a u d i oc r a s hc o u r s e tm
F o l l o wA l o n gM a n u a l
Certified Scrum Master
www.AudioLearn.com
TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................ 1 Course Conventions and Content ............................................................................ 2 Summary .................................................................................................................. 6 Chapter 2: Introduction to Agile and Scrum.......................................... 7 What are Scrum and Agile? ..................................................................................... 7 Agile Manifesto ...................................................................................................... 14 Uses of Scrum ........................................................................................................ 15 Scrum Theory ..........................................................................................................17 Ten ways to decide if Agile is right for you ............................................................ 23 Sample Quiz for Chapter 2. .................................................................................... 26 Summary ................................................................................................................ 27 Chapter 3: Scrum Roles ...................................................................... 29 Scrum Team ........................................................................................................... 29 The Product Owner ................................................................................................ 32 The Scrum Master .................................................................................................. 34 The Development Team ......................................................................................... 41 Other Roles ............................................................................................................ 44 Who is the Project Manager? ................................................................................. 45 Working with multiple Scrum teams – Scrum of Scrums .................................... 46 Sample Quiz for Chapter 3. .................................................................................... 48 Summary ................................................................................................................ 49 Chapter 4: Scrum Events .................................................................... 52
The Nature of Scrum Events .................................................................................. 54 The Time Box Concept ........................................................................................... 55 Event 1: The Sprint ................................................................................................ 56 Event 2: Sprint Planning ....................................................................................... 59 Event 3: Daily Scrum ............................................................................................. 63 Event 4: Sprint Review .......................................................................................... 65 Event 5: Sprint Retrospective ................................................................................ 67 Activity: Product Backlog Refinement .................................................................. 68 Planning, Monitoring and Adapting...................................................................... 69 Process improvement ............................................................................................ 73 Slack ....................................................................................................................... 79 Keeping everyone connected .................................................................................80 Sample Quiz for Chapter 4..................................................................................... 83 Summary ................................................................................................................ 84 Chapter 5: Scrum Artifacts ................................................................. 87 Product Backlog .....................................................................................................88 Sprint Backlog ........................................................................................................ 94 Increment ............................................................................................................... 96 Definition of “Done” .............................................................................................. 97 Monitoring Progress towards a Goal ..................................................................... 99 Monitoring Sprint Progress ................................................................................. 100 Sample Quiz for Chapter 5. ...................................................................................101 Summary .............................................................................................................. 104 Chapter 6: User Stories ..................................................................... 108 Sample Quiz for Chapter 6.................................................................................... 112
Summary ............................................................................................................... 114 Chapter 7: Estimation Techniques ..................................................... 116 Estimation techniques .......................................................................................... 117 Metrics .................................................................................................................. 119 Product Quality ..................................................................................................... 121 Risk management ................................................................................................ 123 Value-Based Prioritization................................................................................... 125 Sample Quiz for Chapter 7. .................................................................................. 128 Summary .............................................................................................................. 129 Chapter 8: You Passed - What Comes Next? ....................................... 131 Next steps .............................................................................................................. 131 Interpersonal skills .............................................................................................. 132 Contracts .............................................................................................................. 138 Sample Quiz for Chapter 8. ................................................................................. 140 Sumary ................................................................................................................. 144 Chapter 9: Final Exam, Conclusion and Wrap Up ............................. 146 Conclusion and Wrap-up ..................................................................................... 153 Follow Along Manual ........................................................................ 154 Chapter One: Introduction ...................................................................................155 1.1 Summary ......................................................................................................155 Chapter Two: Introduction to Agile and Scrum .................................................. 156 2.1 Project Management approaches ............................................................... 156 2.2 Types of projects where Scrum is beneficial .............................................. 166 2.3 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 167 2.4 Answers to Chapter 2 Quiz ......................................................................... 168
