How to Deliver High Value Software Features in a Short Time Period using Agile Scrum Process

What is the Agile Scrum (Sprint) Process?

Before getting into the details of this topic, it is important to understand the basic meaning of ‘Agile’, ‘Agile Development Process’, ‘Scrum’ and ‘Sprint’.

The meaning of the word Agile is “able to move quickly and easily.” The same applies when it comes to software development. Agile is a method of project management (mainly Software Development) that is characterized by the division of tasks into short phases of work and frequent reassessment and adaptation of plans.

How to Deliver High Value Software Features

Agile Scrum (Sprint) Process

There is an Agile manifesto that says what approaches do and don’t work for software development.

Any development process that follows the concepts Agile manifesto is referred to as Agile development. Scrum is nothing but one such process only. It is a light-weight process framework for Agile development.

Scrum is a software development process based on Agile methodology. We can say that it is a subset of Agile. In today’s rapid world, stakeholders want an immediate return on their investments. They don’t want to wait for long periods to get the fully-featured product.

As a result, nowadays new Software Development and Testing frameworks are catching momentum i.e. Scrum approach. In Scrum, projects are divided into small tasks that are to be developed and tested in specific time-frames called a Sprint (small cycles).

Literally, the word Sprint means ‘run at full speed over a short distance’. The same concept applies here. In Sprint, we aim for rapid completion and review of specific planned tasks while maintaining high quality at the same time. The Agile scrum team is handled by the Scrum master.

sprint

Scrum is an iterative and incremental framework for projects, products and application development. Scrum has become a more and more popular software development and testing framework among organizations.

Many small to large-sized IT companies have embraced the Scrum framework as this creates excellent quality products in less time than other traditional methodologies like waterfall processes.

This framework can save both the company’s time as well as money. It significantly increases productivity and reduces time to benefits relative to the other processes of software development. It also allows organizations to cope up better with the change.

agile scrum sprint process

Having had a basic idea of the Agile Scrum(Sprint) process now, let us move towards having a look at the soft skills that can help you in delivering high-value software features in a short time period.

Soft Skills for the Scrum Team

What Soft Skills are required for a Successful Scrum Team?

When we start our regular (Agile) sprints (Cycles of work), we usually find some of the challenges with our team members. These challenges are not part of the technical difficulties. It usually occurs with the team member’s mindset or their soft skills.

Many successful Scrum projects have taught us that the success of a scrum depends on how team members are supported wholeheartedly towards Sprint.

Let’s discuss some of the pre-requisite soft skills for the Scrum Team.

Team Spirit

team-management1

Cross-functional teamwork is at the heart of Scrum.  There is no “my work”, “I have finished my work” and “your work”. In a Scrum team, we find people saying things like only “Our work”, “we have completed our Sprint”.

Individuals will have a helping tendency for sharing technical knowledge. Scrum Members are always available to team members rather than being locked away behind closed doors.  Scrum Master will always motivate the teams and create a Supporting Learning Environment.

The team will always be sprint-oriented and often discuss the smooth run of the sprint. A scrum team’s job is to self-organize around the challenges and the management’s job is to remove impediments to self-organization.

Communication

communication-in-agile-software-development3

Good communication must exist among the team members of the development team, testing team, business analysts and stakeholders. There must be a highly collaborative interaction between the client and the delivery teams.

More client involvement implies more suggestions or changes from the client.  It implies more bandwidth for communication.

Commitment

Commitment is one of the core scrum values.

scrum-values

Agile Teams need periodic re-energization to renew their commitments to their purpose and to each other.  Scrum Masters can help by ensuring that the team embraces the concept of whole-team responsibility and whole-team commitment to deliver working software at the end of each sprint.

With the whole team commitment, the team member who has completed his tasks will help the one who has not yet completed so that hopefully each team finishes the assigned tasks on time.

Problem Solving

Scrum does not simply focus on developing just any type of end product.  Instead, the Scrum method allows the team to focus on creating a product that fulfills the customer’s highest value priorities which are defined by product owners.

Transparency

Transparency or openness among team members and management gives a real momentum to the scrum team.

Scrum Master encourages people to ask for help, surface roadblocks, and give recognition to those who help others and solve problems. At the same time, Scrum Master also understands the time wasted and the impact on the team when individuals sit ideally or ignore problems.

Transparency

Scrum Result

If the Scrum team follows the above said soft skills, the team velocity will tend to increase significantly.  In turn, customers will appreciate the results or updates and also can react quickly to any potential problems.

