I’m not going to explain Agile Scrum in detail, but I will point out the benefits of the system and why it works for me.

 

What is Agile Scrum in global insight ?

Agile Scrum started as a method to manage and organize development teams. Today Scrum it is used in other fields, such as communications and event planning.

The principle is not too complicated but needs to be applied well to be effective. Here are a few global principles :

• Divide projects into many smaller features that would take an hour to three days to complete.
• Define the realization order for these features
• Plan many short periods of work, called Sprints, that would take one week to one month to complete.During every Sprint, plan the next Sprint and do a review of the work with the final client.At the end of every Sprint, review your work and try to make some improvementsDaily hold short, stand-up meetings between the Scrum master (project manager) and the team.

 

Communication benefits

Demonstrating the product to the client is the best way to be precise, concrete, and efficient with the client. Instead of working on diagrams , drawings or specifications, Scrum allows a team to work on the real product by highlighting features, drawing screenshots, etc. With this process, there is no room for misunderstanding, and that spells no wasted costs.

The other benefit is  to the project manager and the team. The daily Scrum meeting is the best way to :

• find out what others do;be clear about what has been accomplish and the tasks that are due; andshare problems between team’s members.

Daily Scrum and Scrum planning meetings give the project manager perfect insight into the project and allow him to anticipate and estimate plans.

 

Adaptability benefits

One of the main benefits of Scrum  is the ability for the client to change his mind almost at any time without wasting too much time or energy on reorganiSation.

The features planning can and should be defined from the beginning. In addition, during each Sprint planning, it’s easy to reorder or redefine the features list. This allows the customer and the development team to modify the final product by adding and/or removing weight features. If someday the client wants to add more features, he just needs to pay for the cost of the new feature. Regarding the development team, it might just change the required manpower or the final release date.

 

Performance benefits

In relation to management, Scrum, especially the daily Scrum, is wonderful. Before being criticised by the manager, the team member will manage himself. Team members can help each other and point out issues. For example, they can correct a lazy team member whose inactivity threatens the progress of a project, all without involving the manager. Later, the manager might step in for personal reasons only, and not so much about the project execution.

In terms of project estimation, each team member can estimate tasks and criticise others estimation. It ensures that the estimations are generally reasonable and helps each team member to keep to the most challenging but feasible deadline.

 

What about you ?

Do you use scrum?

What do you prefer?

What doesn’t suit your needs?

What would you like to improve?

Leave your comments here. I promise I’ll answer.