2.5 Chapter 2 Summary .................................................................................... 170 Chapter 3: Scrum Roles ........................................................................................ 171 3.1 Scrum roles .................................................................................................. 171 3.2 How the Scrum Master Supports Other Roles............................................175 3.3 Chapter 3 Quiz Answers .............................................................................. 177 3.5 Chapter 3 Summary .................................................................................... 179 Chapter 4: Scrum Events ..................................................................................... 180 4.1 Chapter 4 Quiz Answers ............................................................................. 180 4.2 Chapter 4 Summary ................................................................................... 182 Chapter 5: Scrum Artifacts .................................................................................. 187 5.1 Product Backlog items ................................................................................ 187 5.2 Chapter 5 Quiz Answers ............................................................................. 189 5.3 Chapter 5 Summary ..................................................................................... 191 Chapter 6: User Stories ........................................................................................ 194 6.1 Chapter 6 Quiz Answers ............................................................................. 194 6.2 Chapter 6 Summary ................................................................................... 196 Chapter 7: Estimation Techniques ...................................................................... 197 7.1 Chapter 7 Quiz Answers .............................................................................. 197 7.2 Chapter 7 Summary .................................................................................... 199 Chapter 8: You Passed - What Comes Next? ....................................................... 201 8.1 Chapter 8 Quiz Answers ............................................................................. 201 8.2 Chapter 8 Summary ...................................................................................204 Chapter 9: Final Exam, Conclusion and Wrap Up .............................................. 207 Final Exam: Answers and Explanations .......................................................... 207 Final Exam, Questions and Answer Explanations ........................................... 221
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Welcome to this audio course on preparing to become a Certified Scrum Master! I will guide you through the course material. If you are listening to this course and have made the decision to become a certified scrum master, you are likely preparing for the written exam. Maybe you are just contemplating becoming a scrum master and want to get some information about the certification process as well as specific information about the job. Whatever the case, I want to congratulate you for deciding to move forward in your professional career. After listening to this course, you will be prepared to take the written scrum master exam; additionally, you will have a solid understanding of the steps you need to take as you search for and secure a scrum master position. Over the last several years, there is an increasing number of success stories, where organizations have dramatically improved the performance of their teams and projects using agile and scrum practices. Therefore, a variety of industries is widely adopting agile practices, including technology, media, big corporations and even governments. Scrum is mainly used in the software industry, but it is also used in a variety of others. So, I guess this would be a good time to talk to you about agile and the scrum frameworks. An Agile methodology helps companies benefit from faster time to delivery and time to market production rates and reduces uncertainty and risk; agile methodology also increases the return on investment because it focuses on customer value. Scrum is one type of agile methodology, and it has proved to be very successful worldwide over the last several years. The scrum methodology will be the focus of this course. In a little bit, I will give you a brief overview of the course. Before I do, though, I want to tell you about what you can expect as we go through the material together. Thank you, again, for your interest. If you are ready, let’s begin.
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COURSE CONVENTIONS AND CONTENT Welcome to the section on the course conventions and content! Before moving forward, I want to explain the concepts and methods I will use in this course. The material is divided into several chapters. Some chapters are split up into smaller sections. Each time I start a new section or chapter, I will give you the name so that you know where we are. The certified scrum master exam is composed of questions that require you to demonstrate your knowledge of and experience with Scrum. Therefore, I will introduce some quizzes during the course. These quizzes will help you to measure your progress with the course material. They should also help you to reinforce what you have learned. You will find the quizzes in the ‘Follow-along’ PDF- Manual. I will discuss the PDF Manual in more detail a bit later. In each section, I will give you a quiz with questions related to the material from that section. You can pause the audio and take the quiz in the Follow-along PDF Manual. Once you complete the quiz, check your answers against the answer key. If you would like, return to the audio and resume play. I will give you the correct answers and explain the reasoning behind them. Remember, this course is not only about memorizing new concepts; it is also about applying theory to real world applications. Scrum master certification is proof that you know how to do this. You will find the quizzes near the end of each chapter; most of them will contain ten questions. At the very end of each chapter, I will highlight the most important topics I discussed. Call them takeaways. The key takeaways will help you summarize and retain as much information as possible. There will usually be ten different takeaways; depending on the complexity of the topic, I may add more or present a few less. Earlier, I mentioned a Follow-along PDF Manual. Each Audio Learn course contains a study guide a Follow-along PDF Manual. You can read this PDF from your laptop, tablet or phone, or you can also print it out the choice is yours. 2
This manual contains important material, like supplemental information, graphics, and quizzes. If you decide to print it out, you will be able to write additional comments and notes to help with your studies. A good way to memorize new ideas is by repeating them. That is why I will repeat many terms and concepts for you. Sometimes we need to hear a concept more than once to really understand it. Consider this little example. Scrum is not just an agile framework. It is a new way of working, and there is a philosophy behind it. In an IT project under Scrum, the development team is selforganizing. That means they don´t need someone else pushing them to deliver work. Repeating such important concepts will help you to have aha moments. These are moments where you can mentally connect key ideas and come to understand the big picture. Speaking of repetition, I recommend you listen to this audio course several times. I will present a great deal of information, new terminology, techniques, and concepts. It is critical that you understand this material to fully see how Scrum is a framework that completely changes the way projects are managed. Of course, once you have a good grasp of this information, you will be able to perform at your best on exam day. If you feel a concept or particular idea is worth remembering, I invite you to take notes. As I mentioned, if you print out the Follow-along PDF Manual, you can take notes there. If possible, I also invite you to follow along in the PDF Manual whenever you listen to the lectures. If, however, you are only able to listen while commuting to work, forget the manual for now. Consult it when the time is more appropriate. You can still get valuable information just by hearing what I have to say. Now, I want to give you an outline of the material I will present to you. This is just an overview to allow you to see what to expect. I hope that much of what you hear motivates you to want to listen and excites you about the prospect of becoming a Scrum Master.
