Articles

Scrum Practices encompass a set of structured procedures and principles aimed at delivering projects more efficiently and effectively. These practices include defining roles such as Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Development Team, conducting regular events like Sprints, Sprint Planning, Daily Standups, Sprint Reviews, and Retrospectives, and utilizing artifacts such as Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, and Increment. The SBOK™ Guide provides a comprehensive framework that ensures continuous improvement, collaboration, and iterative progress, fostering a productive environment for delivering high-quality products that meet customer needs.

The six domains of Agile are:

• Value-driven delivery
• Stakeholder engagement
• Boosting team performance
• Adaptive planning
• Problem detection and resolution
• Continuous improvement

Let’s discuss each domain in more detail.

Value-driven delivery

Creating value is at the core of any project, and Agile methods are designed with the core objective of delivering value on a knowledge worker project. While maximizing value, Agile also has tools and techniques to minimize risks that can erode value. Agile methods also place importance on the customer’s priorities and is designed to deliver elements that have the highest value to the customer first.

Assessing value –.

Planning value – We create a charter detailing the scope, objective, and other attributes of the project. We then use tools such as customer-valued prioritization, relative prioritization, and risk adjusted backlog while preparing the priority list. Which planning value, we also assess the contracting costs of the project.

Delivering value – After planning how we are going to deliver value, we focus on eliminating all activities that do not add value. We can use task and Kanban boards to schedule the backlog. Limiting the Work in Progress (WIP) reduces the potential for reworking and keeps the project going smoothly.

Confirming value – We have executed tasks and created value but is this what the customer wanted? We have to confirm the value we are delivering to know this. We demonstrate prototypes, simulate functionalities to help the customer test the product and see how they work.

Tracking and reporting value – It is not enough that we just deliver value. It is important that we regularly track the rate of delivery of value so that it can be communicated to business stakeholders. Cumulative flow diagrams and burn down graphs are an easy and informative way through which we can assess the development of the project.

Stakeholder engagement

Stakeholders in a project can be anybody who can negatively or positively impact a project. They can be business representatives, customers, the project manager, the development team, or external vendors contributing directly or indirectly to the project. Stakeholder engagement becomes important, because software development involves creating intangible products and the team must have a precise understanding of customer requirements.

Agile projects are subject to constant change which makes it essential that a clear and steady channel of communication is established. All stakeholders must be involved in the project to ensure that it stays on the right track. Teams can use tools such as wireframes, user stories, a user story backlog, and personas to verify their understanding of customer requirements.

Face-to-face communication is the most preferred method of communication on agile projects. They provide the maximum amount of information in the least amount of time. Information radiators such as burn down charts, cumulative flow diagrams, and velocity tracking charts allow us to determine progress of the project, which can be communicated to all the stakeholders.

Soft skills play an important role while engaging with stakeholders. Soft skills such as negotiating and active listening are necessary while dealing with customers. It is also essential that we be familiar with implementing soft skills such as facilitation methods, participatory decision models, and conflict resolution that are primarily concerned with managing teams.

When we talk of managing teams, our leadership skills play a crucial role. Servant leadership is an extremely effective way of leading teams. A servant leader encourages the team to excel by removing any obstacles, motivate and reward the team’s performance.

Boosting team performance

The third domain in Agile deals with boosting team performance practices. In software development, “people factors” incur the highest cost. Therefore, it is extremely important that we obtain the highest return on performance.

The process of forming a team is one of the determinants of success on a project. Building a team goes through the stages of forming (identifying potential team members and bringing them together), storming (the team collaborates and comes up with ideas), norming (teams form rules and normalize their working patterns), and performing (the team works together). During each of these phases, it is important for a leader to know when to play a supporting or directing role. For example, during the storming phase, conflicts can be frequent and the leader will have to step in to help the team members develop methodologies to resolve them.

To get the best out of a team, it should be self-organizing and self-directing. Allowing teams to be self-organizing and self-directing enables team members to manage complex tasks by themselves and figure out the best way to complete the tasks. This capitalizes on the team’s combined expertise and talent.

There are several activities that can help a team boost their performance on Agile projects. Daily stand-up meetings are a quick way to communicate the team’s performance status and identify present and potential issues. To overcome issues and improve continuously, teams might need to be mentored at different stages. During events such as iteration planning meetings or retrospectives, teams might need to be coached at a group level and mentoring can be provided for individual team members when the iteration is underway.

