Learn Scrum Tools and Techniques (CSM) with Interactive Flashcards

Master key concepts in Scrum Tools and Techniques through our interactive flashcard system. Click on each card to reveal detailed explanations and enhance your understanding.

Scrum Board

The Scrum Board is an essential tool for a Scrum team. It is a visible chart that displays the progress of the Scrum team during the sprint. It has various columns including to do, in progress, and done to represent the status of each task. The main principle behind the Scrum board is to provide transparency on the work in the sprint. The Scrum Board helps the team to forecast its work and keep track of the workflow. Updating the Scrum Board frequently supports the principle of transparency and allows all the members of the Scrum Team to have a clear understanding of what is accomplished, what is in progress, and what needs to be done.

Product Backlog

The Product Backlog contains a list of all potential features of the product and serves as a single source of requirements. The product owner maintains the Backlog by continually updating and prioritizing it to ensure that the team is working on the most valuable features first. The Product Backlog includes a list of all product requirements in a prioritized order, with the highest priority items at the top. Each backlog item (often called a user story) includes a description, priority, and estimate of effort needed.

Sprint Planning

Sprint Planning is a meeting where the team determines what to complete in the coming Sprint. The product owner explains the highest priority items on the product backlog to the team, and the team discusses each item to understand the work involved. Then the team decides how many items they can complete during the next sprint. The output of the Sprint Planning meeting is the Sprint backlog, which includes the list of tasks to be performed during the Sprint.

Daily Stand-Up

The Daily Stand-Up is a short meeting that the Scrum team holds each day at the same time and place. The aim of this meeting is to synchronize the work of team members and plan work for the next 24 hours. Each team member updates the team on what they have done since the last meeting, what they plan to do before the next one, and whether anything is blocking their progress. It promotes quick problem-solving and helps keep the team’s work aligned with the sprint goal.

Sprint Review

The Sprint Review is held at the end of the Sprint to inspect the Increment and adapt the Product Backlog if needed. The Scrum Team presents the completed work to the stakeholders and the Product Owner determines which items are done and accepted. This is a great time for the team to demonstrate what they have done, get feedback and make any necessary changes to the Product Backlog. The review meeting gives everyone a good understanding of what was accomplished in the Sprint and aligns the team on next steps.

Burndown Chart

The Burndown Chart is a visual representation of the work remaining in a sprint versus time. It is one of the most common techniques used in Scrum to track a team’s progress. The X-axis represents time, and the Y-axis represents work. At the start of the sprint, the total amount of work to be done is plotted, and as tasks are completed, the plot 'burns down' to zero. This chart helps a scrum team to anticipate problems and take necessary actions, manage efficiently their pace and expectation from stakeholders and client side.

Sprint Retrospective

The Sprint Retrospective is a meeting that occurs at the end of each sprint, where the team reflects on what happened in the set time period. This meeting's overarching goal is to get better as a team and to enhance the way team works by discussing the things that went well and the things that need improvements. Solutions for enhancement are suggested and brought up in the meeting, creating an actionable plan for enhancements to be implemented in the next sprint.

Velocity

Velocity is a metric that is calculated by adding all the story points from the last sprint’s stories that were completed. It helps to predict how much work Agile team can theoretically handle in a future sprint. It provides insight into the team's efficiency and productivity, allows to estimate the completion of the remaining backlog, and helps in sprint planning. However, it should be considered as a reference and not an exact measure, as it can vary due to various factors.

Product Owner

The Product Owner in Scrum is responsible for maximizing the value of the product and the work of the Development Team from a business perspective. The Product Owner is the sole person responsible for managing the Product Backlog including clearly expressing these items, ordering them to achieve goals and missions, and ensuring that the Backlog is visible and understood. The Product Owner is also the primary stakeholder of the project and works in close contact with both the Scrum Team and other stakeholders to ensure outputs align with business goals and customer needs.

Increment

An Increment in Scrum is the sum of all the Product Backlog items completed during a Sprint and all previous Sprints. At the end of a Sprint, the new Increment must be 'Done,' which means it is in a usable condition and meets the Scrum Team’s definition of 'Done'. An increment is a step towards a vision or goal and must be in usable condition regardless of the completeness of the backlog. The increment provides a clear measure for the progress of the project and offers something of tangible value that stakeholders can actually see and review.

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