Scrum 101: Agile Project Management with Scrum

The goal of this article is to provide you with a quick introduction to Scrum.  I explain how you can use Scrum to coordinate the work of a team when building a complex software product.

In this article, I explain four of the most important concepts of Scrum: the Product Backlog, Sprints, the Scrumboard, and Burndown Charts.

Scattered throughout this article, I’ve created hyperlinks which you can follow to investigate a concept in more depth. For example, to learn more about the Product Backlog, click the Product Backlog hyperlink.

Product Backlog

When you have a lot of work to do, it is a good idea to start with a list. In Scrum, this list is called the Product Backlog. The Product Backlog contains a prioritized list of work items which you must complete to complete a project. You can think of the Product Backlog as a giant ToDo list for your entire project.

Each work item in the Product Backlog is called a User Story. For example, a Product Backlog might include a User Story to build a shopping cart or a User Story to create a Facebook Like button. Everything which needs to be done to complete a project should be expressed as a User Story and added to the Product Backlog.

The Product Owner is the person who is responsible for the Product Backlog. The Product Owner creates the list of User Stories and prioritizes the order of the User Stories. The User Stories at the top of the Product Backlog are done first and the User Stories at the bottom of the Product Backlog are done last.

You can use SonicAgile to create your Product Backlog. Figure 1 illustrates the appearance of a Product Backlog which contains several User Stories. You can drag-and-drop User Stories to change their priority in the Product Backlog.

Figure 1 – SonicAgile Product Backlog

Sprints

In Scrum, the Development Team performs work in Sprints. For example, a Development Team might develop software in week-long Sprints. The goal of the Sprint should be to produce a Potentially Shippable Increment of Product.

At the beginning of a Sprint, the Product Owner meets with the Development Team in a Sprint Planning Meeting. The purpose of the Sprint Planning meeting is to create a Sprint Backlog. The Sprint Backlog contains a subset of the User Stories from the Product Backlog which the Development Team commits to completing before the end of the Sprint.

When using SonicAgile, you can add User Stories from the Product Backlog to a Sprint Backlog by dragging the User Story into a Sprint. For example, Figure 2 contains a Sprint named First Sprint which contains three User Stories.

Figure 2 – SonicAgile Sprint

During the Sprint, the Product Owner is not allowed to change the User Stories in the Sprint Backlog. The Development Team can focus on getting the User Stories in the Sprint Backlog Done without worrying that the list of User Stories will be changed.

At the end of the Sprint, the Product Owner meets with the Development Team for a Sprint Review Meeting. Typically, during the Sprint Review Meeting, the Development Team demonstrates the completed code to the Product Owner.

Finally, there is one more meeting at the end of the Sprint. The Development Team has a Sprint Retrospective Meeting. The goal of the Sprint Retrospective Meeting is to discuss ways of improving the team.

Scrumboard

During the Sprint, the members of the Development Team meet once a day for a 15-minute Daily Scrum Meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to allow the members of the Development Team to coordinate their work. Each person on the Development Team answers the following three questions (and only the following three questions):

1. What have you done since yesterday?
2. What do you plan to do today?
3. Any impediments in your way?

During the Daily Scrum Meeting, the Development Team uses a Scrumboard to see what everyone is working on. The Scrumboard shows the list of User Stories in the current Sprint.

The User Stories are broken into individual Tasks. For example, to complete the Create a Shopping Cart User Story, the Development Team might need to complete all of the following Tasks:

1. Create the database tables
2. Design the appearance of the Shopping Cart
3. Create Selenium Tests for the Shopping Cart

Whereas the Product Owner is responsible for creating the User Stories, the Development Team is responsible for implementing the User Stories by breaking the Stories into Tasks.

Figure 3 illustrates the appearance of the Scrumboard in SonicAgile. The Create a Shopping Cart Story is broken into three Tasks. The state of each Task is ToDo, In Progress, or Done.

Figure 3 – SonicAgile Scrumboard

Burndown Charts

In Scrum, you use Burndown Charts to track the progress of a team. There are two types of Burndown Charts: Release Burndown Charts and Sprint Burndown Charts.

The Release Burndown Chart shows the progress of the team in completing all of the User Stories in the Product Backlog. You use the Release Burndown Chart to see, at a glance, how close the team is to completing an entire project.

The Sprint Burndown Chart shows the progress of the team in completing all of the User Stories for a particular Sprint. You use the Sprint Burndown chart to see, at a glance, how much work the Development team is getting Done for a particular Sprint.

SonicAgile generates Release Burndown and Sprint Burndown Charts automatically. For example, Figure 4 contains a Sprint Burndown Chart which was generate from a Sprint Backlog automatically.

Figure 4 – SonicAgile Sprint Burndown Chart

Summary

This article provided a high-level overview of four of the most important concepts of Scrum. I explained the Product Backlog, Sprints, the Scrumboard, and Burndown Charts.

To learn more, I encourage you to click the hyperlinks above to investigate particular concepts in more detail.