Brainstorming sessions can be used by teams to resolve issues, improve, and innovate processes. Because face-to-face communication is the ideal way to communicate on Agile projects, it is important that the team be located in a common area with space for whiteboards and other information radiators.

Adaptive Planning

Because extensive planning before the project is undertaken can be cumbersome and often does not add any real value, Agile calls for an adaptive approach to planning. Adaptive planning involves creating a basic plan and updating it as the project gets underway. Adaptive planning requires practitioners to maintain close collaboration with the customer to understand his or her requirements more accurately. Collaborative games such as remember the future, prune the product tree, buy a feature, and bang-for-the-buck can be used to help the development team understand customer requirements better.

To make timely deliveries, team members should calculate their estimates as accurately as possible factoring in all diversions and constraints. Wideband Delphi and Ideal Time are some of the techniques which can help teams arrive at an accurate estimate. While estimating the cost of the project, the figures should be presented in ranges as they seem more credible than pin-point figures that can have an air of false confidence.

Iteration and release planning is a vital part of adaptive planning. Releases are bundles of functionality that can be delivered to a customer. While planning a release, the Product Owner/manager, development team, and Agile Expert can use a velocity chart to determine how many features can be completed by the team in a given time.  While planning iterations, it important to have a fixed priority list at the beginning of the planning session. Team members have the final say on how much work can be completed, while the product owner gets the final say on the priority of the items included for the iteration. Availability of team members needs to be factored in while planning iterations.

Problem Detection and Resolution

A common saying is, “A stitch in time saves nine,” and this couldn’t be more apt to explain how Agile methods deal with problems. If ignored, problems can have a devastating effect on the project as they not only increase the burden of rework; they make the team fall behind in its plans. It is a double whammy for the team when this happens as it takes twice the resources. Agile practices aids in detecting problems as early as possible and fixing them while they are still small.

Detecting problems is the first step to resolving them. Daily stand-up meetings are an excellent way to identify any issues that team members are facing.  Teams can also track issues by calculating cycle times for tasks. If the cycle time is too high, it might indicate a potential problem or that the team has undertaken more work than it can complete. Limiting work in progress can help monitor the project timeline better and track problems more easily. Despite our best efforts, some defects may make their way through to the final product. Escaped defects are the most expensive to fix. Teams can track escaped defects on a graph to analyze trends. This can help refine quality control processes.

Alistair Cockburn describes “failure modes and alternatives,” that are related to the human aspect of performance. Cockburn says that people fail because they can be inconsistent at following a technique, are creatures of habit and prefer to invent new ways than modify existing reliable methods. To counter “failure modes” Cockburn advises that teams should inculcate discipline, receive feedback regularly, and assign work based on personalities of individual team members.

Resolving issues that are identified is the next step. Continuous integration of new code, as and when it is developed, in a repository can help overcome the issues that we find with integration. Validating progress at frequent intervals and at different levels can help us be confident that our work is error-free.

In software development, commonly used techniques are Test-Driven Development (TDD) and Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD). These methods primarily involve writing the tests before any code is written. The codes are written until they pass the tests. Codes might then be “refactored” if necessary, which involves refining the design without altering its behavior.

Continuous Improvement

New insights and learning gained on a traditional project is typically gathered at the end of the project cycle. These insights might not be of much help on the next project unless the two are very similar. That learning could have had more value, if it had been used on the project in which it was learned. Agile methodology seeks to continuously improve throughout the project and encourage applying lessons to the development process as and when we learn it. Retrospectives at the end of each iteration makes the lessons learned available for the very next iteration.

A retrospective typically lasts for about two hours during which time the team gathers data about the different challenges that it faced and the various lessons learned while solving them. The learning is analyzed to see if there exists underlying patterns or any insights. Armed with these patterns and insights, the team plans the next iteration.

As part of continuous improvement, team members should be encouraged to share knowledge they acquire, with other team members. One of the reasons colocation is stressed in Agile projects is because it provides a platform for knowledge sharing through face-to-face communication. To encourage knowledge sharing, team velocity can be tracked at a team level rather than measuring it at an individual level, so that team members are motivated to help each other.

