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Optimizing Project Team Work: Trust SCRUM

Posted: Wed Dec 04, 2024 5:57 am
by sharminsultana128
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Competition in the IT industry requires efficiency and effectiveness. Clients want optimal solutions in a short time. How to organize a team of developers so that the level of productivity and motivation is off the charts, and deadlines are met?

Try the agile project management methodology SCRUM.

SCRUM makes communication in the team effective, motivates developers and all participants in the process interact qualitatively with each other. In addition, the methodology allows you to quickly solve problems that arise "on the go". This improves the quality of the final product.

Competition in the IT industry requires efficiency and effectiveness. Clients want optimal solutions in a short time. How to organize a team of developers so that the level of productivity and motivation is off the charts, and deadlines are met?

Scrum is for you if...
The methodology is most suitable for projects that require custom technical solutions (mobile applications, large web resources). And the team must be self-organizing and multifunctional.

The product is developed using SCRUM in small iterations - sprints. And this system has roles that help run the sprint as efficiently as possible.

Who is this: PO, SM DT?
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Product owner (PO) — a person who understands the business logic of the product. As a rule, this is a representative of the client. The PO sees the end goal, for example, how the mobile application will work for users. He communicates with the decision maker and conveys information to the development team.

It is the PO who forms the list of tasks for the team and chinese singapore b2c cell phone number data the project (Product Backlog). All tasks are set according to priorities that the team follows.

Scrum master (SM) is a team leader and facilitator. He or she is engaged in motivation, maximizes the team's efficiency, works on eliminating obstacles, helps developers. Before each new sprint, the SM forms a Sprint Backlog based on the Product Backlog. Simply put, the team leader breaks down the tasks from the PO into smaller ones, which will ultimately lead to the result.

The Development Team (DT) consists of specialists who work on the product.

Key points for DT:

Developers are free to make technological decisions. The team decides for itself how exactly it performs tasks from PO and SM.
The entire team is responsible for completing tasks, not an individual developer.
The optimal number of people in a team is plus or minus 6 people. More is a communication gap, less is an increase in the volume of work per person.
The team is self-organizing and interchangeable.
Sprint - how does it work?
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Once the roles have been defined, sprints begin. A sprint is a short run, limited by time and a list of tasks for the team. Usually, a sprint lasts from 1 week to a month, largely depending on the complexity of the project. While the team gets from point A to the final version of product B, several sprints, or even dozens, will pass.

Why is this? Isn't it possible to clearly formulate the final vision of the product right away?

This is the main advantage of SCRUM - every day the team meets at the "Daily" with the Scrum Master. All developers exchange information about how the work is going, what each person has done personally, what he will do tomorrow.

Such meetings serve as excellent motivation, promote the development of team spirit, and allow problems to be solved instantly.

At the end of the sprint, everyone meets for a "demo" and presents the results of their work.

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At the end of the sprint, the team meets for a Retrospective. There, new solutions are discussed and generated, successes and failures are analyzed. The main thing is to leave with a set of solutions, as well as an understanding of what can be improved.

And from "Monday" a new sprint begins, with a new package of tasks. This allows us to constantly update the final product. Plus Scrum gives us a potentially working product at the end of each Sprint.

Important: The Sprint Backlog cannot be supplemented with new tasks until the end of the sprint. This gives a clear focus to the team and eliminates the possibility of “hanging” tasks over two weeks. Each developer clearly sees their task and works on it, self-organizing.

How to evaluate effectiveness?
So, we have a Product Backlog - tasks that need to be completed, and the PO has a final vision of the product. What else do we need to know to make sure the developers did everything right?

To make sure everything is done well, analysts on the team write tests for each task. They describe in detail what result should be obtained. In simple terms, they describe which button to press, and what will happen.

Individual tests are written at the end of each sprint, in great detail, to evaluate effectiveness over two weeks.

Advantages of the methodology
Scrum is customer-focused. On the day of the end of the next sprint, you can invite customers, show the results of the work, and the customer can update their requirements. Letting the customer feel part of the development process is a great competitive advantage.

Interesting - Poker Planning
During the sprint planning process, you need to estimate the tasks and allocate time for them. It is calculated in StoryPoints. In fact, this is an assessment of the task complexity.

Poker planning is a common practice among large IT companies.

Each team member has a deck of cards. Each card has its own value - these are essentially StoryPoints. And after discussing any task, all "players" lay out 1 card, which in their opinion reflects the complexity of the task.

Then the players who have laid out the maximum and minimum "stake" argue their choice. After this discussion, the procedure is repeated until the opinions converge. Are you afraid of serious time expenditures? The "game" has strict regulations.

If you adhere to the Scrum ideology in detail and clearly, the team will be maximally motivated (daily meetings with progress reports), all team members will see the progress and the end point (vision) of the product. There will be no problems with communication, and all deadlines will be met.

For a deeper dive into SCRUM, we recommend reading the book “SCRUM: A Revolutionary Project Management Method” by Jeff Sutherland.