A beginner’s guide to Scrum and the agile workflow

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Industries are constantly evolving in the way they do business with software companies often being ahead of the curve. Many organizations have replaced the traditional waterfall method with an agile approach to project management.

But what does “agile” mean and how is it different from the traditional workflow?

In a nutshell, while the waterfall workflow follows a specific plan and incorporates changes only after the project is completed, the agile workflow is much more flexible and will respond to changes during the development phase.

While both the agile and the waterfall methodology have their upsides and downsides, most organizations have adopted an agile workflow for its higher rate of success and efficiency.

What is an agile workflow?

The agile workflow lifecycle in software development consists of several stages which the team goes through to build, deploy and maintain software products. These stages are:

Ideation

This is the phase in which the project is planned. For each requirement, the scope is defined, the backlog is created and the sprints are outlined.

Inception

Teams are formed and assigned their respective responsibilities. Every team has a set of goals for a given timeframe, which is called a sprint and typically lasts between one and four weeks.

Iteration

As the requirements are now clear, the team can get to work on features and defects which are contained in the product backlog.

Release

The product is released to the stakeholders, who then provide feedback. This feedback is considered by the development team who implements any required changes which are then tested again.

Production

After finalizing testing and documentation, the team ensures that the product is launched successfully. They may also provide support for the users.

Retirement

The process finishes with the successful delivery. The customers are notified about the new or updated product.

Scrum

There are a few different types of agile workflows, the most well-known one being Scrum. In Scrum, every meeting and role is considered a piece of the puzzle which ensures the satisfaction of all stakeholders of the product.

Scrum roles

Besides the development team, a key role is that of the product owner, who ensures that the interests of the customer are taken into consideration throughout the development process and makes sure that the delivered product meets the ever-changing requirements.

There is also the Scrum master who ensures that all team members adhere to the principles of Scrum and helps them get impediments out of the way. A term that is sometimes used synonymously with Scrum master is “Agile Coach”.

Scrum meetings

At the start of each sprint, there is a sprint planning meeting in which the stakeholders get together to discuss the goals that should be achieved within the upcoming sprint.

In a short daily meeting, each team member describes what they did the day before, what they will do today and if they have any impediments.

In the sprint review, which happens at the end of each sprint, all the stakeholders get together to review the sprint and discuss what the updated backlog will look like. There might also be a product demo for the customer.

Finally, there is the sprint retrospective led by the Scrum master in which the members of the development team have a chance to discuss what is going well and what needs to be changed in order to continuously improve their workflow.

If you want to learn more about Scrum, the best place to start is the official Scrum Guide. It was written by the originators of Scrum and is a good resource to start with if you want to incorporate agile methodology into your project, or even become a Scrum master or product owner yourself.