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I will start out by describing how to become a certified Scrum Master. I will explain what Agile and Scrum are and why they are needed. You will learn that the Agile methodologies are based on the Agile Manifesto. I will explain when you can use Scrum, under what conditions, and typical myths about the Agile methodology. From there, I will walk through the typical scrum timeline and the difference between traditional project management methodologies and scrum. In the next chapter, I will explain the roles used in Scrum, your responsibilities inside the team, and the responsibilities of the other team members. If you use Scrum in your organization, you will need to set up specific scrum events, also called scrum ceremonies, to make the scrum way of working possible. I will introduce you to the scrum ceremonies and you will learn how to plan and execute them. I will follow up with a discussion of scrum artifacts. Working under Scrum requires using different techniques to execute and manage projects; you will hear about specific ways of sorting out, documenting, and implementing a project's requirements. You will learn how the whole scrum process works, the game rules, and how to deliver a successful project. I will continue with a chapter about user stories. This concept is normally not mentioned in the scrum guides; you will, however, need this information for the exam and for your daily work as a Scrum Master. You will learn why we need user stories and how they can be used to assist you in your work. Next, I will explain different estimation techniques that your team will need to use when starting the sprints. You will hear about sprints later in the course. The Agile methodologies introduce new ways of estimating and you need to master this to be a successful Scrum Master. Once you have passed the scrum certification exam, what comes next? We have a chapter for that. The exam is the first step in starting a scrum master career. The exam is proof that you understand Scrum and you can apply it to your projects. Please be aware that some organizations already use Scrum, but many of them have still not started a transformation to an Agile methodology. The truth is that there is 4
still a lot of room for improvement in the corporate world and this is your opportunity to start a career with a lot of potential. Now that you have successfully completed the Scrum certification exam, where do you go from there? I will tell you. In the last chapter, you will work on a one-hundred question final exam to simulate the certification exam. Before you take the test, I will give you some recommendations for effective preparation. Afterwards, you will have the chance to check your results to see if you are ready to take the real exam. Well, this just about completes the introduction chapter. I hope you are prepared to start your amazing journey to master Scrum! Remember, you can listen to this course as many times as you need to. Challenge yourself with the quizzes and don´t check the answers until you have thought them through. Be critical of what you listen to and hear; this course is not only about memorizing terms, but it is also about adopting a new lifestyle regarding how you approach your work. And do not forget to use the Follow-along PDF Manual together with the lectures. The more you know the material, the more prepared you will be for the certification exam. In addition, the more you know how to apply Scrum to your projects, the more prepared and confident you will be in your daily work.
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SUMMARY Let me finish this chapter by summarizing the most important topics I have mentioned. Because this was just a bit of an introduction, there is no quiz. You will start to see those in the next chapter. Anyway, here is your list of eight key takeaways: 1. Scrum has proved to be a successful framework to manage projects in many organizations. 2. There are specific roles, events, and techniques in Scrum. 3. You should expect a comprehensive set of quizzes throughout this course. 4. Many organizations will adopt the Scrum framework in the next years. 5. Expect the quizzes to be near the end of each chapter. 6. Make use of the Follow-along PDF Manual. 7. Items repeated during the lectures are important: remember them. 8. Plan to listen to the course at least a couple of times. Well, I hope that you are now motivated to get started. If you are ready to proceed, be sure to have your Follow-along PDF Manual close at hand. Have some pencils or pens available to take notes if you want to. Get comfortable, and let’s begin!
