"Scrum. The revolutionary project management method. ” Book in 15 minutes

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    We at MakeRight.com recently read the book Scrum. Revolutionary Project Management Method by Jeff Sutherland. What is she talking about? In a nutshell - about how to organize a well-coordinated team work.
    Starting to introduce the elements of scrum in practice, we came to the conclusion that the ideas of the book really work.

    Is this a revolutionary method, as indicated in the title? We don’t know. But, perhaps, those who have not read the book and are not familiar with the methodology will draw for themselves a number of useful ideas from our Sammari (short summary). So…


    What is Scrum. The essence of the technique


    Tear up your business cards. Get rid of ranks and titles, from leaders and hierarchical structures. Give people the freedom to do what they think is right and the opportunity to take responsibility for it. The results will amaze you . ”

    Those involved in project management, and just management, are well aware of how difficult it is to organize well-coordinated teamwork. Due to the lack of coherence, plans are constantly being violated, the schedule lagging behind, the project budget is bloating, money and time are running out, fingers of different departments are duplicated, people argue and do not help each other, although it would seem that their efforts are aimed at achieving one goal . In addition, customers are often unsatisfied with the final product.

    The Scrum technique developed by Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber is designed to solve all these problems. Scrum is the opposite of the classic phased approach applied to project implementation. The Scrum methodology has been adopted by many companies both from the technological industries, where it comes from, and from traditional and even non-profit. The approach that underlies the Scrum methodology can be applied in different types of activities that require teamwork.

    Important characteristics of Scrum are its flexibility and customer focus, as it involves him (the client) directly involved in the work process.

    Scrum does not require the introduction of any expensive tools. The Scrum methodology outline can be briefly described as follows:

    1. First you need to choose a “Product Owner” - a person who has a vision of what you are going to create or achieve.
    2. Then you need to assemble a "Team", which will include people directly performing the work. They must have the skills and knowledge that will help bring the product owner’s idea to life.
    3. You need to choose the “Scrum-master” - the one who will monitor the progress of the project, ensure the holding of short meetings and help the team remove obstacles to achieving the goal.
    4. Getting started, you need to create the most complete list of all the requirements for a product or goal. The items on this list should be prioritized. The list is called Product Backlog. It can develop and change throughout the life of the project.
    5. Team members must evaluate each item in their rating system for the complexity and costs that will be required to complete it.
    6. Then the participants, the scrum master and the owner of the product should hold the first scrum meeting at which they will plan a sprint - a certain time to complete part of the tasks. Sprint duration should not exceed one month. For each sprint, the team produces a certain number of points. The team must constantly strive to exceed the number of accumulated points for the previous sprint in the new sprint, that is, its goal is to constantly exceed its own results - “increase the dynamics of productivity”.
    7. For all participants to be in the know about the state of affairs, you need to start a scrum board with three columns: “You need to do it, or backlog”; "In work"; "Done." Participants glue stickers with tasks on the board, which in the process of work are alternately moved from the "Backlog" column to the "in work" column, and then to "done".
    8. A scrum meeting is held daily. In the words of Jeff Sutherland, "this is the pulse of the whole Scrum process." Its essence is simple - every day, on the move, fifteen minutes for everyone to give answers to three questions: “What did you do yesterday to help the team finish the sprint?”, “What will you do today to help the team finish the sprint?” , "What are the obstacles that stand in the way of the team?".
    9. At the end of the sprint, the team makes its review - holds a meeting at which participants tell what has been done for the sprint.
    10. After showing the results of work for the sprint, participants hold a retrospective meeting to discuss what the team did well, what can be done better, what can be improved right now.


    Disadvantages of a traditional project management approach



    As the author of the book, Jeff Sutherland, notes, the traditional approach to implementing projects in the form of a cascade model, which involves phased progress towards the goal, has a lot of shortcomings. The whole process is very slow, often unpredictable difficulties arise and, moreover, it often happens that the contractor creates a product that does not satisfy the customer at all.

    The cascade model involves the use of Gantt charts - graphs that indicate the stages of work and the time to complete them. The progress of the project is detailed in detail and each step of the work is reflected. It is assumed that each phase of the project is sequentially moving into another - this is the principle of the cascade.