We might be required to tailor agile practices to suit our needs; however, one must careful while doing so. Agile practices have been crafted into a delicate web of interdependent practices and disturbing one can affect other practices. We should be adept at using agile practices before we make any modifications. It might be tempting at times to blame the tools if our work is not going accordingly when the real problem lies in us. We should carefully examine our motives to change practices before we make any alterations.

Scrum Agile Empowerment refers to the core principles and practices within the Scrum framework that enable teams to achieve autonomy, collaboration, and efficiency in project management. It emphasizes empowering teams by promoting self-organization and accountability, allowing them to make decisions and adapt quickly to changing requirements. Through iterative cycles of planning, execution, and review, Scrum Agile Empowerment fosters continuous improvement and enhances team dynamics, ultimately driving better outcomes and stakeholder satisfaction. This approach not only accelerates project delivery but also cultivates a culture of innovation and responsiveness within organizations adopting Scrum methodologies.

Agile Scrum is a project management framework emphasizing flexibility and iterative development. It divides work into short iterations called Sprints, where cross-functional teams collaborate to deliver potentially shippable increments of the product. Daily standup meetings, sprint planning, reviews, and retrospectives are key practices ensuring continuous improvement and customer satisfaction.

Scrum principles form the foundation of the Scrum framework, guiding teams in delivering high-quality products through iterative and incremental practices.

The principles of Scrum can be applied to any type of project or organization, and they must be adhered to in order to ensure appropriate application of Scrum.

The aspects and processes of Scrum can be modified to meet the requirements of the project, or the organization using it, but Scrum principles are non-negotiable and must be applied as described in the framework presented in A Guide to the Scrum Body of Knowledge (SBOK™ Guide). Keeping the principles intact and using them appropriately instills confidence to the user of the Scrum framework with regard to attaining the objectives of the project. 

• Empirical Process Control—This principle emphasizes the core philosophy of Scrum based on the three main ideas of transparency, inspection, and adaptation.
• Self-organization—This principle focuses on today’s workers, who deliver significantly greater value when self-organized and this results in better team buy-in and shared ownership; and an innovative and creative environment which is more conducive for growth.
• Collaboration—This principle focuses on the three core dimensions related to collaborative work: awareness, articulation, and appropriation. It also advocates project management as a shared value-creation process with teams working and interacting together to deliver the greatest value.
• Value-based Prioritization—This principle highlights the focus of Scrum to deliver maximum business value, from early in the project and continuing throughout.
• Time-boxing—This principle describes how time is considered a limiting constraint in Scrum, and used to help effectively manage project planning and execution. Time-boxed elements in Scrum include Sprints, Daily Standup Meetings, Sprint Planning Meetings, and Sprint Review Meetings.
• Iterative Development—This principle defines iterative development and emphasizes how to better manage changes and build products that satisfy customer needs. It also delineates the Product Owner’s and organization’s responsibilities related to iterative development.

Scrum principles are the core guidelines for applying the Scrum framework and should mandatorily be used in all Scrum projects. The Scrum aspects and processes, however, can be modified to meet the requirements of the project or the organization.

The Scrum Developer Certification Mock Exam, represents a pivotal step for aspiring Scrum Developers to assess and reinforce their understanding of Agile principles and practices. This mock exam serves as a simulation of the actual certification assessment, allowing candidates to familiarize themselves with the format, structure, and level of difficulty they can expect on the official exam. Through a series of carefully crafted questions and scenarios drawn from the SBOK™ Guide, candidates can gauge their proficiency in key areas such as Scrum roles, ceremonies, and artifacts, as well as technical practices such as test-driven development and continuous integration. By leveraging the mock exam as a study tool, candidates can identify areas of strength and weakness, allowing them to focus their preparation efforts more effectively. Ultimately, the Scrum Developer Certification Mock Exam serves as an invaluable resource for candidates seeking to enhance their knowledge and skills in Scrum development, empowering them to achieve success on the official certification assessment and excel in their roles as Scrum Developers.

Who Should Take the SDC™ Certification?

The SDC™ certification is ideal for:

Software Developers: Professionals who actively code and build software products.

New Scrum Team Members: Individuals who are new to a Scrum team and need more explanation on the Scrum framework.

Professionals Looking to Switch to Scrum: Individuals who are looking to switch to Agile and Scrum practices from traditional project management roles.

Students and recent graduates: Individuals who want to add credibility to their resumes by obtaining an accredited Agile techniques certification.

