Professional Advice for Successful Scrum Project Management
One of the universal project management systems is considered to be Scrum technique. If earlier Scrum concerned notably to IT sphere and software development – nowadays the similar experience is actively adopted by many other industries.
These industries are construction, manufacture, marketing, low, etc. And that is not an accident!
In this post, we would like to describe Scrum project management, know its unique specialties and real profits and try to offer you the best tips how to use Scrum in your business in the right way.
Scrum by itself: the main basis and business functions
Let’s begin with the raw concept of Scrum and what it really includes. There is a rather strange and inhomogeneous view: some specialists tend to call it the revolutionary thing that solves thousands of problems in the process of work. The other half considers Scrum too complex and time-consuming system. No doubts that tastes differ, but it is critical to know the point.
Scrum is a special technique based on the model of phase-by-phase work. Every phase (it is usually called as iteration or a sprint) is meant to have a certain final product that will be presented to a customer. Scrum also provides the principles of the supremacy of the customer and the priority of his needs and wishes, a clear tasks segregation and a timely problem resolution.
However, it is true in some measure that Scrum is a quite compound technique that consists of many practices such as different types of meetings, a project planning with a clear breakdown of the entire project work into sprints with the consideration of the weight of each task and the average team’s productivity.
But it should be noted that all these efforts pay off – Scrum is a great tool in the development process and management of projects, and therefore introducing it into common use is a really great idea!
Everything about Scrum project management
As we mentioned earlier, Scrum is one of those project management techniques which is quite versatile and can be used not only in software development. The main its benefit is an accurate structure of work where every employee executes his own tasks in accordance with his competence and current duties.
And now it is the time of a project beginning. Each of the work cycles is built in the following scenario:
- Planning. It is the stage when the development team receives some tasks for the project manager, who, in his turn, has received it from the customer. The team starts to plan which of the tasks are the most important and priority and determines them for the development during the current sprint. Also, the team and the project manager even without experience estimate the amount of the whole demand work for a particular sprint.
- Development. The process of work execution usually goes consistently and orderly. The team members work parallelly: while a programmer writes code, a QA engineer makes the tests, a front-end developer creates the design and a project manager controls the terms and conditions of the whole work. It is not recommended to add some new tasks into the already packaged sprint in order to avoid the possible schedule overrun or just a certain paralogism in the workflow. As an exception it may be available to change some tasks into another or to add something new into the work along with new labor power – therefore, there will probably not be so many troubles and difficulties.
- Release. This stage is a kind of summarizing of the whole sprint work. Developers are ready to provide a finished product to the customer, a project manager prepares the product presentation and organizes the general meeting. Release is the moment when all the results of the complete work become evident, and everyone is able to assess the real effectiveness, usefulness, and efficiency of this product.
- Retrospective. This part of Scrum PM work is a certain feedback session: all the project team comes together and has different discussions related to some problem that occurred during the development process. It is a good ability to find new ways of problem-solving and to know more thanks to the working experience shared by team members.
Certainly, this scenario is cyclical, that is, all the work on the project contains such several sprints, and each of them repeats the structure of the previous one, except for the creation of some new workable products on releases.
As can be seen, Scrum proves itself in project management and has many advantages for its implementation in the work:
- law and order: it is literally true! Scrum project management system will bring the right logic, sequence, and perspicuity. Each involved employee can be sure that there will not be any surprises in the work – everything is under appropriate control because the whole development team is self-organized.
- absolute productivity: thanks to its clear structure, regular meetings and useful practices, the project management under Scrum is a great tool for achieving the desired goals and even exceeding them!
- ease of use: in fact, Scrum seems to look complicated only in the beginning – a constant practice with each new implemented project will prove to you its simplicity and convenience.
- professional cultivation: Scrum philosophy is a traditional exchange of experience, continuous development in the desired professional fields and initiative support – all that equals the creation of real high-skilled teams with multi-functional experts.
Making Scrum available: tips and recommendations
Let’s make one slight digression: as you probably know Scrum is a kind of hype things in trend project management. Many so-called specialists try to implement Scrum in their companies without any proper knowledge or even without any related professional education. As a result, it is an obvious disappointment of ‘Scrum work’.
Of course, the wish of doing Scrum-like project management is not enough – it is a sheer enthusiasm at all. We would like to share with you our recommendation where to start and how to do your project management well with Scrum.
Tip 1 – Read more smart books and articles from Scrum professionals
Scrum is not just a technique – it is real science that requires qualitative education and a deep immersion into its features. Never stop your self-development and read informative articles professional project management books from Scrum masters, watch their Youtube channels and visit different seminars from official Scrum organizations such as Scrum.org and Scrum Alliance.
Tip 2 – Use digital Scrum-stylish tools in your work
Such tools usually include different planners, where you can organize your Scrum board and track the tasks execution in real time. The most popular tools are Trello (with the accent of working with simple and small projects), Jira (with the direction of technically complicated projects), and of course, Hygger – the universal tool for different kinds of projects.
The technical instruments will give you the possibility to control your work in a more comfortable way and use such functions as backlogs, roadmaps, checklists and other things necessary in Scrum project management.
Tip 3 – Think about real Scrum knowledge
If you have already met with Scrum project management method and you have got some successful experience using it, and if you want more… Here we would like you to recommend you to receive the real, or the original knowledge of this technique – try to pass the Scrum certification in order to have the official document and more profit for your further career and working experience. It is a good tone to desire more for yourself!
Conclusion
We truly hope that thanks to our today’s article Scrum becomes more familiar and attractive for you because this way of project management is really effective. It is only necessary to introduce this into your routine practice constantly, learn from the examples of experienced specialists and do not forget to make your own contribution to the development of this technique.
If you have interesting cases of your own Scrum project management usage, we would really appreciate your experience – do not hesitate to write about it in the comments!