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CHAPTER 2: INTRODUCTION TO AGILE AND SCRUM WHAT ARE SCRUM AND AGILE? Welcome to the chapter on the introduction to Agile and Scrum! In this chapter, I will explain the differences between Agile and Scrum. You will understand how to become a certified Scrum Master and what you will gain. I will also explain the importance of the Scrum Master role and why we need Agile in organizations. Before talking about Agile and Scrum, I want to describe the Scrum certificates that are now available. Scrum dot org is a leading certification organization that was founded in two thousand nine by Alex Armstrong and Ken Schwaber. Scrum dot org has a Scrum certification called PSM One Professional Scrum Master level One. The PSM One is one of the most well-known certificates related to Scrum. Holding this certificate proves that you have the fundamental knowledge of the Scrum framework and how to apply it. The PSM One Exam contains a set of multiple choice and true false questions. The exam is sixty minutes long, and you can take it online. This audio course will help you to prepare for the test. You will have a better chance of success by listening to the course several times and taking the quizzes included in this course. There is another Scrum certificate, called CSM, or Certified Scrum Master. This certificate is from the Scrum Alliance. Be aware that the CSM is a certificate of attendance only. You would need to attend an in-person, sixteen-hour course taught by a Certified Scrum Trainer. After successfully completing the course, you will need to accept the License Agreement and complete your Scrum Alliance membership profile. This certificate does require any exam; consequently, it does not prove that you have the knowledge to perform successfully in a scrum environment.
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This course will help you to get the most important Scrum certificate, from Scrumdot-org, the Professional Scrum Master Level One certificate. Holding this certificate means that you will have demonstrated that you understand the Scrum values and how to practice and apply Scrum. To acquire Scrum Master certification, there is no specific eligibility criteria. We recommend, however, that you have some understanding of the basic Scrum principles. You also need to be familiar with the working processes within Scrum. To sign up, you need to purchase the assessment from the scrum-dot-org website. Now I will explain the benefits of holding a Scrum Master certification. Right off, certification will help you to grow your professional career. The Certified Scrum Master One shows that you are relevant and marketable in all industry sectors. Scrum Master training, which may be quite similar to the course you are listening to now, will teach you skills required to better implement Scrum. The certification is also an opportunity for top performers to stand out in the global Scrum community. Another benefit of Scrum Master training is that you will learn about the type of work environment that will enable a company to grow. To be honest, the Scrum Master role is challenging. Managing large, selforganizing teams is sometimes not an easy task. You will need willpower. You will also need to manage conflicts between the team members. Consequently, Scrum Masters need to learn about motivation, communication, and social science; this requires lots of time outside of your normal job. Don´t worry, though. In this course, I will touch upon everything you need to boost your career as a Scrum Master. Let me start right in with that by discussing the project management models. You can find a summary of these models in the Follow-along PDF Manual, on page five. The most commonly used project management model is the Waterfall Model. The Waterfall Model is not a good model for projects with many changes. Unfortunately, it is typical to see customers adding new requirements or changing them in the middle of projects. This makes it difficult to work with the Waterfall 8
model. Moreover, with Waterfall, the customer will not be able to use the product or service in question until the project is fully completed. Do you have experience with Waterfall models? Have you experienced any issues using this very strict methodology? In Waterfall, the end-user is usually not involved in the process; that could result in shortcomings between the business's needs and the final developed product. Therefore, the direct involvement of the customer is a positive for the development team. But please be aware that this client participation might sometimes require more time from the team and can add delays to a project's completion. If requirements change midstream, that can confuse the team and create scope creep. Do you know what scope creep is? This is a typical question on the Certified Scrum Master exam. Scope creep happens when there are changes to a project's original scope of work; the scope continues growing after the project starts. You can imagine the potential negative impact of scope creep on the quality and timeline of a project. An alternative to the Waterfall Model is the iterative incremental model. With this model, a project can be started even before all details are finalized. The deliverable is then a working incremental portion of the product. The set of activities performed to produce the incremental portion is called an iteration. Based on the results of one iteration, you will produce the next one, making adjustments or changes as needed. This process of iteration to iteration continues until the final product is created. The Agile Model is based on the iterative incremental development model. In this environment, through team collaboration, requirements and solutions evolve. The Agile Model recommends a time-boxed iterative approach. A time-boxed iterative approach helps a team to have a rapid and flexible response to changes. With a time-boxed approach, the team develops small amounts of work in short iterations. As these iterations are short, it is easier to inspect and adapt to changes. Remember that, in this chapter, I´m talking primarily about Agile and Scrum. Please be aware that they are different things. Agile is a framework that doesn´t
