How Scrum works? It starts with training and education

[#1]

To answer “How scrum works,” most of the teams I've worked with first addressed the question: “where to start?”  That question applies to both implementation and improvements on the Scrum framework locally. What we've found is that a "current state of the delivery framework" is a good place to start. From there we could aim where we want to go and what's the gap. Key points in most cases have been the artifacts and ceremonies. Agile is a toolset which has to be adapted to a context: from upper management to the Scrum team, objectives, approaches and way of working have to be understood and agreed on. Sharing a common vocabulary and workflow have slowly became a must.

As an Atlassian Certified Professional and a Certified Scrum Master, I've been supporting many Digital Transformations for organizations of all size. From start-ups to Fortune500, most of those transformation programs were set to either settle Scrum in a PMO or improve how Agile was helping deliver quickly and efficiently the best products with less frictions.

To get there, we usually work on multiple training axis such as training the Scrum team on the benefits and standards brought by Scrum, training the management team on the way the teams will work and finally bringing in tools to support those new processes. From my recent experiences in the Banking and Finance industry, I feel like getting a separate training on the framework and tools helped end users. Agile training have generally been done through an online self-service training platform which does not give a lot of feedback unfortunately: that's where I've tried to bring in Agile coaches as much as possible to get to know the teams and work with them on a dedicated approach. Once teams are ready, a tool training is expected to finalize the learning process by recalling the principles of Agility and how they are supported within the environment of work.

As far as roles and artifacts, each case is different but we've found a recurring issue: splitting the Project Manager role into two distinct positions with different goals, the Product Owner and Scrum Master. Again, a good vision of the whole Scrum framework is mandatory before transitioning to new roles. One of the key success points for that, is probably explaining the scope of each role and how they should work together with a shared team/project. As each role is a partial Project Manager role, in most cases, giving more projects to a newly nominated Product Owner or Scrum Master helped giving back some confidence on the workload. The same approach applied to the artifacts: while the Product backlog is generally understood quite well, the Sprint backlog and Product Increment approach are tougher to deal with! One of the best solution I've experienced to that is leveraging team building activities such as Serious Games or workshops in different contexts to discover the concepts instead of a formal training. As a general advice I would definitely recommend getting external coaches to bring the vision and internal key resources to spread the word and adapt the theory to the actual context.

So how does scrum work? It starts with education and training.

[Bastian Stehmann]

Hi @miikhy,

Thanks for sharing your experiences here. 

My experience with agile transformation is very similar to yours, it is very important to train the people.

And in my opinion it is very important to do this with in person trainings and, especially in the beginning, to do this with external trainers, so that they get some fresh input and a more objective feedback on their current progress on transformation. 

[miikhy]

Thanks, @Bastian Stehmann for your addition which confirms my feeling!

Can't wait to get more feedback and see how it goes globally!

Have you been yourself involved in those heavy transformations? At what point?

[Bastian Stehmann]

I have been working in a company with an insurance company as customer, both pretty waterfall-ish, and there I have been involved from the very first beginning, when the team I was part of started to transform in a foolish way, where we thought, just read the scrum guide and we are ready to go over going with other teams and having external help to the point where the whole organization started to transform to agile including such departments as HR and even helping our customer to start a transformation in our collaboration to see the advantages of agile and changing their point of view somehow.

[M Umair]

While training and schooling are critical components of imposing Scrum, it's miles crucial to observe that Scrum is an iterative and incremental framework for handling complicated projects. Here's a top level view of ways Scrum works:

1. Scrum Team: A Scrum group normally includes a Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Development Team. They work collaboratively all through the venture.

2. Product Backlog: The Product Owner creates and keeps the Product Backlog, that is a prioritized list of functions, improvements, and trojan horse fixes. The gadgets at the Product Backlog are referred to as Product Backlog Items (PBIs).

3. Sprint Planning: At the start of each Sprint, the Scrum Team conducts a Sprint Planning assembly. They pick a set of PBIs from the Product Backlog to be labored on during the Sprint. The Development Team breaks down the chosen PBIs into smaller tasks and estimates the attempt required.

4. Sprint: The Sprint is a time-boxed duration, typically lasting 1-four weeks, at some point of which the Development Team works on the chosen PBIs. They organize their work and strive to supply a potentially shippable product increment with the aid of the cease of the Sprint.

While training and schooling are vital to implementing Scrum correctly, it's also crucial to benefit practical revel in and tailor the framework to the specific desires of the task and corporation.