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    Image from www.quickiwiki.com

    With the proliferation of personal computers in the 1980s, it became easier to create various intricate diagrams - and make them truly complex - they turned into genuine works of art. The entire course of the project is detailed in detail. Every single step. Any stage. Any delivery date. Indeed, Gantt charts make a deep impression. There is only one problem: they are always wrong - without exception . ”

    Why? As Jeff Sutherland notes, Henry Gant came up with such diagrams back in 1910. They became widespread in the First World War. However, “everyone who has studied the history of this war knows that neither the training of human resources, nor the organization’s system have ever been its strengths. I am not given to understand why the concept of the times of the First World War becomes a de facto analytical design tool and is applied even in the 21st century. We have abandoned the principles of positional warfare, but somehow its “trench" organizational ideas remain popular to this day. "

    In modern conditions, this scheme is inappropriate and similar to the model of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, which “believed” in the reports it received on the eve of the collapse of the Soviet Union and which had little to do with the real situation.

    " Today, as in those years, reports continue to be more important than reality - and after all, they seem to be called upon to describe it, but if inconsistencies suddenly emerge, then the perpetrators are assigned reality, not a diagram ."


    Plans crumble to dust. The alternative is Scrum



    There is a need for plans, but according to Jeff Sutherland, it is extremely stupid to follow them, because when faced with reality, all the beautiful tables and graphs crumble to dust. Therefore, it is so important to bring into the work the possibility of changes, discoveries and the implementation of new ideas, which is what happens in Scrum. Using this technique, you can eliminate errors at the very early stage, since Scrum works in short cycles - sprints, and also maintain constant communication with the customer, which eliminates the creation of an unnecessary product.

    The author notes that when creating his methodology, he first of all looked at how successful teams work, and did not listen to what they say.

    The word scrum ("scramble") the author borrowed from the game of rugby. It "denotes a team game method that allows you to take possession of the ball and lead it further across the field, and this requires coherence, unity of intent and a clear understanding of the goal. "Fight" is an ideal model for the full interaction of players . " And this is exactly what is required for successful teamwork.

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    Image from brendanmarsh.com

    Unlike the traditional approach, which implies accountability and predictability, making plans, tables and diagrams that never work, the Scrum technique makes it possible to achieve your goals in clearly defined and short cycles (sprints).

    Each sprint is planned in advance at special meetings. Participants estimate how much work, in their opinion, they will be able to do, say, over the next two weeks. From the list of tasks prioritized, they select the next units of work intended for execution, write them on stickers that are glued to the wall. The group decides how many units of work they are able to complete in the upcoming sprint.
    At the final stage of the sprint, the participants come together again and show each other what they managed to achieve during the joint work. They look at how many units of work listed on the stickers are really brought to the end. Not everything succeeds? So, too many problems were selected for this sprint. It happens the opposite - an insufficient number of tasks. In this case, something else is important: the group develops a sense of its own speed
    . ”

    When all participants share their results, the team begins to analyze everything that was done for the sprint, but focusing not on discussing the product, but on how it was done. " How to improve collaboration in the next sprint? What got in the last sprint? What are we not progressing as fast as we want? ” “These are the questions they pose to themselves .”

    This approach allows all participants to effectively interact both with the customer and with each other, understand the correctness of their direction, the compliance of the subsequent work with the tasks set, and take into account the errors identified in the sprint.

    As Jeff Sutherland notes, through the use of Scrum, groups learn to achieve “super-efficiency” by raising their productivity by three hundred or four hundred percent.

    Philosophy scrum


    The Scrum methodology is reflected in the author’s passion for Japanese martial arts. According to him, in Japan, “ Scrum is not treated as a momentary quirk. The Japanese regard Scrum as an approach to resolving issues, as a way of acting, as a way of being - in general, as a way of life. When I teach people this technique, I often talk about my many years of experience in Japanese aikido martial arts . ”

    Aikido and Scrum have in common that they can be mastered only in the process of work, when “your body, your mind and your spirit are combined into a single whole through constant practice and the pursuit of excellence. While practicing aikido, we understand the concept of Shuhari (Shu Ha Ri) - it is both a concept of martial arts and an indicator of the level of skill. ”

    Scrum Teamwork

    Scrum is, first of all, teamwork. The author identifies three characteristics of the best teams:

    • the ongoing search for excellence;
    • autonomy - the ability to self-organize;
    • multifunctionality. The presence of different specialists and the culture of interaction and mutual assistance.