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provide any specific process for the development team. Scrum is a specific Agile framework. Scrum defines the practices needed to complete the project. So, you know that Scrum is one Agile methodology. Other Agile methodologies are the Dynamic System Development Methodology, Extreme Programming, Testdriven Development, Lean, and Kanban. All of these have been considered Agile methodologies since the Agile Manifesto was published in two thousand one. I will talk about the Agile Manifesto later. Before going deeper into discussing how Scrum works, I will discuss these other Agile methodologies. Using one methodology over another will depend on the needs of the project. Understanding these other methodologies will also help you to better understand Scrum. One Agile methodology is called Extreme Programming or XP. The basis of XP is to have frequent releases in short cycles. The target or goal is to increase productivity using checkpoints to introduce new customer requirements. Extreme Programming is a methodology that enables the development team to produce higher quality software in a more productive way. XP includes the analysis, development, and quality control stages that help to improve the overall quality of the end-product. Another Agile software development process is the Test-driven Development or TDD, based on the repetition of very short development cycles. The process in TDD goes something like this: First, the developer writes an automated test case. The test case defines an improvement or a new function for a client. Second, the developer produces the least amount of code needed for the product to pass that specified test. Third, the developer brings the code to acceptable standards. Lean is another popular Agile methodology. With Lean, you have more control over costs, and you focus on creating value for the customer. The term value is defined from the perspective of the end-user, who consumes the product or service. The main objective of Lean is to reduce waste.
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Another very popular Agile method is called Kanban. Kanban is a system implemented to maintain and improve a high level of production. Kanban can operate under the Just-In-Time method, also called JIT. JIT is a strategy to control inventory expenses and is used more and more by organizations. Kanban is an effective tool that helps to run entire production systems. Kanban can also help developers make constant improvements within the system. Despite the availability of all these models I just discussed, Scrum is the most popular Agile framework. Scrum focuses on how to manage tasks in teams. Scrum uses an iterative and incremental model, where iterations have shorter durations. With Scrum, it is easy to implement and focus on frequent and fast project deliveries. Scrum is a framework where people can address complex problems. It helps development teams to deliver products with the highest possible value. The scrum model is lightweight, easy to understand, but, unfortunately, difficult to master. Scrum can be defined as a process framework. The model has been used in complex environments since the early nineties. Please be aware that Scrum is not a process, technique or a method. Scrum is a framework within which different processes and techniques are employed. The scrum model helps to improve the efficacy of project management and other techniques. It is possible to realize continuous improvements in a product itself, the development team, and the working environment when working in the scrum model. In Scrum, you will need to consider specific roles, events, artifacts, and rules. Each component in this framework has a specific purpose and all components are important for the success of the project. A bit later, I will discuss those events, artifacts and rules in Scrum.
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Scrum was created because, with some projects, particularly IT projects, there is a challenge: it is difficult to gather everything required for a project's completion at the outset of the process. It is very common to start a project with many uncertainties. Under these conditions, we need a flexible methodology that can handle any change request that may come up during the life of the project. Agile frameworks, Scrum in particular, are designed to manage these kinds of situations. With Scrum, the old project-centric model disappears. Scrum is a continuous application and product development model. With Scrum, we no longer define a project as having a beginning, a middle, and an end. Therefore, we don’t have the traditional Project Manager. Yes, you heard that right. With Scrum, the project management work is handled by the development team and the product owner. So, the product owner and the team are self-managing. The development team collaborates in sprints, until a project is completed, or it is no longer maintained or supported. A sprint, by the way, is one time-boxed iteration and is part of a process with multiple development cycles. The product owner is someone who understands the needs of the customer; this role can be filled by someone from Product Management. Scrum can also be used for one-time initiative projects. In this case, the development team and the product owner undertake the project management as with other project types. Sometimes, there is not sufficient work for a dedicated team; if this happens, a team can take on items in one sprint, and then other items in the next sprint. In this particular case, the sprints are quite short, maybe lasting only a week. The normal duration of sprints is usually two to three weeks. According to the scrum guide, it is four weeks. It is also possible that there won't be sufficient new work after starting a sprint. The team may now take on various other items during the same sprint. Please be aware, though, that this situation can cause unproductive multitasking. In Scrum, it is very important that the development team is focused on one product for one sprint whenever possible.