Advantages of obtaining Scrum Developer Certification

Increased Career Opportunities: In Agile and Scrum contexts, the certification opens doors to many career chances because it is highly respected and recognized globally.

Improved Team Collaboration: Certified developers are more prepared to work in Scrum teams, which increases overall team productivity and collaboration.

Up-to-date Knowledge: Certification ensures that professionals are up to date on the most recent Scrum techniques and methodology.

Greater Project Success Rates: As certified members better understand and use Scrum methods, their teams are more likely to successfully finish projects on schedule and under budget.

Competitive Advantage: Professionals can stand out in a crowded employment market by possessing a recognized credential.

Conclusion

Scrum Developer Certification (SDC) is a useful certification for individuals who want to go up in the Agile and Scrum field and enhance their careers. By providing developers with a solid foundation in Scrum principles and practices, the SDC certification allows them to contribute more effectively to their teams and increases the likelihood that their project will succeed. The SDC™ certification is valuable for developers, team members, and professionals transitioning to Agile techniques.

Scrum, when integrated with the Kanban framework, offers a powerful approach to managing and optimizing workflows. Scrum is a structured framework that emphasizes iterative development through time-boxed sprints, fostering collaboration, and delivering incremental value. Kanban, on the other hand, visualizes work in progress and emphasizes continuous delivery without predefined iterations. When combined, Scrum’s sprint-based structure aligns with Kanban’s flow management, enabling teams to visualize tasks, manage workflow efficiently, and adapt quickly to changing priorities. This hybrid approach enhances flexibility, improves team productivity, and ensures a more responsive and streamlined process for achieving project goals.

Scrum and Kanban have evolved from the agile methodology, each offering distinct approaches while remaining firmly rooted in agile software development principles. Scrum is particularly effective for projects with periodic releases, whereas Kanban shines in environments requiring frequent releases. Typically, Scrum is favored for product development projects, while Kanban serves as a valuable visual management tool, especially in production support scenarios. Combining the strengths of both methodologies results in Scrumban, an upgraded process that integrates the best practices of Scrum and Kanban. Scrumban represents an enhanced and refined approach to agile software development.

Before we discuss how Scrum and Kanban are integrated in the Scrumban process, will have a quick look at some of the salient features of scrum and Kanban.
Implementing Scrum means:

• Breaking the entire organization into cross-functional several teams.
• Breaking down the entire project into small chunks of well-defined deliverables.
• Listing the chunks in terms of priority and estimating the amount of work required to complete each one of them.
• Splitting time into short periods (iterations) where market-ready code is presented.
• Working on the release plan based on the review and feedback after the iteration.
• Enhancing the process with the help of retrospection after the iteration.

Speaking of the workflow in scrum, the team plans and decides on the work that it will be completed in the upcoming sprint. Once decided, the sprint activities are finalized and are finished within the sprint duration, clearing the queue.

Now we will look at the features of Kanban:

• Breaking down work into items, writing each item on a card and then sticking it on a wall.
• Using designated columns to show the placement of each item in the workflow.
• Limiting the work in progress by allocating clear limits on the number of items that may be in progress at each workflow level.
• Measuring the time needed to complete an item and trying to the lead time as predictable as possible.

When it comes to the Kanban workflow, the limit on work in progress enables the team to change items in queues whenever it is needed. There’s no clearing the queue, and there is a continuous flow of work.

How are Scrum and Kanban integrated as Scrumban?

Scrumban blends the principles of Scrum with the tools of Kanban for enhanced process efficiency. While originally rooted in different methodologies, the mechanics of Scrum and Kanban seamlessly complement each other. By incorporating concepts like Work In Progress (WIP) limits and visual workflows, Scrumban facilitates continuous process enhancement. Unlike traditional Scrum, where iteration planning fills predetermined slots, Scrumban adapts by filling vacant slots with iteration planning as needed, reducing the overhead of planning sessions. Essentially, Scrumban embodies the practicality of Scrum with the cultural ethos of Kanban.

Integrating the two agile processes leads to several advantages in terms of quality, just-in-time delivery, short lead time, continuous improvement (also known as Kaizen in Kanban terminology), reducing waste and overall process improvement.