    Multifunctionality is worth focusing on especially. The author gives an example of a multifunctional command from the special forces - the Alpha group (team A). Each such "Team “A” is formed in such a way that all its members are versatile masters of combat training, which allows them to carry out operations from start to finish. Special Forces soldiers constantly provide training on interchangeability in several specialties. The team must be sure that if both doctors are killed, then, say, a communications specialist will be able to provide first aid to a wounded comrade. An essential feature that distinguishes the work of special forces from the actions of the “ordinary” army forces is that the “green berets” independently carry out the collection of intelligence and planning operations. In their practice, the transfer of the baton from one unit to another is not allowed - because it is precisely in such “seams” that a weak spot lurks, due to which errors arise ”.

    How big should the team be? Jeff Sutherland recommends small groups - about seven people. He cites data that if a group consists of more than nine people, then its speed decreases.

    In addition, the author recalls the "Brooks law":

    If the project does not meet the deadlines, then the addition of labor will delay it even more .”

    The head of the team is a scrum master. His duty is to ensure short meetings, their openness, to help the group go through obstacles that impede work, lead the team on the path of continuous improvement "and regularly look for the answer to the question" How can we do even better that we are already doing well? ".

    No multitasking

    The author warns against multitasking - in fact, it does not exist, our brain cannot perform two actions at the same time, it simply switches between tasks, and the total execution time of each of them increases compared to if we performed them one at a time. The Scrum methodology assumes that you need to perform all tasks in turn, and not "balance five projects at the same time."

    Using the traditional method, that is, trying to do everything at once, the group will complete its three projects by the end of July. If the group approaches the matter, armed with a flexible strategy, for example, Scrum, and will work on each project in turn, minimizing the time and effort spent on switching the context, it will be able to finish everything by the beginning of May . ”

    No processing

    Tired employees become more distracted and do their job worse. Lack of energy leads to the fact that people make more impulsive and incorrect decisions, and their effectiveness decreases.

    This phenomenon has been dubbed“ ego depletion ”. The idea is that making any decision requires energy from you. This is a strange kind of exhaustion - you do not feel physical exhaustion, but your ability to make informed decisions is reduced. What really changes is our self-control - our ability to be disciplined, thoughtful and calculate the consequences . ”

    Conclusion: during non-working hours, relax, completely move away from work, recharge with pleasant impressions.

    The Scrum methodology implies that those who use it stop measuring their work for hours. Watches reflect only costs. Measure better the result. Who cares how much someone took the time to do something? The only thing that matters is how quickly and efficiently this was done . ”

    The essence of the work is flow

    Scrum helps you get into the "stream" - the state of highest concentration, when you do what you need, without spending effort on it, without forcing yourself and without urging. The author believes that the main thing for successful work is to achieve and manage this state. “In your work, you need to achieve the main thing - flow control, which does not require any effort. In martial arts or meditation practices, we achieve a sense of unity in movement that does not require effort - this is energy flowing unhindered through us. When you look at great dancers or singers, you feel how they submit to this energy. We must strive to achieve this state in our work. ”

    How to reach it? Behind the flow state is internal discipline.

    " There should be no movement in vain ."

    Scrum and happiness

    People want to be happy. But Jeff Sutherland is convinced that happiness is not inactive vegetation, but a vibrant, eventful and active life. Scrum contributes to a happy life, as it helps to work fruitfully and act.

    At the end of each sprint, the participants arrange a retrospective meeting where they talk about their work and move the tasks to the “Done” column, and then discuss what is good and what can be improved. They find the main obstacle and think how to eliminate it in the next sprint. This is the solution to the problem of continuous improvement.

