SCRUM Phases

The Scrum process has generally three groups of phases: pregame, game and postgame. Each one has a broad set of tasks that must be done.

Those three phases are a bit different from other project management methodologies. The waterfall methodology, spiral or even iterative lack of this distinctive division. Waterfall is simply straight algorithm divided into planning and developing phase. Spiral and iterative are based on a „peel the onion” algorythm, where certain actions goes again and again.
Scrum phase steps are more empirical than defined as in above methods.

Let's have a more detailed look at the scrum development phases...

The pregame phase

The pregame phase concerns about two things: planning and architecture.

Planning

The first step is creating the backlog - a list of necessary properties that have to be implement during the development process. The product owner is a person responsible for this. He bases on information from customers, situation on the market and competition requirements and knows which functions or properties of the product are the most needed.

    Next points to discuss:
  • The delivery date
  • The number and functionality of release
  • The most important releases(selection)
  • The list of packets(objects) for backlog items
  • The project team structure
  • Necessary tools
  • Risk control
  • Release cost(including not only a development process but also the cost of training or marketing)

This phase of the Scrum process is very broad if the product is new but if it is an existing system that need to be enhanced(by adding some new functions)it will bring the phase to quite brief analysis.

System Architecture/High Level Design

After the planning there is a time for the system architecture. The team review the backlog , think what changes have to be made to implement new properties and design the implementation process. Some times , as it was sad before , there is a need to make some changes , refine the old product , learn some additional knowledge , analysis , solve problems or issues which appears during the process. At the end there are designed review meetings during which the teams exchange information , present progress and problems , reassigned changes as required.

The game phase

The game phase is usually called the sprint or development phase and its an iterative cycle of development work.

It may last from 1 to 4 weeks ( usually its 1-2 weeks) and the duration should be constant in every cycle. However this requirement is not strict and sometimes the time of each sprint is different. The duration influence on speed and intensity of the process. The risk is controlled all the time.

    It consists of four steps:
  • Develop(analysis , design, develop)-the team analyze current situation of the product , think what changes have to be made for implementation of backlogs requirements into the packets , design the process and finally proceed to development , implementation , testing and documenting the changes.
  • Wrap-closing packets
  • Review-meetings for presenting current work and progress , resolving problems , adding new backlog items , risk review.
  • Adjust-the information gathered during the review is consolidated into affected packets.

Lets look closer at those steps...
In the beginning of every sprint there is a planning meeting , which is divided in two parts:

  • Planning session-first part where the product owner creates the sprint backlog based on the product backlog and defines the sprint goal
  • Second part - the sprint backlog is being divided into units(4-6 hours sessions)

Before starting work it would be very good to make a stand-up meeting during which every person of the crew says what he/she did yesterday , what will do today and what are the problems (if any appeared).
After the planning phase the Scrum team starts the development process. There may be a possibility that in the middle of it the backlog or sprint goal has changed or appeared problems that are very hard to resolve. In this situation the Scrum Master or Product owner may stop/end the sprint. It will start again after defining the new sprint goal or backlog.

At the end of every sprint session the team members :

  • Actualize a burn-down chart. It shows which tasks have been performed along with those which are waiting for.
  • Take a part in sprint review meeting. The team present the results of the sprint and than the Product owner assess if the goal has been achieved.
  • Take a part in sprint retrospective meeting. The ScrumMaster and team decide which tasks were made appropriate and talk about how to make the process more effective.

The postgame phase (closure phase)

The management ends the development process and the product is being prepared for a release. This includes: integration, testing, user documentation, training and marketing material preparation.

As we can see the Scrum methodology is very well organized and very effective. What is also worth mentioning is that the whole Scrum process is limited in time. If the time of the sprint has ended the process has to be stopped. It makes the process more resolute , people work at the most important things and don’t waste their time.