Maslow (1943) presented a need hierarchy which recognizes that different people are at different levels in their needs. Usually people start out looking for physiological needs and then progressively move up the needs hierarchy. To be successful, a Scrum Team needs both core and non-core team members who have reached the esteem or self-actualization…
Organizations applying the Scrum framework encourage an open environment and dialogue among employees. Conflicts among Scrum Team members are generally resolved independently, with little or no involvement from management or others outside the Scrum Team. Conflict can be healthy when it promotes team discussions and encourages debates, as this usually results in benefits for the…
It is important for the Scrum Team to possess all the essential skills required to carry out the work of the project. It is also necessary to have a high level of collaboration to maximize productivity, so that minimal coordination is required to get things done. The optimum size for a Scrum Team is six…
Scrum treats time as one of the most important constraints in managing a project. To address the constraint of time, Scrum introduces a concept called ‘Time-boxing’ which proposes fixing a certain amount of time for each process and activity in a Scrum project. This ensures that Scrum Team members do not take up too much…
In Scrum, quality is defined as the ability of the completed product or deliverables to meet the Acceptance Criteria and achieve the business value expected by the customer. There are numerous ways to define quality. To ensure that a project meets quality requirements, Scrum adopts an approach of continuous improvement whereby the team learns from…
The Prioritized Product Backlog is a single requirements document that defines the project scope by providing a prioritized list of features of the product or service to be delivered by the project. The required features are described in the form of User Stories. User Stories are specific requirements outlined by various stakeholders as they pertain…
The customer is the most important stakeholder for any project. Therefore, it is important to understand the customer’s needs and requirements. The Voice of the Customer (VOC) can be referred to as the explicit and implicit requirements of the customer, which must be understood prior to the designing of a product or service. Generally, in…
It is widely known in the software development industry that Agile values “working software” over “extensive documentation.” This leads to the common misconception that Agile does not believe in documentation. It is true that documentation in Agile does not always mean typing code descriptions or lengthy time consuming information that may come in handy sometime…
Collaboration in Scrum refers to the Scrum Core Team working together and interfacing with the stakeholders to create and validate the deliverables of the project to meet the goals outlined in the Project Vision. It is important to note the difference between cooperation and collaboration here. Cooperation occurs when the work product consists of the sum…
A Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD) is a useful tool for reporting and tracking project performance. It provides a simple, visual representation of project progress at a particular point in time. It is usually used to provide a higher level status of the overall project and not daily updates for individual Sprints. The figure above is an…
