Introduction to Scrum: Benefits and Practices
December 20, 2009
by Kevin Thompson, Ph.D, PMP, CSP
Scrum is a lightweight agile process framework used primarily for managing software development. Scrum is
- lightweight because it has few prescribed elements
- Three roles: Team, Scrum Master (often a Project Manager), Product Owner (often a Product Manager)
- Three meetings: Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Retrospective
- Three artifacts: Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, Burndown chart
- agile because it maximizes responsiveness to changing customer needs
- a process framework because it is not a process, but a collection of practices and concepts around which a process can be built
For those who are not already “doing Scrum,” the key question is not, “How does it work?” but, “What are the benefits?” This question does not have a unique answer, because it depends on who is asking. Benefits to developers, project managers, and salespeople are different.
This article identifies key benefits of Scrum, and the Scrum practices that produce them.