How to Leverage SCRUM for More Agile Business Practices

Advancements in information technology has greatly transformed people's personal and professional lives. As a result, more and more businesses and industries are adopting Agile enterprise practices and reaping the benefits of it.

According to the Agile Alliance, Agile is “the ability to create and respond to change in order to succeed in an uncertain and turbulent environment.” That responsiveness is matured over time through incorporation of customer-focused, cost-effective Agile methodologies, such as Scrum.

Scrum, a subset of the Agile framework, aims to implement business agility within the IT and software development sectors, as well as within other organizational departments.

Let's explore Agile and Scrum in more detail, and then we'll highlight how adopting Agile practices can help your business survive and succeed in an ever-changing environment.

Growth of the Agile Methodology

The importance of Agile methodologies stems from the fact that the innovative methods of Agile have brought about revolutionary changes in the field of Information Technology; there have been increased rates of success in software development, markets are delivering improved quality end-products at a rapid pace, and IT teams have got a boost in productivity and motivation.

Agile software development and product management have created endless possibilities and business opportunities through innovative practices that bring more efficient communication and collaboration for early and continuous delivery of valuable products and software.

Companies leveraging agile methods have a highly dynamic operational environment where routine processes and operations are replaced by new and evolving products, services, and functional processes.

If your company wants to capitalize on the potential of Agile, it must create an environment for Agile to flourish. In doing so, both innovation and development will be at their highest.

Traditional software development methodologies had several drawbacks and challenges; hence they’ve evolved to give rise to Agile practices and CSM certification online.

Agile addresses the needs of customers and provides clear proof of project progress. Iterative planning ensures that adaptation to changes is smooth, while constant planning and feedback add value to the business and lower risks.

Overall, Agile's rapid growth is due to the following key reasons:

• Testing and regular checkups integrated into the Agile development cycle ensure end-products of the highest quality.
• Customer involvement and satisfaction is guaranteed through the transparency of the development process and flexibility to change.
• Adopting Agile methodologies almost eliminates all kinds of project failures, thereby reducing risks.
• Iterative Agile processes mean that there is incremental delivery of features; this ensures faster return on investments while the product is still under development.

Agile and Scrum Connection

Agile is based on the concept of iterative development and is a set of software development methodologies. Self-organizing and cross-functional teams collaborate to develop requirements and solutions within the Agile framework.

Agile processes and practices aim to promote a project management process that is disciplined and provides encouragement to constant adaptation and inspection.

The set of principles laid out in the Agile framework encourages the adoption of a business approach aligned with organizational development, goals and customer needs, while ensuring that software of the highest quality is delivered rapidly.

The concepts enumerated in the Agile Manifesto are strictly followed in the implementation of the Agile development process.

Scrum, on the other hand, is a lightweight process framework that is a subset of the Agile development process; it is a specific set of practices that must be observed for a method to be in tune with the Agile framework.

Scrum is lightweight, meaning that the overhead process is kept minimal to ensure maximum available time for productive work. With the help of incremental and iterative practices, Scrum is most frequently used for managing the development of complicated software and products.

It's worth noting that as organizations are adopting Scrum for product management and delivery, there is an increasing demand for Scrum practitioners with credible CSM certification online.

A Closer Look at Scrum Artifacts (What they Are)

When you are learning about Scrum or sign-up for a CSM certification online, one of the essential things that you will be introduced to is the different types of Scrum artifacts.

So, what are Scrum artifacts?

In simple terms, Scrum artifacts provide vital information to stakeholders and Scrum teams on the product being developed, the planning of activities, and the activities accomplished in the project.

Let’s briefly describe the Scrum artifacts of the Scrum Process Framework:

• Product Vision – This short and precise artifact defines the long-term vision of the product/project and sets out an overall and comprehensive direction to guide the Scrum Team.
• Product Backlog – This artifact refers to the list of all the functions, features, enhancements, and fixes that the product requires. The Product Owner is responsible for the creation, maintenance, and prioritization of this list, and it is referred to by the Scrum team as a final document.
• Sprint Goal – Sprint refers to the period during which the Scrum team collaborates to finish a project goal. In this context, a Sprint Goal refers to the objective that will be achieved within the Sprint through the application of the predicted Product Backlog items.
• Product Increment – Since Scrum is an iterative process, Product Increment refers to the summation of all the Product Backlog items accomplished during a Sprint and the values of all the previous Sprint increments. Each of the iterations results in a Product Increment and takes the team a step closer to the end-product delivery.
• Sprint Backlog – This artifact refers to the items from the Product Backlog that the Scrum team selects to work upon to deliver the Product Increment and achieve the Sprint Goal.
• Definition of Done – Every item in the Product Backlog has acceptance criteria that confirm the completion of the thing. The Definition of Done is an understanding that contains the non-functional requirements, constraints, and quality criteria to define the accomplishment of work.
• Burndown Chart – These are graphs that "burn down" to zero with completion of tasks and guide the development team with the progress of the work.

These principles, practices and values in Scrum artifacts are empirical and provide a means for teams to establish a hypothesis of how they think something works, try it out, reflect on the experience, and make the appropriate adjustments with more agility involved.

In conclusion

Trends in software development are evolving fast. More and more businesses are tying up with innovative technologies for increased productivity, faster growth, higher profits, and improved customer relations. You should not be left behind.

If you want to compete effectively, the Scrum framework is one tool that can make your business practices more efficient and productive through the Agile methodologies and principles. The value of agile provides a radical alternative to command-and-control-style management.

Moreover, the availability of CSM certification online can even help you to ace the skills of a professional Scrum practitioner and also add to your relevance across every organization that swears by the Agile framework.