How to Implement Scrum Development Model in 8 Steps

22 March 2010

Scrum is an agile development model that allows teams to deliver software products faster and with higher quality. Scrum involves breaking down the product into small and manageable pieces called backlog items, and working on them in short iterations called sprints. Here are the 8 steps you need to follow to implement Scrum successfully:

• Step 1: Prepare your product backlog. The product backlog is a list of features and requirements that you want to include in your product. You need to involve the stakeholders, such as the customers, users, or managers, to create and prioritize this list. You also need to get the approval of the product owner, who is the person responsible for defining and managing the product vision and goals.

• Step 2: Estimate your product backlog. As a team, you need to provide a rough estimate of how much time and effort each backlog item will take to complete. This will help you plan and prioritize your sprints better. You can use different techniques, such as planning poker or t-shirt sizes, to estimate your backlog items.

• Step 3: Plan your sprint. A sprint is a fixed period of time, usually one or two weeks, during which you work on a subset of the product backlog. To plan your sprint, you need to call a sprint planning meeting with the whole team and the product owner. In this meeting, you need to decide the following:

  • The sprint duration and goal
  • The backlog items that you will work on in this sprint
  • The requirements and acceptance criteria for each backlog item
  • The tasks and subtasks that you need to perform for each backlog item
  • The hours that you will spend on each task and subtask
  • The sprint backlog, which is the final list of tasks and subtasks that you commit to complete in this sprint

• Step 4: Create a collaborative workspace. To work effectively as a team, you need to have a shared workspace where you can communicate and track your progress. You can use a software tool or a physical board to create your workspace. You need to have the following elements in your workspace:

  • The product backlog
  • The sprint backlog
  • The daily burndown chart
  • The sprint burndown chart

• Step 5: Execute your sprint. During the sprint, you need to work on the tasks and subtasks that you have committed to complete. You need to follow these rules:

  • The sprint duration is fixed and cannot be changed
  • If you finish early, you can add more backlog items to the sprint
  • If you fall behind, you can remove or defer some backlog items from the sprint
  • You need to complete one backlog item at a time and make sure it is fully tested and meets the acceptance criteria

• Step 6: Hold daily stand-up meetings (Scrums). A daily stand-up meeting is a short and focused meeting that you hold every day with your team members. The purpose of this meeting is to synchronize your work and identify any issues or impediments that are blocking your progress. In this meeting, each team member needs to answer three questions:

  • What did you do since the last stand-up meeting?
  • What are you planning to do by the next stand-up meeting?
  • Do you have any blocks or impediments that are in your way?

The scrum master, who is the person responsible for facilitating and coaching the team, needs to ensure that the meeting is brief and productive. The scrum master also needs to help remove any impediments that are affecting the team.

• Step 7: Track your progress with burndown charts. A burndown chart is a graphical representation of how much work you have completed and how much work you have left in your sprint. It helps you monitor your progress and adjust your plan accordingly. You need to update your burndown chart daily by entering the estimated time to complete (ETC) for each task and subtask. You can use a software tool or a spreadsheet to create your burndown chart.

• Step 8: Review and improve. At the end of the sprint, you need to hold two meetings: a sprint review meeting and a sprint retrospective meeting. In the sprint review meeting, you need to demonstrate the software that you have developed in this sprint to the product owner and other stakeholders. You also need to review the burndown chart and discuss what went well and what could be improved in terms of quality, scope, time, and cost. In the sprint retrospective meeting, you need to reflect on how you worked as a team and identify what worked well and what didn’t work well in terms of collaboration, communication, processes, tools, etc. You also need to come up with action items for improvement for the next sprint.