Around 94% of agile companies use Scrum as part of their workflow and more than ever, businesses are seeing the advantages it can bring in terms of collaboration and co-operation. Agile project management is essential to keep team members engaged and responsive in whatever they do. How does a Scrum workflow fit into all this? Let’s take a look.
Benefits of a scrum workflow
Scrum workflows first and foremost offer the chance for team members to work in small sprints. This means that work can be reflected on and it’s easier to make improvements to existing processes. One of the most popular ways of doing this is with the kanban sprint, which makes it even easier for workflows to be monitored and assessed throughout different phases of a project.
A Scrum framework will also focus on giving the best possible value to your clients and customers and once these ideas are put into place in your workflows, you can continue to assess their impacts and how you can improve end-user experience.
Collaboration sits at the very core of Scrum and this encourages team members to collaborate more closely and work together to achieve their goals. Not only that, it increases accountability and shows who is responsible for every single element of a project.
How to successfully launch a Scrum workflow
Here are the all-important steps to launch a successful Scrum workflow.
Identify roles
There are typically three roles you need to consider:
- Product Owner: Takes charge of maximizing the value that the product/process brings to the company and the clients and customers.
- Development team: They’re in charge of executing the daily tasks within each Sprint.
- Scrum Master: Makes sure that every single Sprint runs smoothly.
Host a Sprint planning session
This is where the Product Owner updates everyone on the Scrum team on working situations. They’ll undertake the following tasks:
- share sprint goals
- work on updates
- update on any important changes.
Scrum teams will then look at each item individually and they’ll review resources such as budget and capacity to make sure everyone is on track.
From this, the Scrum team can work out how long each sprint needs to be. They can be anything from a week to a month and will vary on what work needs to be done and when.
Sprint success needs to be monitored throughout – and this is done by setting goals and measurements. These help to track performance and make sure everyone is focused on their goals. Often, SMART goal frameworks are used to create achievable targets.
The next stage is to make sure everyone on the Scrum team is happy with what’s in place – then…get to work!
Sprint launch
All the planning is over, and it’s now time to launch the sprint and start the hard work. It’s during this time that teams will work on their tasks. Everyone should know what their role is and what their achievable outcomes are.
Daily Scrum meetings
When the project is live, it’s essential to run daily Scrum meetings to make sure everyone is on track and keeping to the deadline. It’s during these times that issues can be ironed out and pain points can be found and dealt with. With Scrum meetings it’s always best to stick to a clear time frame, host the meeting at the same time every single day, and keep all the topics on track so no one is sidelined and nothing is missed.
After the Sprint
Once the particular sprint has come to an end, it’s a good idea to get the Scrum team back together to conduct a retrospective. Here, there’s a chance to review what went well, discuss any problems that arose during the project, and find ways to iron out these challenges so that during the next Sprint everything works in an even smoother fashion.
