What’s scrum, anyway? Here are 8 simple steps

Scrum can be a useful project management methodology for anyone, but some developers are particularly in love with it. While it isn’t universally beloved, people typically cite the poor implementation of Scrum, rather than the aims and values of Scrum itself, as the reason for any bad experiences.

When implemented correctly and overseen by a manager with background in development, the basic principles of the scrum methodology can be quite useful. This is particularly true when it comes to motivating your team to be productive and efficient for short-term projects.

Though unintuitive at first glance and laden with esoteric jargon, Scrum is actually a lot less complicated than it sounds. Here’s Scrum, broken down into eight easy steps:

1. Create a checklist

The first step of the scrum methodology is to create a checklist of all the tasks your team needs to do, both immediately and in the future. This simple to-do list is called a backlog in Scrum lingo.

Your list should be as comprehensive as possible. Set aside time to think about all your possible tasks, and divide them up into their smallest parts. Breaking down your tasks helps you estimate how long it will take you to complete each one, and it also gives you a better understanding of which action items you should prioritize first.

Keep in mind that this list doesn’t need to be exhaustive; your team is free to add tasks to the backlog as new ideas arise and as your project evolves.

2. Decide which tasks you’ll tackle in the next two weeks

Once you’ve created your list of specific tasks, decide which of those tasks you need to get done in the next two weeks. Scrum lingo calls this short, two-week timeframe your sprint.

Dividing up your project by sprints creates a sense of urgency. As you race against the clock to beat your two-week deadline, you can think of each sprint as a fun challenge or even a game.

3. Plan your sprint

Once you determine which tasks you want to accomplish during your sprint, move them out of your backlog and onto a separate, short-term to-do list. Keep a record of your tasks through programs like Google Docs or Google Sheets, online project management platforms, or other digital tools.

It’s natural to have multiple backlogs of tasks that fall under a few different categories (in Scrum speak, these categories are called epics). You might have one backlog of tasks for improving your website, another backlog for funding efforts, and a third backlog for client projects. If that’s the case, decide what percentage of tasks from each area you want to devote to each sprint. For example, you might decide that 20% of the upcoming sprint will be devoted to site improvement, 30% will be devoted to funding efforts, and the remaining 50% to client projects.

However much time you choose to devote to each category, be sure your total number of tasks isn’t overly ambitious. Failing to accomplish most of your tasks during a sprint will only leave you discouraged. Challenge yourself, but be realistic in the number of tasks you choose.

4. Assign tasks to team members

Once you create the list of tasks you’ll accomplish during your sprint, allocate the tasks to your different team members. In order to avoid wasting precious time during the sprint, make sure each team member knows beforehand who is working on what.

Assigning tasks to team members also helps keep them motivated by giving everyone a sense of ownership. Each team member will feel personally responsible for completing her or his task, and the rest of the team will be holding them accountable for finishing that task before the two weeks is up.

5. Choose your priorities

While you should aim to accomplish all you can during a sprint, you should always leave room for the possibility that you won’t be able to get to everything. Complete your tasks in order of priority so that even when you don’t accomplish everything, you at least achieve your most urgent or most important goals. Clearly note the task’s level of priority on your task list — whether it’s low, medium, or high — so that you know which ones to tackle first.

6. Estimate a time frame for each task

Determine about how much time your team needs to do each task. This will help you get a better picture of the next two weeks, and it will also help you make sure you’ve chosen an appropriate number of tasks to complete during your sprint.

To get a proper estimate of the time, take into account the complexity of the task, planning and brainstorming, and the challenges or obstacles you might encounter along the way.

Once you determine your priorities and short-term timeline, it’s time to begin your two-week sprint!

7. Have short daily meetings

Throughout your sprint, have short, daily team meetings at the beginning of each workday. In Scrum lingo, these 10–15 meetings are called daily stand-ups, or dailies for short.

During these super short standing meetings, your team will talk about what each person needs to work on that day. You’ll also discuss what you accomplished the previous day, as well as any challenges or problems you faced.

The trick is to hold meaningful, informative meetings while being careful not to go over the time limit. You can improve your dailies by:

• Focusing on progress: Make sure that your team isn’t simply continuing yesterday’s tasks, but that they’re instead moving forward to new tasks. Figure out how many new tasks your team members are beginning that day, and add them all up to get a clearer picture of the team’s daily progress.
• Communicating clearly and precisely: Avoid general statements like “Yesterday I worked on the client’s website.” Instead, break that task down into even smaller tasks so that you can give a more specific account of what, exactly, you did.
• Saving in-depth discussion for later: When team members bring up a challenge that’s holding them back or an obstacle that prevented them from completing an assigned task, it’s tempting to follow up with questions or a discussion about how to improve. But this only distracts from your daily stand-ups and adds unnecessary time to the meeting. Rather than delve into an in-depth discussion right then and there, jot down the issue and bring it up later with the relevant team members.

8. Celebrate and reflect

When the two weeks is up, sit together as a team and celebrate the end of your sprint! Celebrating your accomplishments is a great way to keep your team energized and motivated.

You should also use the celebratory gathering to have a light, casual discussion of the challenges your team faced. Take note of what went right, what went wrong, and how you can improve, and then use these ideas to begin planning your next sprint.