What is Scrum?

Scrum, an Agile approach, is an iterative, incremental process for developing products and managing projects. It is a world apart from traditional methodologies based on engineering disciplines, where a project is approached as a whole task rather than subsets, with progress marked at the time of project completion.

Scrum's adaptive and people-focused approach begins with the establishment of a 'product backlog' - a list of customer requirements. Each element of the backlog is prioritised as to what is most likely to deliver value, and the highest is worked on first. Under Scrum, each iteration is a Sprint of around a month's duration. Each Sprint starts with a planning meeting, where the self organising project team plan out the work they have committed to completing in the coming Sprint, and then each day begins with a 15-minute meeting to communicate progress, re-align the team members work plans and identify impediments to productivity.

The frequent communication means that the development process can more easily adopt changes in priorities and content. At the end of each Sprint, the team presents the current functionality to the business for review, and the month's iteration can begin, with the team working on the latest objectives.

Ultimately, Scrum has proven to enable organsiations to deliver quality software, utilising available resources, whilst ensuring the delivery is closely aligned to business requirements. Useful product functionality is consistently delivered every thirty days as requirements, architecture, and design emerge, even when using unstable technologies.

A 'common sense' way of working, Scrum is a set of values, practices, and rules in a development framework that can be quickly implemented and repeated. A 'win-win-win' scenario where the project teams are empowered and motivated, the users are provided solutions that they want, and the business is enjoying rapid ROI with reduced risk.