Scrum framework: the best approach to address your sprint
The Scrum framework is Agile’s strongest weapon in the war on business disorganization.
Scrum is often perceived as a methodology, but it’s actually a framework within the Agile Methodology.
Read on to understand what the Scrum framework is, why it’s so universally used, and how to implement it in your company!
What is Scrum — and why use it?
By definition, the Scrum framework is a product development strategy. It was started in the software world, but it can be used in any type of project.
Scrum helps teams achieve a common goal: creating market-ready products.
Companies of all types and in every segment use Scrum for product/service development.
The framework is a general approach to problem-solving that avoids strict specifications and rigid sets of step-by-step instructions. It was created to make the principles of Agile Manifesto tangible in practice
Scrum is the opposite of a to-do list — rather, it’s a flexible approach to group projects.
What’s more, while Scrum provides a solid framework for organizing product teams and scheduling work, it can be shaped to accommodate any team’s needs, rather than determining exactly how the team should proceed.
Scrum is defined by a group of principles (or values) that function as simple guidelines for working in a team.
They are:
- Courage
- Focus
- Commitment to team goals
- Respect for your team members
- Openness about work, challenges, and communication
By embodying Scrum’s values, teams share responsibility for success and avoid the pitfalls of silo mentality.
What are the benefits of the Scrum Framework?
Here are the main advantages of implementing Scrum in your company:
- More transparency and visibility in projects
With daily meetings, the entire team knows who is doing what, eliminating misunderstanding and confusion. This helps identify problems early, allowing the team to resolve them before they get out of hand.
- Increased team responsibility and engagement
There is no manager telling the Scrum team what to do. Instead, the team collectively decides what work it can complete in each sprint. Everyone works together and helps each other, improving collaboration and empowering team members to become independent.
- Ease of accommodating change
With short sprints and constant feedback, it’s easier to deal with and accommodate change. For example, if the team discovers a new user story during a sprint, they can easily add that resource to the next sprint during the backlog refinement meeting.
- Greater cost savings
Constant communication ensures staff is always aware of all issues and changes as they arise, helping to reduce rework and improve overall quality. By coding and testing features in smaller chunks provides continual feedback, meaning you can fix bugs before they become expensive.
Implementing Scrum: Your First 3 Steps
Implementing Scrum into your day-to-day requires a series of changes, both in work habits and mindset. But to get you started, here are the first three steps to get you on your way.
1. Fostering the Scrum mindset
Working with Scrum usually means changing your team’s habits, as well as their mindset.
They need to:
- Take on more responsibility
- Increase delivery quality
- Increase delivery speed
→ This level of commitment acts as an agent of change. As teams commit to meeting goals, they are increasingly motivated to improve and deliver quality products faster.
2. Well Defined Roles
A good place to start with Scrum is roles.
Every project must have:
- A Scrum Master
- A PO (Product Owner)
- A multidisciplinary team (Scrum Team)
→ In addition to defining who should be the Scrum Master and Product Owner, clarify their roles and responsibilities.
→ Depending on your team’s familiarity with Scrum, you may also want to have some training sessions.
Also read: Agile Coach: what is the role of this professional?
3. Seek expert help
Finally, we advise that you seek help from a specialized consultancy.
Choose a company that has proven know-how, is able to provide your company all the support it needs in this transition and shows interest in understanding your challenges.
Here at MJV, we are motivated by challenges. Our focus is to solve our customers’ pain by generating value for the business. We are ready to help you!
Success story: the key role of Scrum building an Agile Marketing team
Finally, let’s talk about how we implemented Agile Marketing with Scrum and increased the conversion of our Marketing actions by 115%. Check it out!
Challenge
We faced several simultaneous challenges within our marketing. The fulfillment of requests from various sectors made it difficult when it came to organizing and prioritize demands. That’s often because departmental requests make choosing priorities difficult. We needed to change to accelerate our results.
Solution
To address these challenges, we chose Scrum as our Agile framework.
- Marketing now has a scrum master and a product owner.
- Ceremonies were included in the routine (Dailys, Planning, and Retrospectives).
- Tasks and demands are continuously prioritized.
Results
As we started to complete sprints:
- We learned more about how to improve our processes
- We started to prioritize demands and deliver what really adds value to the business
- Teams became extremely agile, responding to changes and adapting quickly
Demands are now prioritized by the PO (product owner) to meet stakeholder needs.
Today, this framework has enabled Marketing to generate its own income with projects from external clients, creating a new business division within the company.
→ Take a better look: Discover how Agile revolutionized MJV Marketing!
The Scrum framework can be a real game-changer for your company. It offers benefits for your team, your projects, and your business as a whole.
If you have any questions regarding the implementation of Agile frameworks into your company or are just looking for some advice on your business challenges, talk to one of our consultants!