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The scrum model doesn’t tell you specifically what to do; it is not a set of practices and techniques. Scrum is a framework that provides transparency and lets you inspect and adapt. With Scrum, impediments to the workflow are more visible, and it is easier to implement a mitigation plan. These impediments can come from anyone on the team. For example, imagine that the product owner doesn´t know the market well or doesn’t understand the business value of the product. Maybe the development team doesn´t know how to estimate or develop a specific requirement imposed by the client. In both cases, Scrum will help you to quickly inspect and adapt to the situation in question. Because Scrum is based on sprints, those improvements will be implemented in short cycles and in small increments. Imagine now, a scenario where the development team fails to deliver what was forecasted in the first sprint. The reason could be that there was insufficient task analysis or estimation skills. To the team, this might feel like a failure. This setback is actually helpful, however, for the development team to learn how to estimate better. I hope you can see how the inspect and adopt mechanism is the basis of Scrum and what makes it so powerful. One common mistake that teams new to Scrum might make is to change the scrum framework. For example, a team that is not be able to deliver on time decides to extend the sprint. When the sprint duration is not respected, it is not possible to learn how to better estimate and manage time. Simply pushing back the completion time is not a good solution. Another common mistake is to think that an action is not allowed because it is not specified in the scrum guide. For example, Scrum does not specify that the product owner should have a long-term vision concerning the project. Scrum also does not specify that the developers should seek advice from more experienced developers or architects when faced with complex technical problems. Scrum gives a team the freedom to make the right decisions. In general, both of these practices are recommended; accepting input from both the product owner and more experienced developers can contribute greatly to a project's success.
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Yet another misstep taken in many organizations is that the managers are imposing Scrum on their teams. Scrum provides an environment and the tools that a team needs to become self-organizing; hence, a dictatorial management style is not compatible with Scrum. It is much more helpful for the team to learn about Scrum from a peer or manager and then make its own decisions as a team. The developers can follow the Scrum practices and, after a period of time, evaluate their experience. Depending on the results, the team and the organization can decide whether it makes sense to continue. One way to avoid the mistakes that I just outlined is for a team to have a Scrum Master. That is why you are here! A Scrum Master will coach and support the development team. The Scrum Master will also help the team deal with any weaknesses and obstacles it may face. Scrum Masters can help to identify both the good and the bad issues with a project; they can provide the team members with options when adaptation is needed. Please be aware that Scrum can be very challenging in the first sprint, but the benefits of using the scrum model tend to become obvious by the end of it. After the first sprint, the team has learned how they perform as a team and this knowledge will enable them to deliver better results. Also be aware that there are some myths about Scrum. For example, some people say that Scrum requires no documentation and the scrum team consists only of developers. As you have seen, this is not true. I will discuss myths about the scrum model in more detail later in this audio course.
AGILE MANIFESTO Welcome to the Agile Manifesto section! In this section, I will introduce the basis of the Agile methodologies. In two thousand one, a group of software developers created and published a manifesto with the Agile principles. Scrum uses this manifesto as a base. The Agile Manifesto says that individuals and interactions are more important than processes and tools. Working software is also more important than comprehensive documentation. Understand that this does not mean
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documentation is no longer required. It means that working software is crucial, and the main focus should go towards creating software that works for the end-user. The Agile Manifesto also expresses that ongoing customer collaboration is more important than the initial contract negotiation. The Agile philosophy is about collaborating and giving more value to the customer, not just leaving them behind once a contract is in place. The last item, but no less important, is that responding to changes has more priority than does following a plan. As you know, Waterfall projects follow a plan and do not handle changes well. The Agile framework is more about responding to changes by inspecting and adapting.