    By analyzing only performance indicators, you will never know about a future slowdown until the situation gets out of hand. But if you closely monitor the happiness index and notice its decline in the team, then you immediately notice a future threat, even if productivity continues to grow. You have been warned about the problem and are going to deal with it as soon as possible . ”


    Scrum Elements


    Sprints

    As noted above, at the beginning of the sprint and to ensure openness and visibility, you need to create a special board and divide it into three columns: "Backlog"; "In work"; "Done." Before each sprint, team members paste stickers in the “Backlog” column with tasks that, in their opinion, they can perform for the sprint. During the sprint, any member of the team, taking up the task, re-sticks the sticker from the Backlog section to the At Work column. After completing the task, in the "Done" column. Thus, everyone sees what other participants are working on now.

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    Image from nyaski.ru.

    However, there is an important point - “nothing is transferred to the“ Done ”column until this part of the project has been tested by the client.”

    Another important aspect of the sprint: as soon as the team approves the list of requirements, tasks from this list are“ blocked ”. No one has the right to change them or make additions . ”

    The author recommends this because any intervention will slow down the team.

    Daily meetings

    The bottom line is that they were carried out standing, every day, at the same time, their duration did not exceed fifteen minutes and the participants asked the same three questions: “What did you do yesterday to help the team finish the sprint?” , "What will you do today to help the team complete the sprint?", "What are the obstacles facing the team?".

    Do to the end

    In Scrum, it’s important to learn how to feel the rhythm of the team. The worst case scenario is when, at the end of the sprint, something remains half done. It’s better not to start this business at all then.

    Expended resources, effort, time, money, but a fully functioning product was not received .”

    Scrum Planning

    How is the planning process in Scrum? First you need to make a list of all the things that affect your goal. After that, prioritize them. If you do not fit into the time and financial framework, then you can more easily exclude the last items on the list.

    What to do then? Each item on the list needs to be assessed for how much effort, time and other resources will be spent on its implementation. How to make an assessment? The author offers a scale of relative ratings. For example, you can compare tasks in dogs. Is the problem a dachshund or a retriever? Or maybe a dog?

    But in any case, it is more convenient to set numerical values. For example, “ Dachshund is a unit; Great Dane - thirteen; the Labrador became the top five, and the bulldog became the top three . ”

    The author also suggests using an interesting poker planning technique. Its essence is that each participant in the planning process is given a deck of cards with Fibonacci numbers - 1, 3, 5, 8, 13 and so on. Each item on the list, the unit of work to be evaluated, is laid out on the table. “Then each member of the group takes that card, the number on which, in his opinion, corresponds to the amount of necessary effort, and puts it face down on the table. Then everyone simultaneously opens the cards. If the discrepancy is no more than two cards (say, five, two eights and thirteen), the team simply adds them up, takes the arithmetic mean (in this case, 6.6) and proceeds to the next task. Remember, we are talking about estimates, not about hard plans. And estimates of small fragments of the project. If the discrepancy is obtained by more than three cards, then those those who put the cards with the largest and smallest value explain why they think so. Then another round of poker planning takes place. Otherwise, they will only average the estimates, which will make the results too rough. ”

    Requirements are stories

    In order to successfully and understandably formulate a list of product requirements and create a backlog, Scrum takes an extraordinary approach. Instead of a simple list of tasks, user stories are compiled - short stories that contain the wishes of users of the final product.

    Imagine that you’re writing a“ Amazon.com user wish. ” The trial version looks like this: “As a consumer, I need the world's largest book store, where I can buy any book at any time.”

    Это описание вполне отвечает характеру Amazon, но история получилась слишком расплывчатой, чтобы с ней можно было что-то сделать. Нужно фрагментировать нашу историю. Сделать ее действительно очень конкретной и функциональной. Приведу несколько образцов пользовательских историй, которые вы можете написать, имея в виду книжный интернет-магазин:

    • Как потребителю мне удобно искать книги по жанрам, чтобы быстро найти те, которые я люблю читать.
    • Как потребитель я, отбирая книги для покупки, хочу класть сразу каждую в корзину.
    • Как управляющий по выпуску новой продукции я хочу иметь возможность отслеживать покупки наших клиентов, чтобы быть в курсе, какие книги им можно предлагать.

    These are professionally made user wishes, the nature of which the group must take into account
    . ”

    The user story must be complete, independent of various circumstances, implemented in practice. These criteria indicate the readiness of the story. It is also important that the story can be assessed for its feasibility.

