🤔What is Scrum?

Scrum is one of the most common Agile methods in the world. Learn about the basics below.

Video Version

Credit: Tech Fleet https://youtu.be/ikxnRq8tscs

Agile Philosophies vs. Agile Methods

What's the difference between Scrum and Agile?

What's the difference between the methods and the philosophies of Agile?

Good questions! We're so glad you asked.

Agile is a philosophy.

Scrum is a method of Agile.

Agile philosophies are the mindsets you build to approach work in an Agile way. Building incremental value instead of value all at once.

Think back to the "Build the skateboard before you build the car" example in previous sections of the Agile Handbook.

Agile Methods are the processes that teams use to carry out the work in Agile ways.  

Examples of Agile Methods

Showing some methods of the Agile philosophy. Credit: Tech Fleet

Here are some Agile Methods you see in the world:

1. Scrum

2. Kanban

3. SAFE, otherwise called Scaled Agile Framework

4. Extreme Programming

5. Google Design Sprints

6. So many more!

All of these are methods to carry out the Agile philosophies. Learn about all of the different Agile methods here in this section of the guide: Other Agile Methods.

Crawling Before Sprinting (See what we did there?)

You have to build an Agile mindset before you learn how to operate an Agile method. Once you are ready to build strong teamwork foundations on Agile teams, and ready to mature your team to from Forming to Performing, you are ready to operate Agile methods.

Scrum Method

Scrum is one of the most common methods for Agile work on teams.

In this method, work is always done in a fixed timeframe called a "Sprint". We "Scrum-ites" (followers of Scrum method) call this a "time box" of work.  Sometimes this is called an iteration of work.

Each team agrees to whatever their fixed timebox of work will be. They agree to one week, two week, three week, or four week sprints.

This could change over time. A team who agrees to one-week sprints may want to change to two-week or three-week sprints. They have the right to do so as a self-organized, psychologically safe team of service leaders.

Scrum teams deliver usable functionality every "sprint".

Scrum Process

Scrum has specific chunks of responsibilities and specific meetings you'd run on a team.

1. Build a backlog of small amounts of work

2. Refine the work and estimate its level of complexity

3. Do your "Planning": Plan work in sprints

4. Run sprints

5. Do your "Stand-Up": Check in every day during the sprint

6. Do your "Demo": Demonstrate work in progress at the end of the sprint

7. Do your "Retro": Get together and reflect in your previous sprint to identify how to improve

This picture shows the steps to follow when teams perform the Scrum method of Agile. Credit: https://www.theserverside.com/video/Scrum-methodology-explained

Here's a video on YouTube about Scrum

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIaz-l1Kf8w

Scrum's Persona: "Just keep sprinting, just keep sprinting..."

If Scrum were a persona, they'd be just like the fish from Finding Nemo:

"Just keep sprinting, just keep sprinting, sprinting sprinting sprinting sprinting".

The persona of Scrum is someone who's consistently operating and planning their next moves, just like a Scrum team.

Showing a persona of the Scrum method, outlining the goals, motivations, process, common tools, strengths, and pain points. Credit: Tech Fleet

Goals and Motivations

• Consistency in work intervals.

• Forecast the dates of releases.

• Increase team work capacity.

• Report progress to those outside the team.

Benefits

• Consistent planning of work items.

• Teams are able to get into a rhythm while working together.

Pain Points

• Rigid in flexibility (you should not change your sprint plan once it begins).

• Lots of work must happen before sprint teams can deliver work, it takes a lot of orchestration.

How to Start Doing Scrum

• Pick a consistent work interval called a “Sprint” (one week, two weeks, three weeks).

• Produce and deliver usable work every Sprint.

• Plan 1 to 2 Sprints ahead consistently.

• Once the sprint starts, work should not be added or removed, but often is decided by the team whether it is.

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