What is Scrum - Complete Overview

Hello. In this video, we're going to get a complete overview of Scrum and its most important features. First, let's start by discussing what exactly is Scrum. Scrum is a subset of Agile. It is one of the most popular ways of implementing Agile on a project. The Scrum guide says that Scrum is a framework for developing, delivering and sustaining complex products. It also says that Scrum is a framework through which people can address complex adaptive problems while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest value. Now let's understand. What does that mean in simple words? Scrum is a set of guidelines and rules that allows us to manage complicated projects in rapidly changing environments. The benefits of Scrum can be divided into two major areas. First, it allows us to perform quick and efficient project management. Secondly, it helps us develop products of the highest quality. Furthermore, being flexible and adaptive are the key features of Scrum. It allows us to develop products while being open to change at all times, and it also helps us make changes as quickly as possible. The Scrum guide describes Scrum as being lightweight. It is considered lightweight because it doesn't have a million rules to follow. It just has a few basic guidelines. It is simple to understand because it focuses on how you can get work done and solve problems in the fastest and most straightforward way. Lastly, it is difficult to master in order for Scrum to work. It is important to make sure its rules are being followed properly, otherwise it won't work. Next, we're going to learn what exactly is Scrum made up of. The Scrum framework contains three main categories. These include the Scrum team scrum events and the Scrum artifacts. The Scrum team includes the specific roles and people involved in the Scrum team. Scrum events are the events which take place in a scrum based project. Scrum artifacts are the most important documents and assets used in Scrum. What you see in front of you is a breakdown of all the most important concepts of Scrum. We will discuss each of these categories one by one. First the Scrum team. We will learn about who are the people involved in the Scrum project and what are their responsibilities. First up is the product owner. The product owner defines the features of the product and sets the direction for what needs to be done on the project. So let's find out how are they able to do that? First, the product owner is a representative of the customer. In simple words, he or she is responsible for understanding the customer's requirements and then sharing those requirements with the development team. Secondly, the product owner creates and manages the product backlog. This is the document which contains the list of all the work that needs to be done on the project. Therefore, the product owner prioritizes what needs to be made on the project and acts as a bridge between the customer and the development team. Next on the team is the Scrum master. The Scrum master is the manager of the scrum process. This is the person who ensures everyone is following Scrum rules on the project and provides help and support to the team by solving their problems. Last but not least, is the development team. The development team creates and develops the features of the product. So basically they're the ones who perform the actual work on the project, for example, programming, designing and testing. It is important to know the meaning of the word development. So in Scrum, the word development refers to complex or challenging work. So to be clear, development does not only refer to programming or coding, it includes any type of work that is challenging or difficult to do. This means that even though Scrum was created for the software industry, it can be applied to industries beyond software. Next Scrum events. Let's take a look at the different events which take place in Scrum and what is the purpose of each event. The sprint is a fixed period of time where a specific amount of work is completed. Sprints can also be considered as the cycles of work where the product is developed over multiple iterations. In the Sprint planning meeting, the team chooses what to work on. So this is where you would select the product features you want to make for this sprint. Next in the daily Scrum meeting, the development team would discuss the everyday progress and problems that they're facing on the project. Then in the Sprint review meeting, the team checks and evaluates the work done in the sprint. So this is where you would give a product demo to the customer and receive feedback on the work that you've completed. Lastly, in the Sprint retrospective meeting, the Scrum team evaluates its own performance and suggests improvements for future sprints. Next Scrum artifacts. Let's learn about what are the most important documents and assets used on the Scrum project. First, the product backlog. This is the document which contains the overall list of requirements and features to make the product. Next Sprint backlog. This is the document which contains the items that the team has selected for the sprint. Basically it contains a small subset of the items selected from the product backlog. Lastly, the increment is the outcome or deliverable of a sprint. It is the finished or completed piece of work that you get at the end of a sprint. Next, let's learn a bit more about Scrum teams and what makes them unique. According to the Scrum guide, the essence of Scrum is a small team of people. This team is highly flexible and adaptive. They contain a minimum of three and a maximum of nine members. The reason is that bigger teams are slower in responding to changes. Furthermore, projects can get complicated when there are too many members. That is why in Scrum a smaller team with highly qualified individuals is able to quickly adapt and respond to changes. Scrum team members can be considered as generalizing specialists. Each member is an expert who knows a lot about one specific thing, but at the same time also knows a little about a wide range of topics. Scrum helps make the most optimal decisions as it allows you to leverage the knowledge and experience of the entire team. The teams are also independent and have a lot of authority to make decisions on their own. This is another reason for their ability to quickly respond to changes in the market, product and the environment. Furthermore, Scrum teams inspect and adapt the project based on feedback. So the way it works is that every time you complete your work in Scrum, you also inspect it to check it and ask the customer for feedback. This loop of inspection and feedback allows the team to ensure that the products they're developing are according to the customer and the market's requirements. All right, Good job. So that wraps up our overview of Scrum. Let's keep going and I'll see you in the next video.