It is hard to complete a project under a fixed budget and in due time, but it is even harder when clients are not so sure of themselves. Some take a “we’ll see as we go” approach, others react to market competition and demand change or improvement. This is tough when you use a traditional method to carry out the development process.
This is where the Agile way has proved useful for countless organizations over the years. Agile is a set of best business practices. It enables organizations to achieve success in a fast paced environment through self-organized teams, iterative work process, accountability among team members, collaboration, empowerment, and the drive for continuous improvement.
It is based on the Agile Manifesto, which outlines four key values and twelve principles for businesses. In 2001, a group of people collectively formulated a set of best business processes, which would later go on to become a recipe for success for numerous organizations.
- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Responding to change over following a plan
- Working software over comprehensive documentation
But Agile is only half of the picture. Scrum is the other half which completes it. It serves as a framework for an Agile environment. Scrum defines the practice of dividing work into chunks, allowing teams to review, test, and improve as they move along.
If you work in an environment where project requirements keep on changing, the scrum methodology grants your team the flexibility to modify the project without worrying about jeopardizing the progress made.
Let us take a look at how organizations can transform their project performance through the application of Agile Scrum.
Self-Organized Teams
The ideology behind Agile is to have self-organized teams that need little supervision. Employees are to be divided into teams, with each team possessing the ability to self-organize, and distribute work among themselves as they see fit.
Employees like when they are entrusted with some degree of decision making. Once a task has been accomplished, teams will engage in a review process. And in retrospect, they will analyze what things could have been done better, and apply them towards the next task. Agile Scrum will enable little input from managers, but teams will constantly improve.
Spotify, for example, groups its employees into squads and each squad is tasked to handle an important aspect of Spotify’s product. By doing so, Spotify need not worry about dealing with one bad commitment ruining the entire platform. If a task is not up to the mark, it can be reverted without serious repercussions for the entire platform.
Introduce A Scrum Master
In the Scrum methodology, the role of a manager is distributed among three entities: Project Owner, Scrum Master, and teams. The role of Scrum Master is that of a coach. Just as a coach in a sports team motivates and boosts the morale of its team players, the Scrum Master engages with all the teams to push away any metaphorical roadblocks.
The Scrum Master, in short, oversees the process and ensures every task is going according to the backlog provided by the Product Owner.
Organizations either hire a professionally certified Scrum Master or train one of its employees to become one, through Agile Scrum training programs. It is important that Scrum Masters know what they are doing, and that teams equally share the motivation and commitment to deliver and improve upon their work.
Teams Must Be Clear On Responsibilities
We talked about self-organized teams and how empowering individuals through granting some degree of decision making can not only build an Agile environment, but also create a stronger relationship with the employees. But in order for teams to assume responsibilities, they must be clear on what the responsibilities are.
The positives outcomes of Agile Scrum are heavily dependent on individual team members who understand exactly what their roles and responsibilities are in the project. They must be clear on how their input will work towards building the project. Once the effects on Agile Scrum start kicking in, it can develop huge confidence in team members.
Agile Scrum will be a new concept to them just as it will be for you. So it is important that the advantages of implementing this methodology are known to team members.
Iterate And Improve
Scrum’s core feature, and something that makes it a powerful method, is the idea of iterative development process. This is in conjunction with the aim to improve with every task accomplished.
Scrum divides work into little chunks, to be completed in a set period of time. This short period of time is called a sprint. These sprints can last days or up to two-four weeks, depending on what the team decides as an ideal sprint duration.
The idea behind having these sprints is to complete tasks by a deadline, so the task is ready to be reviewed by the product owner or client. But this does not mean the project is finished, it simply means that one important component of a project is in working state.
Building on the example of Spotify, each squad in the organization handles some part of the company’s product. When a squad is done with their task, it simply means there is a functioning component ready to be plugged with components from other teams. The collaboration towards a common goal is what drives the idea of Scrum.
Agile Scrum has been implemented by a number of noteworthy corporations such as Microsoft, Google, Spotify, AZN, IBM, and the list goes on. Being software development companies, or having software development operation in some capacity, these companies have realized the need to adopt an ideology and methodology to keep up with the fast-paced world of IT.
If you are looking for Agile Scrum training for your organization, do check out the courses we have on offer.