Scrum

Scrum is an agile framework for managing work, most commonly used in software development, in which a complex project is broken into short, repeatable cycles called sprints. Instead of planning the whole product up front, the team delivers it incrementally, showing a working result after each cycle and verifying that it is heading in the right direction. Scrum puts the values of Agile into practice.

How Scrum works

Scrum rests on three pillars: transparency, inspection and adaptation. It defines three roles: the Product Owner owns product value and the priorities in the backlog, the Scrum Master upholds the framework and removes impediments, and the development team self-organizes and delivers the increment.

The rhythm of work is set by events. At sprint planning the team selects backlog items for the upcoming cycle. The daily scrum is a short synchronization where the team discusses progress and obstacles. Two meetings close the sprint: the review (presenting the increment to stakeholders) and the retrospective (reflecting on how to improve the process itself). The output of every sprint is a potentially shippable product increment.

Practical application

Scrum works well on projects with high requirement uncertainty, where scope is refined as work proceeds. Product teams, agencies and IT departments use it to build applications, sites and platforms, relying on tools such as Jira to manage the backlog and sprint board. It is sometimes combined with Kanban (Scrumban) where part of the work is a continuous stream of incoming tickets. The key to success is not the ceremonies themselves but a culture of continuous improvement and the actual delivery of a working product each sprint.