Agile Scrum: Getting Started

Explore an overview of agile and scrum, and identify the key roles. Select a product owner, scrum master, and development team, and choose a sprint tool with hands-on demos.

Discover the agile mindset and Scrum framework, detailing stakeholders, roles (product owner, Scrum master, developers), sprints, backlogs, and continuous improvement to deliver a software product through a self-organizing, cross-functional team.

This lecture introduces the Campus Connect system, a campus management software developed by the fictional Olympus company, and explains Scrum roles and the big-picture steps for the project.

Select a product owner to lead the Scrum team with a clear vision. They own the backlog, prioritize items, and interact with customers to align scope.

Demonstrate selecting the product owner using a downloadable scrum worksheet that captures essential owner details for the Campus Connect project, with John Smith recorded as product owner.

Collect project details after selecting the product owner to define the scrum setup, including organization name, project name, division, start date, expected completion date, and team size with scrum master.

Enter campus connect project details—project name, organization, division, dates, program and project managers, and developer team size—and prepare to move this worksheet to the Sprint tool for centralized management.

Select a scrum master who drives the team toward the scrum goal, coaches on agile practices, and removes impediments for developers, with selection led by the product owner and management.

Select a Scrum Master for the campus connect product, capture their name, email, and division in the worksheet, and note five years of Scrum Master experience.

Form a cross-functional development team by selecting 5–9 members who can implement backlog items in a sprint, with product owner and management guiding the process.

Consolidate the product owner details and a five-developer Campus Connect team with cross-functional, R&D roles. Complete the developer selection and prepare to choose the sprint tool.

Select the sprint tool early and stick with it, considering cost, tool integration with DevOps and external access, using Azure DevOps, Jira, Trello, and GitHub Projects as examples.

Explore top sprint tools—Azure DevOps, Jira, and Trello—highlighting why Campus Connect at Olympus adopts Azure DevOps for sprint planning, tracking, and CI/CD readiness.

Set up the sprint tool by initializing basic settings, creating organization and projects, adding team members and roles, and capturing Product Owner and Scrum Master details to support Scrum ceremonies.

Demonstrate setting up the sprint tool Azure DevOps for a corporate Scrum workflow, creating a Campus Connect project under Olympus, configuring boards, wiki, and markdown-based documentation to manage Scrum artifacts.

Explore how agile embraces change and how Scrum uses a framework with product owner, backlog, sprint boards, and cross-functional teams to manage development.

Kickstart your Scrum journey with one-time preparatory steps: create a sprint board, build and prioritize the product backlog, and plan the first sprint around items important to the customer.

Create a sprint board with to-do, doing, and done columns to track work items; the product owner, developers, and Scrum Master share setup, movement, and impediment removal.

Create and configure a sprint board in Azure DevOps, focusing on boards, backlogs, and sprints to track product backlog items and their states from to do to done.

Create and maintain the live product backlog as product owner, prioritizing items from customers and stakeholders, using drag-and-drop prioritization, and capturing user stories and bugs on the sprint board.

Learn to create and structure the product backlog in Azure DevOps, using epics, features, backlog items, and tasks, and define user stories with acceptance criteria for sprint planning.

Prioritize product backlog items to guide the current sprint, with the product owner updating priorities as needs evolve, delivering high-priority items first to enable a minimal viable product.

Prioritize backlog items in Azure DevOps using drag and drop and priority values 1, 2, 3, and 4, then manage the sprint backlog and subtasks for user stories.

Kick off the sprint-based development with Sprint zero, align backlog items and expectations, and involve the product owner, Scrum Master, and developers in a kickoff to start all sprints.

Plan sprint zero by establishing conventions, duration, start and end days, and team expectations. Use Azure DevOps for backlog and sprint board, and enable CI and unit testing.

Set up a sprint board with to-do, doing, and done to track backlog items as they progress, prioritize backlog, craft user stories with acceptance criteria, and kick off sprint zero.

Discover how to run a sprint smoothly by sprint planning, selecting and estimating backlog items, implementing them, and holding daily stand-ups to reach the sprint goal.

Define the sprint goal and select high-priority backlog items in the sprint planning meeting, lock the sprint backlog, and align the team, product owner, Scrum master, and developers, for execution.

Learn how to set up and run a sprint planning meeting in Azure DevOps by creating and managing sprints, configuring iterations, assigning team members, and linking backlog items to sprint.

estimate the sprint backlog items during the sprint planning meeting and determine a definition of done for each item, using story points or Fibonacci sizing to gauge effort.

Teams estimate sprint backlog items by gathering individual estimates, reconciling them, and finalizing a common effort. Use Azure DevOps estimate sessions with card options like t-shirt sizing or Fibonacci.

Developers implement sprint backlog items from the sprint board, work toward the sprint goal, and deliver a product increment for customer demo; feedback is compiled into the product backlog.

Implement sprint backlog items for the campus connect product by moving assigned tasks from to-do to in-progress, updating daily scrum comments, and creating a test case document for api integration.

Learn how the daily stand-up (daily scrum) aligns the team to sprint backlog work, surfaces impediments, and keeps the product owner and Scrum Master informed in a quick morning meeting.

Master stand-up with the campus connect team to review board progress, surface blockers, and use burn down charts and capacity in Azure DevOps to guide API work and sprint goals.

Plan the sprint by setting the sprint goal, selecting prioritized backlog items, and estimating with story points using relative sizing or Fibonacci. Lock the sprint backlog and track daily stand-ups.

Review sprint work and backlog items, present ready increments to the customer, and brainstorm improvements through the Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective to refine the Scrum process for next sprint.

hold sprint review, demonstrate completed items, discuss what was done and the current state, review against the definition of done, and update backlog for next sprint, producing a product increment.

Demonstrate sprint review practices by examining backlog items, assessing progress, moving tasks between sprints or to the product backlog, and documenting outcomes in a wiki.

Conduct a sprint retrospective to review the sprint’s overall results, celebrate what went right, and identify practical improvements (keizan) to apply in the next sprint.

Hold a sprint retrospective to review what went well, what didn’t, and what to improve using worksheets or Azure DevOps extensions to capture actions for the next sprint.

Repeat the sprint cycle by planning, estimating, tackling challenges in daily scrums, and reviewing and conducting retrospectives, while the product owner updates the backlog and developers implement features.

Master sprint review and retrospective practices to deliver a product increment of high-value features. Observe demos meeting the definition of done and continuously improve product and sprint backlog management.