The 3 Essential Scrum Artifacts You Must Know in 2022
If you are about to begin a scrum team, or move to a scrum-based project management method and would like to give your team just the right amount of information to get them started, this article is all you need.
Before we discuss what are scrum artifacts, we will see a glimpse of how it is associated with the scrum methodology.
- What Is the Product Management Process?
- The Specifics of the Agile Methodology
- What Are Scrum Artifacts?
- Scrum Methodology
- Wrapping Up
- Frequently Asked Questions
What Is the Product Management Process?
A framework known as project management methodology can assist you in managing your project as effectively as possible. It is a set of guidelines and procedures that can help you plan your initiatives for maximum effectiveness.
Relatable reads:
Let’s discuss the two well-known project management approaches, Agile and Scrum.
The Specifics of the Agile Methodology
The following ideas underpin agile project management methodologies:
- It happens swiftly.
- It is open to change driven by data and cooperation.
- In addition to short work periods, agile project management strategies typically entail testing, assessment, and adaptation. Teams go through a cycle of planning, doing, and evaluating once the project is underway.
Even while the project lead or product owner normally prioritizes the work that needs to be produced, the team takes the initiative when choosing how they will perform the work, self-organizing around specific tasks and responsibilities. One of the most often used methods is agile project management, which is known for its adaptability, flexibility, and emphasis on customer feedback.
Key Agile Concepts
User Stories – The team separates the work to be done into functional units called “user stories,” which are high-level descriptions of a feature told from the perspective of the product’s end-user. This is done in conjunction with the product owner.
Daily Gathering – The team gathers every day to discuss the latest information. Each team member quickly summarizes any contributions that have been “finished,” as well as any challenges they have encountered.
Team – A “team” in Agile is a small group of people, assigned to the same project. An Agile team needs every person required to produce the end product. An Agile team should have a Scrum master, a product owner, and any other required team members.
Iterative Development – Agile projects are iterative insofar as they intentionally allow for “repeating” software development activities, and for potentially revisiting and adapting the same work products.
Milestone Retrospective – After a project has been underway for some time, or at its conclusion, the entire team devotes one to three days to a thorough examination of its key moments.
What Are Scrum Artifacts?
Information used by stakeholders and the scrum team to define a work-in-progress is referred to as an “artifact.” Scrum artifacts always bring value to a sprint by defining the work that needs to be done.
Three essential items make up the Scrum process framework:
- Product Backlog.
- Sprint Backlog.
- Product Increment.
Scrum Methodology
An example of agile project management is a scrum. Work is divided into brief periods called “sprints,” which typically span between one and two weeks, in Scrum.
In accordance with the Scrum approach, the teams build a backlog of items with due dates and arrange their workload according to the sprint length. Each team reports on their accomplishments, what they will be working on that day, and any obstacles keeping them from finishing a task during daily stand-up meetings. A sprint retrospective meeting is held after the sprint is finished to evaluate performance and make any required adjustments before beginning the following sprint.
Some Terminology You Need to Know
Sprint: A sprint is a predetermined time period that is used in the Scrum framework for agile product development to accomplish a certain set of tasks that result in the creation of a new product increment.
A sprint would typically last one to two weeks. A sprint’s numerous tasks include sprint planning, daily scrums, development work, sprint reviews, and sprint retrospectives. As the development team projects what can be completed in a sprint, the product owner discusses which product backlog items should be prioritized in order to meet the sprint goal. Throughout the sprint, the development team works through the sprint backlog.
In the daily scrum, each team member summarizes what they did yesterday, what they will do today, and any obstacles that might stand in the way of attaining the sprint goal and organizing activities.
At the conclusion of the sprint, a sprint review is conducted to evaluate the product increment and make modifications to the product backlog. The scrum team and stakeholders evaluate what was completed and what needs to be done going forward to increase the value of the product at the sprint review. The scrum team assesses itself at a sprint retrospective, which is held at the conclusion of the sprint, then develops a plan for improvement during the subsequent sprint.
Product Backlog: A backlog is a collection of work needed to carry out a more comprehensive strategic plan. Problems, tasks, and user stories are frequently found in a product backlog. When there is a distinct backlog, the team may work quickly. Then they can concentrate on the subsequent, most crucial items on the list. They are, therefore, given more time to focus on important initiatives.
The backlog expands as the product is produced. Changes might be made by including more information, making estimates, or rearranging the order of priority. The team and product owner are always working to make the product backlog better.
These three categories make up the product backlog:
- User profile.
- Bugs.
- Tasks.
Sprint Backlog: The sprint backlog is used during sprint planning sessions to scope, size, and schedule development jobs. The portion of the product backlog that the team works on during their sprint is the sprint backlog. Think of it as the sprint’s to-do list. During the sprint meeting, the product owner aids the scrum team in developing a sprint backlog.
The development, testing, and documentation of every item on the sprint backlog are required.
Retrospective: The effectiveness of team dynamics, workflow, and productivity can all be increased through retrospectives. A retrospective is a meeting held following the release of a product to analyze what went wrong throughout the process of developing and releasing it, with the aim of making improvements going forward based on those discussions and learnings. Agile encourages retrospectives to assist teams with problem-solving and self-improvement.
Burndown: The predicted effort-hours remaining for a specific amount of time during a Sprint are shown graphically as a burndown during a sprint. The sprint burndown chart, which is crucial for reporting progress as seen below, is produced by plotting the total effort-hours remaining for each incomplete job on a particular day.
The team members utilize it religiously to submit the estimated effort still needed to complete each task during each sprint. Because tasks are worked on and completed each day throughout the sprint, the amount of time required for each task lowers.
Product Increment: The product increment is the total number of product backlog items that have been completed in a sprint. In addition to being the total of all project backlog items completed over the course of a sprint, the product increment is the value of the increments over the most recent number of completed sprints.
Wrapping Up
It is absolutely necessary that your team is clear about all the scrum artifacts for the proper functioning of the team, as well as the team members’ cooperation and participation.
Briefing them early on about the scrum artifacts mentioned in this article is going to give them a clear idea about what to do and what not to do, setting them on the right path towards the team’s goal.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What are the 3 Scrum Artifacts?
The 3 Scrum Artifacts are:
Product Backlog
Sprint Backlog
Increment
Is the burndown chart a Scrum Artifact?
An illustration called a burndown chart demonstrates how quickly the team is finishing user stories or other items on the product backlog. A burndown chart is a crucial tool that shouldn’t be ignored, despite not always being regarded as one of the necessary scrum artifacts.
What is agile in simple terms?
Agile is a project management methodology that is frequently connected to software development. Agile simply refers to a process of short, frequent releases that result in continuous, incremental progress.
What is the difference between agile and scrum?
The primary distinction between agile and scrum is that Scrum is a particular Agile methodology used to facilitate a project, whereas agile is a project management philosophy that makes use of a fundamental set of values or concepts.
What is the most important Scrum Artifact?
The Product Increment is the most significant Scrum Artifact. The development team creates potentially shippable product increments with each sprint. This product increment must meet the “Definition of Done” established by the development team and be approved by the product owner.
Simon Calder
Chris “Simon” Calder was working as a Project Manager in IT for one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious cultural institutions, LACMA.He taught himself to use Microsoft Project from a giant textbook and hated every moment of it. Online learning was in its infancy then, but he spotted an opportunity and made an online MS Project course - the rest, as they say, is history!
