What Is The Scrum Methodology?

Jeff Sutherland is the creator of the Scrum methodology, a framework that aligns all the people who are part of a project to promote productive work in an agile and fast way. 

This methodology works with the iterative and incremental life cycle and was created to facilitate business agility and productivity. With Scrum, deliveries are made in a partial way (sprint), and with regular deliveries of the final product. It allows you to reduce the risks that may arise during development thanks to the deliverables with which results are obtained immediately and makes it possible to adapt the requirements according to the client’s priorities. 

Thus, the Scrum methodology is characterized by innovation, flexibility, competitiveness and productivity. 

Advantages And Disadvantages Of The Scrum Methodology

Agile methodologies are here to stay, but it is important that as project managers we know how to apply the most optimal methodologies depending on the complexity and characteristics of the projects. 

Advantages Of The Scrum Methodology

• Applies good practices of collaborative work.
• Iterative and incremental life cycle.
• Regular and partial deliveries.
• Ideal for complex projects.
• Regular bug fixes. 
• Periodic meetings to promote communication and transparency of the process, which allows revisions to be made.
• The requirements and solutions evolve and adapt to the needs that arise.
• Provides optimal solutions to risks or problems that may arise during product development.
• Most prestigious agile methodology. 
• Emphasizes teamwork.

Disadvantages Of Scrum

• It only works with small teams that have specific objectives. 
• It involves a clear division of labor for each stage of the project and a list of tasks with specific definitions.
• The members of the Scrum team must have high qualifications and/or training.

The Main Roles Of The Scrum Method

In the Scrum teams we find different profiles that make the sprint objectives are achieved. It is recommended that the team be made up of 3 to 9 members, plus the Scrum Master and the Product Owner. Within the Scrum methodology we find the following roles:

• Stakeholders. They are all those people, organizations or companies that have a direct (primary) or indirect (secondary) relationship with the project.
• Product Owner. It is the person in charge of intermediating between the client and the development team. Depending on the value of the business or the client, the requirements will be prioritized. With this, in addition to prioritizing the objectives, it will also maximize the work developed by the Scrum team. 
• Scrummaster. This profile is the facilitator within the development team. It is responsible for eliminating the obstacles encountered during the process. You must also ensure that the team follows the values, agile principles and rules of the Scrum processes. You must get a high performance from the work team. 
• Scrum Team or development team. Made up of 3-9 qualified members, they are the people in charge of developing the tasks defined in the Product Backlog. It is characterized by being a stable, agile, self-managed, multidisciplinary team with shared responsibility. 

What Is Kanban And What Is It For?

The Kanban methodology owes its name to Japanese and means “Visual Card” (‘kan’ is visual and ‘ban’ is card).

Thus, it is a framework that allows quick visual management of any workflow.

This process also requires real-time communication from team members and is based on classifying tasks into sub-status, in order to determine productivity levels at each stage of the process. In order to apply it, a task board is necessary to improve and maintain a sustainable work rhythm.

The Kanban methodology has as its motto “Stop starting, start finishing”, that is, it prioritizes the tasks in progress versus starting others from scratch. The basic structure of a Kanban board is: pending, in process and done (To Do – In Progress – Done).

Characteristics Of The Kanban Methodology

The Kanban method simplifies the planning and assignment of responsibilities that are represented in the workflow board. It is characterized by:

• Planning and control of tasks. 
• Transparency, since everyone knows their task and where they are in the cycle. 
• High performance of the work team. 
• More visual metrics thanks to the use of cards.
• It provides great flexibility, since it allows for the ability to respond to unforeseen tasks thanks to their planning and monitoring. 
• Continuous delivery and less bottleneck. 

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