The team can deliver high-value software features in a short time period and the team can contribute towards changing business conditions.

Useful Reads

About Author: J.B.Rajkumar is a Certified Scrum Master (CSM) with rich experience in the Agile/Scrum framework. He has worked as Corporate Trainer, Project Lead, QA Manager and QC Manager. He has implemented Scrum in no. of projects in his current organization.

He is a frequent speaker on Agile/Scrum for International Conferences, Colleges, Universities and Software Industries. He conducts training on Scrum and Agile Testing.  Presently he is with Automation Practice, one of the top MNCs.

If you have queries about Agile/Scrum/Sprint Software Development and the Testing process then please share them in the comments below.

If you also wish to write a guest article on this website, please read our Guest Article guidelines!

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85 thoughts on “How to Deliver High Value Software Features in a Short Time Period using Agile Scrum Process”

  1. As a Testes what are the roles shuld follow.

    Reply
  2. Very informative article, i like it a lot.
    I am a Business Analyst previously a Black Box Tester.
    Black Box Testers have not so much technical knowledge that they can help devs. So what should be the approach of a black box tester in a Scrum Team?
    Help other testers to finish off the Sprint within time.

    Reply
  3. Can you please brief what are the testing methodology we should follow in Scrum Software development process

    Reply
  4. Agile Scrum processes are very effective methods for delivering quality features quickly if managed effectively.

    My story of sprint development:

    Initially we were following traditional waterfall methods to develop a complete feature rich product in one shot. Deadline for this was 1 year. But when 6 months passed we realized we are lagging behind schedule. But it was too late to recover and we hit badly by stakeholders.

    Then we revisited the project plan, discussed it with stakeholders and came to the conclusion of Sprint development.

    Now we are successfully delivering the product features within short duration of time of 2-3 weeks. This is adding huge benefit to stakeholders and they are happy with current work now.

    Thanks to agile scrum and sprint!

    Reply
  5. useful one

    Reply
  6. How do you handle the cost control and is it handled by the scrum master?

    Reply
  7. Very well said, but i also i want to understand from Testing point of view, where we fit in?

    Reply
  8. Scrum Team consists of 5 to 9 members. (Eg.) In a 7 member team, there may be 4 developers 2 testers and 1 Scrum Master(cross-functional). In the team, there is no hierarchy like Manager/Senior/Junior. Everybody belongs to Scrum Team and everybody works towards the goal. If a dev guy is good in automated testing scripts, he will help in testing area and if a testing guy is good in developing UI part, he will support for that. There is no sepeate testing phase as in waterfall. One Sprint consists of Designing, Developing,testing, implementing and releasing of highly prioritized features.

    Reply
  9. I am a test engineer. Very recently our team moved into Scrum process. In the scrum team I am purely doing QA related work only. I want to know what kind of QA related documents we need to maintain in a sprint.

    Reply
  10. @ Rajkumar–What is benefit of using Sprint or in other word what is objective behind adopting Sprint??

    Reply
  11. @ Vishal

    1. It saves time and cost
    2. More Team collaboration
    3. Better quality product
    4. Ultimately Customer will be more happy for early working product.
    5. Defects will be visible in the early stage

    Reply
  12. Nice collection!I am really very impress with your post.Thanks for the share!Waiting for your next upcoming post.

    Reply
  13. Hi
    could you please provide your feedback as what to be followed for software tester ( Freshers )

    Reply
  14. Nice work. Really a nice article which drive us in clear road on SCURM. Thanks to J.B.Rajkumar.

    Wishes…!!!

    Reply
  15. Hi,

    Nice article :). However, my tiny brain is looking for more logic behind this method.

    I agree with the fact that if a bunch of members that include the testing and the development arena work together, a transparency builds up and it is really helpful to sort out matters.

    If I take an example where my project deals with a website (to be built from scratch), how do you think the scrum approach can be applied?

    If there are say ‘N’ modules and you intend to develop and test each module separately, I believe that the integration process may encounter more issues than ever.

    In short, my question would be “Is this approach better to be used for smaller projects or can this be used for any kind of project or is this approach better to be used only when we have less time in hand and a bigger thing to be delivered?” I may have gone wrong in understanding the details in depth but any information on this would be highly appreciable :)…

    Thanks in advance..

    Thanks in advance :)…

    Reply
  16. @Sumeet

    1. Scrum can be applied to any size of software/product. There are lot of success stories while implementing scrum in large projects than small projects.

    2. Integration need not be happened only at the end. If A and B need to integrated before C started, it can be done. Its only team’s (consensus) decision when can it be done.

