Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
15.3 Scrum
Scrum is a term taken from the game of rugby. When the ball is not in anybody's
hands and both teams struggle to get it crowding around the ball, the term used to
describe the scenario is ''scrum-mage''. It is generally taken to mean ''a brief and
disorderly struggle or fight''. Scrum is steadily gaining more popularity among
agile methodologies and a certification (Scrum Master) is also offered for profi-
ciency in using Scrum methodology.
Scrum manages the project in three phases, namely the pregame phase,
development phase and postgame phase.
Pregame phase includes two main activities, namely the planning and the
architecture design. During planning, a ''product backlog list'' is created. This list
would consist of all the product requirements, to the extent possible. This
list would be owned by the ''product owner'' who is a team member. Now, how the
list is actually s created may vary from organization to organization. In some
cases, the product owner would elicit, gather, analyze and establish the product
backlog. In other cases, the list would be filled in by the customer, the marketing
department, the field support personnel and the developers themselves. Another
notable feature of Scrum is that this product backlog list can be constantly updated
including addition of newer items. But the development team interacts with only
the product owner for all matters concerning the project requirements. The plan-
ning phase includes prioritizing the requirements. Planning also includes defining
the development environment, risk assessment, progress control, training and so
on. As part of the architecture definition activity, the high level design of the
proposed product based on the enumerated product backlog is created.
The development phase consists of ''sprints''. A sprint is an iteration of soft-
ware development that results in the release of a portion of the proposed software
product fulfilling a part of the overall functionality. Each sprint can include
requirements analysis, software design, construction and delivery. The duration of
a sprint is usually restricted to less than 4 weeks. This phase, in sprints, sees the
development of the software product fulfilling all the requirements. Requirements
change management also takes place in this phase. By the time this phase is
completed, all requirements would have been met by the software product.
When all the requirements are implemented in the developed software product,
the postgame phase begins. Overall product testing may also take place in the
postgame phase, if necessary. The postgame phase includes handing over the
system and supporting the customer in the usage of the delivered system.
The requirements are primarily defined in the planning phase and to a lesser
extent in each of the sprints. The product owner champions the establishment of
the product backlog list. The customer and other stakeholders do assist the product
owner in the establishment of the product backlog list. Any stakeholder intent on
modifying any of the requirements would interact with the product owner and
modify the product backlog list.
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