    How to plan a sprint

    In Scrum, the planning process takes place at the beginning of each new sprint and is called “sprint planning”.

    «Все собираются вместе, просматривают список пользовательских историй, которые уже стоят в очереди на выполнение; выясняют, какое количество задач может взять на себя каждый участник группы; тщательно взвешивают, смогут ли они за этот спринт довести до полной готовности отобранные задания; смогут ли продемонстрировать заказчику сделанные единицы работ и показать ему готовые функции продукта; смогут ли сами себе в конце спринта сказать, что они со всем справились».

    After that, the team unanimously says: “Forward!” - and gets to work.

    But what is work? Routine, obligatory? Scrum, work is history. What does it mean? This means that you should introduce a person who needs what you are doing; then what it is, and finally, why do people need it.

    Teams need to know their dynamics well - how much work she can do in one sprint. This will help her work smarter and eliminate all obstacles in her path.

    Dynamics x time = result. When you find out how fast you are progressing, you will be able to understand when you are at the finish line . ”

    Openness in everything

    Scrum implies the transparency of all actions and processes.

    This is expressed in a three-column board that all team members have access to.

    Secrecy is poison. Nothing can be kept secret. Everyone should know everything, including financial data. Entangling traces is necessary only for those who seek their own profit . ”

    Prioritization


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    This diagram needs to be kept in mind by every entrepreneur. The essence of the work is to find a middle ground - a balanced concept between three extremes:

    • You highlight what you have to offer. Then there is a risk of making an unnecessary product for anyone;
    • You are guided by the market. Then you can get ahead or destroy competitors;
    • Your main goal is big sales. Then you run the risk of launching a mediocre product on the market.

    Backlog

    As already noted, backlog in scrum is a list of product requirements and functions, sorted by the importance of the tasks. It may contain hundreds of tasks or several.

    The meaning of backlog is the creation of the most complete listing of the requirements for product features. In fact, no one is going to carry out each item in a row, but such a document containing everything that could, in principle, be included in the project concept, should always be at hand. Some requirements are selected first . ”

    How to prioritize?

    “To do this, find out which items on the list:

    • are most important for the progress of the project;
    • most important for the customer or future consumer;
    • will bring maximum income;
    • easiest to do. ”


    Jeff Sutherland notes that it's important to remember that there are always tasks on the list that you can never do. You need to choose those that bring maximum benefit with minimal risk.

    Product owner

    Three roles are supposed in scrum: scrum team - executors of specific projects; Scrum master is the one who monitors the progress of the project and helps the team solve problems, and the owner of the product is the one who solves the issues of the product concept and makes a backlog.

    “The Scrum master and the team are responsible for what will be the pace of their work and how quickly they finish the project. The owner of the product is responsible for ensuring that effective teamwork turns into a profitable result . ” The product owner needs to know the market well and must have the authority to make decisions.

    This may be too much responsibility for one person, so a team of product owners can work on large projects.

    Scrum risk minimization

    Since the project provides step-by-step delivery of the project, this helps to minimize risks. This helps to show the product to the client faster and get feedback from him.

    The Scrum methodology is useful for business in that it quickly answers the question: can we make money if we do this or that? "

    You do not need to spend huge amounts of money before you realize that something is not working.

    How to implement Scrum right now

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    Jeff Sutherland advises starting with team building and backlogging. You need to make a concept of your product and start splitting it into tasks. It is not necessary to immediately add all the requirements to the backlog - you can set aside a week for this. “ As long as your team members hold daily meetings on the go and the first sprints, during this time you can make up a fairly voluminous backlog to have something to occupy the team for several sprints ahead. Do not forget to look into it more often, because the team will begin to accelerate the pace and will do more work than you planned at the very beginning . ”

    After that, draw up the proposed action plan: ask questions: what can you do for the next few months? What do you want to achieve by the end of the year? "It’s important to remember that this is just a still image, so don’t get too involved in planning, just sketch out the options. You do not draw up a binding contract, but simply write down your own thoughts, which you will be able to achieve after some time. Believe me, the picture will change. Perhaps even in a radical way . ”

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