Though Scrumban is a relatively new approach in agile, it is gaining quite a lot of popularity and attention from industries that have to cater to both development and maintenance work.
Here are some areas where Scrumban can be implanted in order to achieve success:

• Projects related to maintenance
• Projects that require event -driven work
• Projects that are prone to programming errors
• Teams created to mainly work on developing new products

Scrum Product Backlog Management is a crucial aspect of the Scrum framework, focusing on the systematic organization and prioritization of work for a project. The Product Backlog, a dynamic and evolving list of all desired work and features for a product, is meticulously managed by the Product Owner. This role involves continuously refining, updating, and prioritizing backlog items based on stakeholder feedback, market changes, and team input. Effective backlog management ensures that the Scrum Team works on the most valuable tasks, aligning development efforts with business objectives and delivering incremental value. By maintaining a well-structured backlog, teams can adapt to evolving requirements and drive project success in an agile environment.

The Program Product Owner develops the Program Product Backlog which contains a prioritized list of high-level business and project requirements preferably written in the form of large Program Backlog Items. These are later refined by the Product Owners of individual projects as they create and prioritize Product Backlogs for their projects. These Prioritized Product Backlogs have much smaller but detailed User Stories that individual Scrum Teams can approve, estimate, and commit.

The Program Product Owner continuously refines the Program Product Backlog to ensure that new business requirements are added and existing requirements are properly documented and prioritized. This ensures that the most valuable requirements in meeting the program’s objectives are prioritized as high and the remaining are given a lower priority.

The Program Product Backlog created for the program presents a larger picture of all projects that are part of the program. Therefore, it can provide significant guidance regarding project goals, scope, objectives, and the expected business benefits.

Similar to the Project Product Backlog, the Program Product Backlog may also undergo periodic refining to incorporate changes and new requirements. Changes to the Program Product Backlog can result from changes in either external or internal conditions. External conditions might include changing business scenarios, technology trends, or legal compliance requirements. Internal factors affecting the Program Product Backlog could be related to modifications in organizational strategy or policies, Identified Risks and other factors. Changes in requirements in the Program Product Backlog often impact the Project Product Backlogs of underlying projects, so they should be taken into account during the Refine Prioritized Product Backlog process.

Scrum terminology refers to the specific language and concepts used within the Scrum framework, a popular Agile methodology for project management. Key terms include "Scrum Team," which comprises the Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Development Team; "Sprint," a time-boxed iteration typically lasting 2-4 weeks during which a potentially shippable product increment is created; "Backlog," which includes the Product Backlog (a prioritized list of features and requirements) and the Sprint Backlog (a list of tasks for the current sprint); "Daily Standup," a short daily meeting for team synchronization; and "Increment," the sum of all the Product Backlog items completed during a Sprint. Understanding these terms is essential for effective communication and collaboration in Scrum projects.

This is because with Scrum the entire project is split into a sequence of iterations called Sprints. Each Sprint is time-boxed for not more than one month and planned well in advance. Planning is completed not according to a set of prescribed tools, but according to the requirements as decided by the Scrum team. As such, a self-organizing and cross-functional team is the backbone of the Scrum method. To ensure maximum cooperation among team members, face-to-face communication is encouraged. Also, the business stakeholders and the technical team work in close collaboration, thereby ensuring the delivery of high-quality, working software.

The Scrum team's two key roles are those of Scrum Master and Product Owner. The latter represents the product users and customers while the former is the chief facilitator who steers the technical team in the right direction. These two people prepare a list of priority-based features, which is called the Scrum Product Backlog. These features are developed one by one in small, repetitive development cycles consisting of phases such as coding, testing, integrating, and delivering. At the end of each Sprint, a feedback session called a Sprint Review is held during which the team delivers the developed feature to the actual production scene, and the business stakeholders provide feedback based on their evaluation of the feature. The feedback obtained during the Sprint Review Meeting provides teams with input that can be used during the next Sprint.

Scrum values—commitment, courage, focus, openness, and respect—are foundational to the Scrum framework. They guide the behavior and decisions of the Scrum team, fostering an environment of trust and collaboration. These values ensure that everyone works together effectively to deliver high-quality products, continuously improving and adapting to change.

Scrum Values form the foundation of the Scrum framework, guiding teams to uphold commitment, focus, openness, respect, and courage. These values foster a collaborative environment where individuals work together towards shared goals, embracing transparency, adaptability, and accountability. They serve as guiding principles for behavior and decision-making within Scrum teams.

