Beginning SCRUM for Startups

Beginning SCRUMfor Startups

Pradeep SethiAssociate Dir – Engineering

iBibo.comDecember 2011

History of SCRUM

• In Rugby, a scrum refers to the manner of restarting the game after a minor infraction.

• In 1986, Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka described a new approach to product development that would increase speed and flexibility.

• They called this rugby approach, as the whole process is performed by cross functional teams "tries to go the distance, passing the ball back and forth“

History of SCRUM - II

• Scrum is an iterative, incremental framework for project management often seen in agile software development

• A key principle of Scrum is its recognition that during a project the customers can change their minds about what they want and need (often called requirements churn) are split over iterations called sprints.

A typical Sprint Cycle in SCRUM

3 – 30 days

Daily SCRUM

Characteristics & Roles

• Scrum is a process skeleton that contains sets of practices and predefined roles.

• The main roles in Scrum are:– “ScrumMaster”, who maintains the processes (typically in lieu of a 

project manager)– “Product Owner”, who represents the stakeholders and the business– “Team”, a cross-functional group who do the actual analysis, design,

implementation, testing, etc.

• There are ancillary roles as well describes well by chicken & pig analagy…

Chickens & Pigs in SCRUM

Core roles are often referred to as Pigs and ancillary roles as Chickens

The fable is referenced to define two types of project members by the scrum - Pigs, who are totally committed to the project and accountable for its outcome, and Chickens, who consult

on the project and are informed of its progress.

Sprints & Sprint Activities

• A sprint is the basic unit of development in Scrum.

• Typically between 1 week – 1 month.• Timeboxed.• Preceded by a sprint planning meeting.• Daily sprint meeting / Daily standup.• Sprint Review Meeting.• Sprint Retrospective.

Sprint Planning Meeting

• At the beginning of the sprint cycle, a “Sprint Planning Meeting” is held.

• Product Backlog needs to be ready by Product Owner for the meeting.

• Based upon the Sprint Backlog that details the time it will take to do that work, with the entire team.

• The team including Development team & QC team gives the estimate.

• Sprint is published clearly to all the stakeholders. [sprint not to be changed in between – see appendix]

• At the end of a sprint cycle, Sprint Retrospective is held.

Daily Standup

• Each day during the sprint, the daily standup happens. • The meeting starts precisely on time.• All are welcome, but normally only the core roles speak• The meeting is timeboxed to 15 minutes• During the meeting, each team member answers three questions:

– What have you done since yesterday?– What are you planning to do today?– Any impediments/stumbling blocks?

• It is the role of the ScrumMaster to facilitate resolution of these impediments, although the resolution should occur outside the Daily Scrum itself to keep it under 15 minutes.

Proposed Sprints

Development (3 days) QC (1 days)Regression & Performance

(1 day)

5 Day Sprint Cycle

Sprint CycleRegression

Performance

Sprint planning for next Sprint

Release for current Sprint

Development

Feature Complete

Testing

Code-Complete

Questions ?

Thank You

Appendix

SCRUM in <10 minutes(Nice video)