Today, more organizations are inclining towards technology-driven operational models to gain exposure, command over the market, and overrun competitors. As a result, agile methodologies are quickly gaining a significant position in business undertakings to devise cost-effective management and deliverability of products.
These development methodologies further enhance the flexibility, adaptability, and efficiency of the project and team involved. Scrum is one such known methodology implemented by several businesses. This article covers mistakes to avoid in the scrum for effective project management.
What does Scrum mean?
Scrum refers to an organization’s development method or framework to boost development efficiency and bring clarity to the team.
The Scrum framework is divided into smaller parts called Sprints, unlike agile methods where everything is delivered at the end of the project. In addition, scrum roles are often divided into three – scrum master, product owner, and development team.
Although the original priority was on the software development process, Scrum features are employed in sales, research, and marketing to bring accountability and agility and assist the complex development setting within an organization.
All the developmental activities are time-boxed, iterative, and deliverable for faster product development. There are many certified courses available on the internet related to scrums. You can check it out and select the suitable one.
10 Mistakes to avoid in Scrum with included tips
Below are the main mistakes to avoid in the scrum.
1. Scrum master is a project manager
It is assumed that scrum master and project manager roles are the same in project development. This is false as the responsibilities of the project manager keep on changing with each stage of development while the role of the scrum master is fixed and well-defined.
Some of the responsibilities of a scrum master include encouraging improvement, transparency, accountability, communication within the team, and ensuring obstacles are addressed on time.
Moreover, a scrum master also facilitates meetings, collaborations, and team activities while acting as a moderator in case of conflicts.
2. No retrospectives and reviews
Retrospectives are a leading factor in Scrum methodologies as they help review the accomplished work, pending tasks, and stage of development.
These meetings are carried out before and after every sprint to find out development voids, give feedback, and assess the overall project.
Various techniques such as a sailboat, lego retrospective, kudos cards, high-performance tree, etc., are employed in these meetings to improve the team’s efficiency.
3. Not implementing agile principles in practices
In most cases, teams figure out ways to practice Scrums but go wrong when incorporating agility principles into these practices. Agile principles are a foundation for implementing comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration, and individual intersections.
These values help the team acknowledge and work on the changes that occur in the development process rather than blindly following a pre-specified plan full of errors.
Failing to implement agility principles might cause harm to the overall development process as the changes are not properly reviewed, making it difficult for the team to be transparent.
4. Complicating the scrum
Another common mistake encountered during development is the complexity of the framework. Most teams focus on incorporating the latest tools and techniques, which take a lot of time to install and operate.
This reduces efficiency as the focus shifts from the agile value that stresses the importance of individuals and interactions over processes and tools. Furthermore, most team members complicate the communication process by communicating through the scrum master.
For efficient and effective project delivery, teams can directly convey information or queries to the concerned member or product owner.
5. Neglecting daily stand-ups
Standups are short meetings held every day for about 15 minutes to gain insights into the project. Neglecting these short face-to-face meetings makes it difficult for the team members to understand the goals to be achieved and any possible collaboration needed.
A daily stand-up will improve the transparency of project development and address the issues or obstacles encountered, sprints accomplished so far, and prospective goals that need to be achieved.
While these meetings are not regular status meetings, they improve coordination, knowledge, and understanding among the team members.
6. Hesitating to raise hurdles in the early stages
It is important to raise the obstacles encountered in the sprints at an early stage to avoid last-minute delays in the delivery of the product.
As they are called in Agile methodology, Impediment backlogs need to be confronted promptly by listing and revisiting them in daily stand-ups.
A scrum master should employ the required team when solving these obstacles to improve their problem-solving capabilities and make the team self potent in solving future problems without a scrum master. Waiting for the obstacles to be solved can become a huge drawback in delivering products effectively.
7. Incomplete product backlogs
Product backlogs are similar to To-Do lists but offer more insight into the tasks accomplished so far, time estimates for tasks to be accomplished, etc. This list organizes the entries based on the order of priorities, making it easier for the team to understand the statutes and requirements.
Incomplete product backlogs lead to delays and inefficiency in product delivery. Furthermore, this short description of the across-the-board development status needs to be constantly modified and reorganized if new entries are added.
8. Absence of product owners’ involvement
The product owner’s involvement is necessary for the effective development of the software product required by the business.
Although the role is trying as the product owners need to review sprints, give feedback, validate obstacles, sequence backlogs, and link the development team to higher-ups, it is crucial for effective collaboration.
The absence of involvement due to a lack of awareness, interest, or time leads to inefficient development and communication gaps resulting in the delivery of unsatisfactory products.
9. Limited priority for tools
Although it is important to focus on individuals and interactions more as per the Agile principles, it is also necessary to not exclude the usage of tools entirely.
Tools such as Scrumwise, Agile tracking tool, Daily-Scrum, etc., can help design, visualize, and prioritize certain tasks, making it easier for the development team to proceed with other important aspects of product development.
Although it is not necessary to incorporate the expensively latest version of tools, it is beneficial to focus on certain tools and technologies.
10. Solutions centralized by the product owner
The entire Scrum should be facilitated by ensuring the improvement and growth of the development team and the product owner.
Each team member needs to be given the freedom to share their opinions and solutions for overcoming problems in the process.
Furthermore, the team needs to be self-organized and potent in solving problems according to the requirements of market changes. Simply adhering to the decisions of the product owner without any regard for alternative solutions may lead to the failure of the product.
Conclusion
Although similar, Scrum differs from Agile methodologies by quite a factor. While agile is a wider iterative development and testing process, scrum is part of agile methodologies. It deals with sprints broken down and achieved at intervals rather than at the end of the project like in agile frameworks.