Scrum values play a pivotal role in the success of project management by fostering an environment of collaboration, commitment, and continuous improvement. Embracing values such as courage, focus, commitment, respect, and openness helps teams navigate challenges more effectively and deliver high-quality products. These values not only enhance team dynamics and productivity but also ensure that the project remains aligned with customer needs and organizational goals. By integrating Scrum values into the project management framework, teams can achieve greater efficiency, innovation, and satisfaction for all stakeholders involved.

Is Value-Driven Delivery the Key to Scrum’s Success?

One of the aspects of Scrum that attracts business stakeholders is the delivery of maximum business value in minimum span of time. To achieve this goal, Scrum is relies on the principle of value-driven delivery.

Also, as project is a collaborative enterprise to either create new products or services or to deliver results as defined in the Project Vision Statement. Projects are usually impacted by constraints of time, cost, scope, quality, people and organizational capabilities. To overcome these constraints, value-driven delivery must be the main focus. Scrum facilitates delivery of value very early on in the project and continues to do so throughout the project lifecycle.

One of the key characteristics of any project is the uncertainty of results or outcomes. It is impossible to guarantee project success at completion, irrespective of the size or complexity of a project. Considering this uncertainty of achieving success, it is therefore important to start delivering results as early in the project as possible. This early delivery of results, and thereby value, provides an opportunity for reinvestment and proves the worth of the project to interested business stakeholders.

In order to provide value-driven delivery, it is important to:

1. Understand what adds value to customers and users and to prioritize the high value requirements on the top of the Prioritized Product Backlog.
2. Decrease uncertainty and constantly address risks that can potentially decrease value if they materialize. Also work closely with project business stakeholders showing them product increments at the end of each Sprint, enabling effective management of changes.
3. Create Deliverables based on the priorities determined by producing potentially shippable product increments during each Sprint so that customers start realizing value early on in the project.

The concept of value-driven delivery in Scrum is quite different when compared with the principles of traditional project management models where:

1. Requirements are not prioritized by business value.
2. Changing requirements after project initiation is difficult and can only be done through a time consuming change management process.
3. Value is realized only at the end of the project when the final product or service is delivered.

Scrum is the most widely used Agile framework for developing and managing complex software and product applications. In its simplest terms, Scrum is characterized by its core values of Plan ahead and Inspect and Adapt. Therefore, Scrum successfully manages projects in which there is marked uncertainty and ambiguity at the early stages of the project.

This is because with Scrum the entire project is split into a sequence of iterations called Sprints. Each Sprint is time-boxed for not more than one month and planned well in advance. Planning is completed not according to a set of prescribed tools, but according to the requirements as decided by the Scrum team. As such, a self-organizing and a cross-functional team is the backbone of the Scrum method. In order to ensure maximum cooperation among team members, face-to-face communication is encouraged. Also, the business stakeholders and the technical team work in close collaboration, thereby ensuring the delivery of high-quality, working software.

The two keys roles in the Scrum team are those of Scrum Master and Product Owner. The latter represents the product users and customers while the former is the chief facilitator who steers the technical team in the right direction. These two people prepare a list of priority-based features, which is called the Scrum Product Backlog. These features are developed one by one in small, repetitive development cycles consisting of the phases such as coding, testing, integrating and delivering. At the end of each Sprint, a feedback session called a Sprint Review is held during which the team delivers the developed feature to the actual production scene, and the business stakeholders provide feedback based on their evaluation of the feature. The feedback obtained during the Sprint Review Meeting provides teams with input that can be used during the next Sprint.

What is a Scrum of Scrums and how does it work in the product development process? The first thing to know about the Scrum of Scrums is that it acquires relevance only for large projects where multiple Scrum Teams are involved. In this process Scrum Team representatives convene for Scrum of Scrums Meetings at predetermined intervals or whenever required to collaborate and track their respective progress, impediments, and dependencies across teams.

Normally, one member from each Scrum Team will represent his or her team in the Scrum of Scrums Meeting. In most cases, this is the Scrum Master, but at times someone else may represent the team. A single person may be nominated by the team to represent them in every Scrum of Scrums Meeting, or the representative may change over time, based on who can best fulfill the role depending on current issues and circumstances. Each person involved in the meeting should have the technical understanding to be able to identify instances in which teams could cause each other impediments or delays. Other important participants of Scrum of Scrums meeting include the Chief Scrum Master and the Chief Product Owner.