USES OF SCRUM Welcome to the section on the uses of scrum! Here I will explain how Scrum can be used and what kinds of projects are ideal for this framework. Scrum was initially created for software. However, since the early nineties, Scrum has been used extensively for different types of projects: for research, to develop new products and enhancements, and to release updated versions of products. Scrum is used in a wide variety of industries, in many organizations, and even in personal projects. Scrum is also used in schools and government agencies. Scrum works best with small teams that are flexible and can adapt to changing requirements. It is also, however, applicable to projects with thousands of people; they are split up into smaller scrum teams working independently on different parts of the final product. You have probably asked yourself if the Scrum framework is only applicable to software development. As I mentioned a bit earlier, the answer is no. When I say the word development in this course, or, when you read the word on the exam, it is referring to complex work. Development can involve software, hardware, engineering, and any other industry where an iterative development is required. In this course, you will hear me say mostly positive things about Scrum. Please remember, though, that Scrum is appropriate for some projects, but not for all 15
projects. The parameters of a project should determine whether you follow a more traditional workflow or implement the scrum model. I will now present a list of cases where using Scrum is beneficial. You can also find this information summarized in the Follow-along PDF Manual on page sixteen: 1. Projects where the scope of work is not clearly defined. 2. Projects where the product will evolve during the course of the project. 3. Projects where the requirements are expected change frequently. 4. Projects where all required activities cannot be defined at the outset. 5. Projects where estimating is difficult. 6. Projects where the process is iterative, meaning that there will be numerous cycles that depend on previous cycles. 7. Projects where success is about customer satisfaction. 8. Projects where the deliverables in each sprint have value and can be used right away. The traditional workflow methods might be more beneficial for the following project types. Continue to follow along in the PDF manual: 1. Projects where the scope is clear from the beginning; the product description is available up front and similar projects have been completed before. 2. Projects where the products are not expected to change too much. 3. Projects where estimating is possible right from the beginning of the project. 4. Projects where the work is expected to be to be completed over the long term and can be split into phases. 5. Projects where success can be achieved by reaching project goals for time, cost, and scope. 6. Projects where the end-user can wait for the completion of the project before using it.
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To summarize all of this, Scrum makes more sense if there are lots of unknowns. It is also more appropriate if projects are more complex, and difficult to define and estimate at the start. Applying Scrum is not always easy, and you need to be careful to ensure an organization is ready to implement this kind of workflow. An organization is not ready for Scrum if team members have not received training in the appropriate Scrum roles; this also holds true if people are not open to learning new practices. It is very common to see environments where the Scrum team is trained but the project owner is not. I recommend that you don’t start using Scrum until everyone has received proper training and is on the same page.
SCRUM THEORY Welcome to the Scrum theory section where I will go deeper into the details and you will learn more specifics about this framework. Scrum is based on empiricism: that is knowledge acquired from experience. Making decisions with empiricism is based on what is known, not assumed. Scrum uses an iterative and incremental approach to improve predictability and reduce risk. In this environment, we rely on transparency, inspection, and adaptation. Do you recall that I have been mentioning inspection and adaptation throughout the course? In Scrum, transparency is an important value because the team improves by experimenting and doing. Without transparency, a team would not be able to inspect and adapt. In order to practice this transparency, a Scrum team needs a common language, shared by all participants. Moreover, a common definition of what it means for a project to be done needs to be agreed upon and shared; this way, the entire team has a common goal. Definition of done is the criteria to be met before a product increment is actually considered done. If the criteria are not met by end of a sprint, the work cannot be classified as done. This product increment, by the way, is often called a user story. I will talk about user stories in a later chapter.
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The Scrum Master needs to take care to ensure that the artifacts are completely transparent. Artifacts are used to provide key information to the whole team about the health of the project. This key information is about the product under development, any planned activities, and completed activities. During this course, I have also talked about inspection. The Scrum Master and skilled inspectors need to inspect both the scrum artifacts and progress towards the sprint goal. When inspecting the scrum artifacts, the skilled inspectors can easily identify undesirable variances. Once an inspector finds an undesirable variance, the process or the material being developed needs to be adjusted. A fix needs to be made as soon as possible to minimize further deviation. This approach can be easily accomplished within the Scrum framework. The traditional workflow method would require a longer time to make adjustments because the project has been planned using some assumptions that can be difficult to modify. We use scrum events, also called scrum ceremonies, to implement inspection and adaptation. The scrum events are sprint planning, daily scrum, sprint review, and sprint retrospective. I will talk about scrum events later in a chapter dedicated solely to this topic. To apply transparency, inspection, and adaptation, the scrum team needs commitment, courage, focus, openness, and respect. The Scrum Master needs to be watchful that the team is living and practicing these values. Without them, transparency, inspection and adaptation will be difficult to achieve. Scrum supports a continuous collaboration between the customer and the team. The customer is even involved in the sprint demo, where the team shows what was completed in that particular sprint. Scrum also needs to be executed in a timeboxed approach where the product owner provides continuous feedback; this way, the final product doesn´t deviate from the business's original needs. As I just mentioned, one important advantage of Scrum is customer involvement during each sprint of the project. Sprints have short durations so the team must plan prioritized user stories within each sprint. The product owner understands, of 18
