tasks and prepare for the Sprint

• Story point

  A measuring unit used instead of hours to estimate task duration. One story point can stand for any period of task size

• User story

  A short description of a feature that a customer is asking for - usually written in the form: As a ..., I want ..., So that ...

• Burndown charts

  Shows how the number of uncompleted tasks is getting lower with time and can indicate issues within the process.

• Team velocity

  Defines how much product backlog effort a team can handle in one sprint

Meetings

• Sprint Planning

  A session for team and PO to determine what will be done in the next sprint

• Daily Scrum

  A 15 minute standup where team members present what they have done and will do

• Sprint Review

  Team presentation of the sprint results to the PO, checking if set goals were met.

• Sprint Retrospective

  Discussion between team and SM about how the next Sprint can be improved.