The main purpose of the Scrum of Scrums Meeting is to communicate progress between multiple teams. The Chief Scrum Master (or any Scrum Master who would facilitate the Scrum of Scrums Meeting) can announce an agenda prior to the meeting. This allows individual teams to consider the agenda items in preparation for the Scrum of Scrums Meeting. Any impediments being faced by a team, which may also affect other teams, should be indicated so they can be shared at the Scrum of Scrums Meeting. In addition, if a team becomes aware of a large scale issue, change or risk that may affect other teams that also should be communicated at the Scrum of Scrums Meeting. Outputs from the Retrospect Sprint process may identify issues that could impact multiple Scrum Teams and could be used as an input for an effective Scrum of Scrums Meeting.

These meetings are preferably short (but usually not Time-boxed to allow for more sharing of information between teams) where a representative from each Scrum team meets to share status of the respective teams. The Scrum of Scrums Meeting facilitate the face-to-face sharing of information among different Scrum Teams through which issues, dependencies, and risks impacting multiple Scrum Teams can be closely monitored, helping the teams better coordinate and integrate their work. It is the responsibility of the Chief Scrum Master (or another Scrum Master who facilitates the Scrum of Scrum Meetings) to ensure that all representatives have an environment conducive to openly and honestly sharing information, including feedback to other team representatives. For larger projects, involving a significant number of teams, multiple levels of these meetings may be convened.

Each Scrum Team representative will provide updates from his/her team in turn. These updates are usually provided in the form of answers to these four specific questions:

1. What has my team been working on since the last meeting?
2. What will my team do until the next meeting?
3. What were other teams counting on our team to finish that remains undone?
4. What is our team planning on doing that might affect other teams?

The answers to these four questions provide information that allows each team to clearly understand the work status of all other teams.

It is recommended that a dedicated conference room be made available for the Scrum of Scrums Meeting, where all the Scrum Team Representatives are comfortable.

In the Convene Scrum of Scrums process, Scrum Guidance Body expertise could include documented best practices about how to conduct Scrum of Scrum Meetings, and incorporate suggestions from such meetings in the project work of individual Scrum Teams. There may also be a team of subject matter experts who may help the Chief Scrum Master facilitate the Scrum of Scrum Meeting.

Some of the important outputs of the Scrum of Scrums meetings are:

• Coordination of work across multiple Scrum Teams. This is especially important when there are tasks involving inter-team dependencies
• Incompatibilities and discrepancies between the work and deliverables of different teams are quickly exposed
• This forum also gives teams the opportunity to showcase their achievements and give feedback to other teams
• Identified and mitigated risks

By using Scrum of Scrums Meetings, there is collaboration across the organization as opposed to people working in closed teams concerned primarily with their individual responsibilities. The Scrum of Scrums Meeting is a forum where Scrum Team members have the opportunity to transparently discuss issues impacting their project. The need to deliver every Sprint on time forces the teams to actively confront such issues early instead of postponing seeking resolution. The timely discussion and resolution of issues in the Scrum of Scrums Meeting greatly reduces the need for redesign and rework. Risks related to dependencies and delivery time tables are mitigated as well.

SCRUMstudy offers Scrum Accredited Certifications that are globally recognized, ensuring professionals are proficient in Scrum principles and practices. Their comprehensive training programs cover key aspects of Scrum, including roles, events, and artifacts, providing a solid foundation for effective agile project management and enhancing career growth opportunities in the agile industry.

Benefits of SCRUMstudy's Online Certification

SCRUMstudy is renowned for its structured curriculum and globally recognized certifications. Their online courses provide flexibility, allowing professionals to learn at their own pace and balance their studies with work commitments. The interactive modules and real-world scenarios help learners grasp Scrum concepts effectively. Additionally, SCRUMstudy offers extensive support through webinars, forums, and one-on-one sessions with experienced instructors.

Career Advancement and Market Demand

Certified Scrum Masters are in high demand across various industries. Holding a SCRUMstudy certification can significantly enhance a professional's resume, making them more attractive to potential employers. It validates their knowledge and skills in Scrum, often leading to higher salaries and better job opportunities.

For those serious about advancing in agile project management, SCRUMstudy's online Scrum Master certification is indeed worth it. The flexibility, comprehensive learning resources, and career benefits make it a valuable investment for professional growth. As agile methodologies continue to dominate, having a recognized certification from a reputable institution like SCRUMstudy can be a game-changer.