course, the customer's priorities; the owner can prioritize the user stories in the backlog, based on the business's needs. The backlog is a list of all user stories that need to be developed. In Scrum, you can find two kinds of backlogs. The Sprint Backlog is a list of user stories that will be developed in that specific sprint. The Product Backlog is a list of all user stories that can be developed for that specific product. Please be aware that, at the beginning of each sprint, the team decides what user stories will be developed in that sprint. The team will choose the prioritized user stories from the product backlog. Meanwhile, the product backlog may be altered if the business needs change. Alterations in the product backlog will not impact the development team because they are focused on the sprint backlog. It could also happen that the customer needs an urgent change request that needs to be developed in the current sprint. In this case, the Scrum Master and the development team will determine if this change can be absorbed into the current sprint; they will consider what impact it may have on the sprint. Another option would be to prioritize the change request to include it in the next sprint. In the scrum environment, the development team can quickly adapt and respond to the customer´s requirements. Employing the scrum framework helps an organization to reduce overhead and avoid redoing completed work; this, because the team focuses on developing the prioritized user stories. As a result, an organization will enjoy increased efficiency of the development team, and the customer will be more satisfied. All of this will increase the market potential of the organization. In Scrum, product managers are known as product owners. As I will explain later in this audio course, the product owner is responsible for customer satisfaction. This is easier to achieve in Scrum because the team can respond faster to new requests from the customer. Many project managers take on the role of Scrum Master when the organization starts working under Scrum. The role of Scrum Master is slightly different from the role of Project Manager, and you will learn about those differences in this course.
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Scrum is a collaborative framework that facilitates planning and tracking for the project manager. Some tools used to track a project’s progress are the burndown chart and the daily scrum meetings. The burndown chart is a graphic that indicates how much work remains for the rest of the sprint. With this information, the Scrum Master can easily forecast if all work will be completed on time. The daily scrum meetings are short daily meetings; team members discuss what has been done, what they will be doing, and what obstacles they have encountered. From there, they can request support to help them eliminate any roadblocks. I will explain more about these daily meetings in the Scrum Events chapter. In Scrum, the work delivered at the end of a sprint can be used immediately. That tends to make the development team more enthusiastic about completing individual sprints. Work can be used immediately because the sprints are time boxed and because the development team delivers product increments. This collaborative spirit promotes job satisfaction and enjoyment among team members. As the requirements for every sprint are based on customer priorities, the team understands the value of their work. I will now list the main activities that you, as Scrum Master, might handle in a project. This is just an introduction. I will give more details in a later chapter dedicated to the scrum ceremonies. Imagine that you have reached an agreement with a company's representative to undertake a project for the organization. Now, you need to create a vision statement and define the product map. In other words, you must outline parameters and goals for the completed project. Note that the vision statement and product roadmap are critical parts of the project management process. They are well represented in other Agile frameworks, including DSDM Atern. However, these do not belong in the Scrum model. I will now describe, step by step, all the events that occur before the sprint. 1. The vision statement highlights a clear description of the project goals. This enables the team to remain focused on the organization’s critical point of view. Please be aware that the vision statement is not part of the scrum 20
guide. However, this is a critical part of a project that needs to be considered. 2. The product roadmap serves as an initial visual timeline of significant product deliverables. It’s ideally created by the product owner an important scrum role that I will explain in a later chapter. The roadmap is another element not described in the scrum guide. However, it needs to be considered in any project to have a global vision. 3. Curate user requirements and change them into deliverable features that are tagged stories. The product owner is responsible for writing these stories while the elements of the stories come from the customer. 4. The product backlog is formed by the entire set of user stories. It’s not necessary to wait until the product backlog is complete before commencing the sprints. You can start a sprint the moment you notice that the product backlog is sufficiently ready for implementation. Also, regarding the product backlog, be sure to update the backlog throughout the project. Next, let me discuss what takes place just before and during the sprint: 1. The sprint planning meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to determine the components that will make up the sprint. In this meeting, the product owner prioritizes these components. Consequently, the product owner indirectly determines the content of the sprint backlog. As I mentioned earlier, the development team will decide how to deliver this content. The sprint backlog consists of all user stories that will be developed during that sprint. Please note that the team can break down these stories into smaller tasks. The team will then deliver an agreed upon number of stories at the end of the sprint. 2. The daily scrum meeting. This meeting will be held by the team for fifteen minutes per day to discuss progress and the way forward on the project.
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