1. An introduction
to Scrum
James Brett
April 2009

2. What are we going to cover?
1. What is Scrum?
2. Scrum Theory
3. Scrum Roles
4. Scrum Flow
5. Summary & References

3. What’s Your Experience?
The Mazda “Scrum Wagon”

4. 1. What is Scrum?
• A Framework for developing complex
products and systems
• Grounded in “Empirical Process Control”
– Iterative, incremental approach to optimize
predictability and control risk
• An iteration in Scrum is a Sprint
– 2-4 weeks in length
– Deliver a “Potentially Shippable Product
Increment”

5. What is Scrum?
• Time Boxes
• Self Organizing, Cross functional teams to
optimize flexibility and productivity
• Agile…
Ron Jeffries Kent Beck
Jon Kern Mike Beedle
Brian Marick Arie van Bennekum
Robert C. Martin Alistair Cockburn
Steve Mellor Ward Cunningham
Ken Schwaber Martin Fowler
Jeff Sutherland James Grenning
Dave Thomas Jim Highsmith
Andrew Hunt

6. What is Agility?
• Agility is the ability to both create and
respond to change in order to profit in
a turbulent business environment
• Agility is the ability to balance flexibility
and stability
Jim Highsmith

7. 2. Scrum Theory
A “Framework” for developing complex products and systems
Inspection
Transparency Adaption
Empirical
Process
Control

8. Continuous Transparency
Transparency
1. What the team are doing
2. Progress
3. Planning and prioritization
4. Risk and Issues
“Visibility and Honesty”

9. 4 defined inspection points
Inspection
1. Sprint Planning
2. Daily Scrums
3. Sprint Reviews
4. Sprint Retrospectives
Continuous Improvement

10. 1 Defined adaption point
Adaption
1. Sprint Retrospective
Continuous Improvement

11. Scrum’s Core Values
Commitment
Courage Focus
Scrum
Respect Openness

12. 3. Scrum Roles
Scrum Team
ScrumMaster
Product Owner
Image courtesy of implementingscrum.com

13. Scrum Team
Team deliver the product
• Self-organises
– Team decides who will do what
– Team decides how to deliver
• Estimates
• Demonstrates work results to Product
Owner

14. Scrum Team
Image courtesy of implementingscrum.com

15. Scrum Team
• Pigs
• 5-9 people
• Empowered
• Self organized
• X functional

16. ScrumMaster
Four Primary Responsibilities
1. Facilitate Scrum process
2. Protect the team from disturbance
3. Remove the teams impediments
4. Provide Scrum coaching
Image courtesy of implementingscrum.com

17. Product Owner
Three primary responsibilities
1. Provide Vision and Goals
2. Maximise ROI
3. Business and Team interaction
Image courtesy of implementingscrum.com

18. 4. Scrum Flow
• Product Backlog
• Sprint
– Sprint Backlog
– Sprint Burndown
• Release Planning
– Release Burndown

19. Product Backlog
• Why?
– Defines the products functionality
• What?
– A prioritized list of “expectations” for the product.
• How?
– Enter User Stories (or use cases) which have priority, and
estimate, business value and risk
• When?
– Constantly maintained and emerging
• Who?
– Anyone can contribute, but the Product Owner owns the
backlog

20. Product Backlog
Priority Backlog Item Estimate
1 As a guest, I want to cancel a reservation 5
3 As a guest, I want to change the dates of a reservation 3
2 As a hotel employee, I can run RevPAR reports (revenue- 13
per-available-room)
Improve exception handling 8
…. 8
…. 30
…. 50

21. A Sprint
• 1-4 weeks in duration
• Timeboxed
• Protected by the ScrumMaster
• Team composition is constant

22. A Sprint
• Product Backlog
Planning • Sprint Backlog
• Daily Scrum
Development
• Potentially Shippable
Review Product Increment
• Continuous Improvement
Retrospective

23. Sprint Planning
• (1) Select highest priority items from
the Product Backlog
• P.O. and Team agree a Sprint Goal
• (2) Team creates Sprint Backlog
• Breaks down Product Backlog items
into tasks

24. Defining “Done”
Analysis
Design
Done?
Coding
Integration
Perf. Test
UAT
Pilot
Live
Definitely!

25. Sprint Burndown

26. Daily Scrum
• Same time and place everyday
• Standing, 15 mins max
• Each team member explains
1. What he/she has accomplished since the last
meeting
2. What he/she is going to do before the next
meeting
3. What impediments are in his or
her way

27. Sprint Review
• Less than 5% of sprint duration
• Scrum Team, ScrumMaster, P.O. and
Stakeholders collaborate on what has
been completed
– P.O. Identifies what has been “Done”
– Team discuss problems and successes of
sprint
– Team demonstrates work
– Planning

28. Sprint Retrospective
• ScrumMaster encourages the team to
revise development practices
• Inspect & Adapt
– People
– Relationships
– Processes and tools
• Indentify and prioritise the major items
– Basis of empirical process

29. Release Planning
• Just in time planning (15-20% of normal)
• Fixed date
– 1st July Release
– Determine how much scope
• Fixed scope
– Functionality A,B,C required
– Determine release date

30. Fixed Date Release Plan
52 Story Points
Worst Velocity
30 Story Points
Avg Velocity
40 Story Points
Best Velocity
50 Story Points

31. Fixed Scope Release Plan
52 Story Points
Velocity
20 Story Points

32. Release Burndown
Image courtesy of mountaingoatsoftware.com

33. Release Burndown
Image courtesy of mountaingoatsoftware.com

34. 5.0 Summary
• Scrum is empirical, iterative, time boxed
development for complex products
– “Inspect and Adapt”, “Visibility and Honesty”
• 3 roles
– Team, ScrumMaster, Product Owner
• 4 ceremonies
– Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review, Sprint Retrospective
• 4 artifacts
– Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, Release Burndown, Sprint
Burndown

35. References
www.ScrumMaster.com.au
www.ScrumAlliance.org
www.MountainGoatSoftware.com
www.controlchaos.com