How to be a Successful Scrum Master with Orangescrum?

Agile Scrum Methodology has been rapidly adopted by product development teams, digital and marketing agencies in the last decade or so.

With it, the need for comprehensive agile project management tools too have gathered steam.

 

Starting up with the agile implementation usually looks easy. Teams just think of breaking down their tasks for a week or two and start completing them within the defined timelines and consider all is well.

Reality tends to be quite different. For one, it is not so much of task breakdown and planning rather an approach and a mind set to deliver quality incrementally.

And teams struggle for it even today.

“Not having a centralized view of the entire backlog, sprint planning & what’s being done and pending takes a toll eventually, leading to delays instead of quick iterative delivery.”

At the same time, the role of the quintessential project managers have evolved. Agile has become the default project management methodology.

While organizations look up to project managers as Scrum Masters – over night!

The transition isn’t that difficult when it is well planned, backed by appropriate training, implementation of agile project management tools and significant management support.

In this blog, we will go over some quick inputs about agile for our transitioning scrum masters and how Orangescrum can power up your agile transformation.

Agile is driven by 4 core values and 12 principles.

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan

Agile core values are for every scrum master to always remember and practice across all scrum projects. They act as a radar and help refocus whenever the teams tend to go off-track.

Also, checkout the fact filled 3 mins introduction to scrum methodology tutorial for a quick understanding of scrum.

So to begin with

What is Scrum Project Management?

Scrum is an Agile Project Methodology that enables software development organizations to prioritize the work which matters the most and break it down into manageable chunks.

In this methodology, work is done in short cycles called Sprints, and the team meets daily to discuss current tasks and roadblocks that need to be resolved.

Simply, Scrum is a method for managing projects that allow for quick development and testing, especially within a small team & increasing business value by ensuring that customers get what they actually want.

Most importantly, driving agile is all about having the right team and as a Scrum Master, your role is to be a servant leader and enable the Scrum Team to achieve their goals.

Note, you do not plan for them or give them a laundry list of dos and don’ts or show them what they are supposed to do.

You are a facilitator not the one with authority!

Take a quick look at the Scrum Roles and responsibilities for your own and the team’s benefit.

What are the scrum features available in Orangescrum?

The features available in Orangescrum are:

• Build your product backlog by adding them to the Backlog.
• Get to know the status of tasks and remaining time in Active sprints.
• Drag and drop the task to change the status of the task in the Scrum board.
• Conduct Sprint Retrospective of closed sprints with Sprint Reports.
• Understand sprint velocity with the Velocity Chart

Setting up a Scrum Project in Orangescrum

As a first step, when you are on the “Create Project” form, select “Scrum” from the Project Template dropdown.

Once you have entered relevant details for project creation, click on Create the left main menu will be updated to showcase the Backlog and Active Sprint options.

Note: these options will not show up if you are not chosen a Scrum Project from the project dropdown.

Upon successful project creation, you will land on the project card view with an updated left main menu as seen in the image below.

Now, let us click on the Backlog to see what’s in store for us.

A fresh Backlog page would look something like below, where you can quickly start adding product backlog items (PBIs).

Click on Quick Task from the backlog page and you will be presented with 2 fields

1. Task Type – Epic, Story, Feature Request, Tasks, Bug etc.)
2. Task Title – Quick task name

After you’ve entered the details click on the arrow to create your first backlog item.

Once you have successfully built a backlog and ready to start working on your sprints, Click on “Create Sprint”

Tip: You can add unlimited PBIs to your backlog from the backlog page. You can create unlimited sprints, move items to respective sprints and start sprints from the action packed Backlog screen.

Now, quickly drag and drop backlog items on to your newly created Sprint and click on Start Sprint.

You will be taken to the Active Sprint page which is the “Scrum Board”.

Get going with Sprint execution. Move your tasks from the “To Do” to “Done” queue and mark the sprint as Complete by clicking on the “Complete Sprint”.

“Scrum Board is where all the action is! You can conduct efficient Stand up or Daily Status meetings. Identify bottlenecks, update status and make progress all from this all-inclusive Scrum Board.”

Tip: All tasks open as a pop-up for you to do quick deep dives, take informed decisions and you’re your tasks forward.

Upon Completing a Sprint you will be taken to the Sprint Report

The Sprint Report provides you the following insights:

• Number of tasks completed in the sprint
• The story points or estimated hours covered during sprint execution
• Number of incomplete tasks that were moved to backlog or another sprint

Similarly, the Velocity Chart gives a quick view of Committed vs Completed i.e. no of story points, estimated hours or task count.

Tip: Sprint Settings on the Backlog page allow you to set the metric you would like to measure for a sprint. They are – Story Points, Committed Hours, or Task Count. You can choose either of the 3.

Each Agile Scrum feature within Orangescrum has been defined keeping in mind the key Scrum events.

Sprint Planning: Picking PBIs (user story or features to be developed) from backlog, defining sprint duration and kicking off the sprint – Backlog and Sprint Creation

Daily Stand-Ups: Quick catch-up of the Scrum Team to review previous day’s progress, highlight showstoppers and plan for the day – Scrum Board

Sprint Review: Product increment demo by the Product Owner along with the scrum team to the stakeholder (customers). – Sprint Report

Sprint Retrospective: Basically a Post Implementation Review (PIR) to understand what went well, what did not work and identify key inputs to make the future sprints better – Velocity Chart as well as Sprint Report

Key Takeaways!

Agile is common place and as technology enthusiasts we all understand the power of collaboration coupled with organized execution.

However, to streamline the transition and excel as a Successful Scrum Master use the following simple tips

• Depute some time to familiarize the scrum roles, events and artefacts
• Imbibe the core scrum values and principles for decision making in case of conflicts
• Bring the team together on a centralized agile project management tool
• Though challenging, but prevent the scrum team from impediments at all times to prevent distraction
• Human interactions must be used optimally both in case of the team as well as the clients
• Involve stakeholders and customers in a transparent manner or greater alignment of goals
• Remember that you are the servant leader, not a manager

The use of an all in one project management tool prevents distraction for the teams and they can see their progress in real time.

This leads to greater sense of urgency and awareness towards the goal & keeps the team on track.

Having said that, which tool do you rely on for increased agile adoption within your teams?

Try Orangescrum Free to lead a team that is agile and not fragile!