About Scrum
Scrum has been invented by Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber in the early 1990s and is described in the book Agile Project Management Using Scrum by Ken Schwaber. The background of inventing Scrum is almost a showdown with the traditional project model and the discrepancies that lies within it. Where the traditional model requires an almost superhuman ability to make the right decisions at an early stage, Scrum is based on human behaviour and the fact that we usually learn more when we are working with a subject and thus have the opportunity to improve the product when this knowledge crystallises.

Briefly described, Scrum is about having the requirements for a software solution collected in a Product Backlog, which is administered by a Product Owner. A Product Owner is a person who has market knowledge and the overall contact to the customers. The requirements are formulated as functionality, described from a users point of view. Everybody can in principle, come up with requirements (Backlog Items) to the system, but it is Product Owner's responsibility and right, to give priority to the requirements and select those who he want solved by the development team in the coming period. The selected requirements for a coming period will be collected into a list, which is called Sprint Backlog, and in a planning meeting (Sprint Planning) introduced to the team through a dialogue about the content of the requirements. After this meeting anyone other than the team leaves the room and the team make their detailed plan on how to transform the requirements into working functionality. At the end of Sprint Planning, the team commits to solve the agreed tasks. The period in which the development takes place, typically vary between two weeks and one month and is called a Sprint. A Sprint has a fixed length, which may not exceed one month and may not be extended or shortened when first agreed upon. I the team are running short of time, it has three options in order of priority: Do something in a smarter way, Out-source or Cut down in functionality. The scope of the Sprint can’t be changed without renegotiating with the Product Owner.

Throughout the Sprint the team meet on daily basis for a short stand-up meeting, called Daily Scrum, which is led by the ScrumMaster. A ScrumMaster is a kind of project manager, who coach the team and facilitate the various activities undertaken by the team. At Daily Scrum each team member corresponds to his teammates on the following three questions: What have I done since the last meeting? What is my intention to do until the next meeting? What can possibly prevent me from reaching my goals? It is the task of the ScrumMaster to remove the obstacles in order to let the team can focus on getting the job done. At the Daily Scrum the work momentum of the team will be monitored. It may, for example be done by using a blackboard on which the tasks are on Post-it patches, and the team will come up with a plan for what each member has to work with, if there is any doubt about this.

When the Sprint has been completed, the team will meet with stakeholders and presents the results achieved. This happens at a meeting called Sprint Review. At this meeting, only functionality which is done in relation to the agreements can be presented, and in this context it’s the job of the Product Owner to evaluate and accept or reject the results. At the end of the meeting the stakeholders will discuss what possibly changes should be done to the Backlog, and they will decide on what will be the smartest things to do in the next sprint. This input will be used by the Product Owner as a starting point to assemble the next Sprint backlog.

After the Sprint Review, the team get together in a new session in order to reflect on the process they have gone through in the last period. This is called the Sprint Retrospective. Here the team will be discussing what went well, what can be improved and decide what concrete steps they will do in the comming sprint to improve the process. Then the process starts all over again in a new Sprint, with Sprint Planning as the first activity.