    3. “less time in hand and a bigger thing to be delivered” … Scrum team should not bring the project into this situation.

    Reply
  17. That was helpful. Thanks a ton sir :)…

    Reply
  18. This article is good to get acquianted to Agile methodology. But i landed into certain confusion.
    How is agile methodology different from Spiral and other incremental models ?
    Please clarify.

    Reply
  19. hey , nice blog , like it ,
    won’t be nice if i u can clickover to my blog page too ,
    & post some suggestion

    Reply
  20. Hey Guys,

    Could you please give me the list of roles andresponsibilities of Teast Lead on Agile dev process.

    Reply
  21. Hey Guys,

    Could you please give me the list of roles and responsibilities of Test Lead in Agile dev process?

    Reply
  22. Please give me the different types of test cases & explain?

    Reply
  23. What is an exact role of a tester? What are the documents he has to prepare? Please explain it in detail….

    Reply
  24. – embrace each other with warm welcome.
    – don’t forget to write appreciate word for eachother work.
    – last but not least clear and anticipated communication

    Reply
  25. HI Could you pls explain about Agile/XP SDLC

    Reply
  26. Can anybody send me a Agile model or any flow chart?

    Reply
  27. will agile scrum model gives a better quality product. how its quality factor is different from other models

    Reply
  28. as a teser what should we have to do?&Is automation is nessessary?how many tools we have to learn?

    Reply
  29. @Rajkumar – Very nice article. It was useful in understanding the agile process. However, I have one clarification. If the application is already in use by the customers and when we do enhancements to the application requested by the customers, how can we implement Scrum model?

    Reply
  30. What are the testing methodology and documents used in scrum model?

    Is it necessary for me (black box tester) to undergo any training program to work in an organization which has adopted this method?

    Reply
  31. @Puspanjali – Scrum team can decide what are all the testing documents needed for the project. There is no specific rules that these many documents should be followed.

    @Sushitha – Still you can adapt Scrum provided the product owner agress for that.

    Reply
  32. @Rajkumar – Thanks, Very nice article. It was useful in understanding the agile process. We have a product which is already in use by the customers and when we do enhancements to the application requested by the customers, how can we implement Scrum model? & what kind of QA related documents we need to maintain in a sprint.

    Reply
  33. Can you please explain What is ‘Agile Methodology’?
    In software testing how ‘Agile methodology’ is used?

    Reply
  34. Hi, how can i reach you, can you provide us ur email id! that will b vry great full. Thanks

    Reply
  35. Recently we decided to go for small but rapid releases (something close to scrum) but I feel that in such techniques Regression Testing consumes more time because it needs to be repeated with each build. How to tackle it?

    Reply
  36. Master scrum can have multiple sprints in Agile (Scrum) methodology. One has its start and end date. What is standard naming convention for each sprint? Thanks in advance.

    If any one of you can paste any example, it will be highly appreciable.

    Reply
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  38. Rajkumar Nice Article. Thanks.
    We have some clarification on the same. Can u pls clarify?
    This describes only about the overall process, it arises some questions like what type of approch will have for testing team in the scrum process. What testing framework we have adopt during this process and how to overcome the risks that affected during the process when it is compared with the normal testing process.

    Thanks in Advance…

    Reply
  39. Hi Rajkumar,

    Do we have any course/training to become a scrum master?

    Reply
  40. pretty helpful!

    Reply
  41. @Puspanjali – Scrum team can decide what are all the testing documents needed for the project. There is no specific rules that these many documents should be followed. @Sushitha – Still you can adapt Scrum provided the product owner agress for that.

    Reply
  42. Hi
    This is really innovative information for me and other aspirant .I would like to give my sincere thanks for a lot information about Agile Testing,scrum and sprint. I would like to know practical info rather than theoretical about Agile.
    Thanks,

    Reply
  43. Nice article on Agile Scrum..

    Reply
  44. Typical scrum – GO TEAM!

    All icing and no cake.

    Reply
  45. Nice Article 🙂

    Reply
  46. It is a good article…
    i got more information,after reading of this article…
    Thank you…

    Reply
  47. Hi,
    Can you please tell what type of estimation techninque used for aglie testing? What are the test deliveriable are provided at the end of testing for agile testing

    Reply
  48. good article

    Reply
  49. What is the difference between Agile/ Scrum/ Sprint??

    Reply
  50. Hey Guys,

    Could you please give me the list of roles and responsibilities of Test Lead in Agile dev process?
    What are the documents a team lead need to prepare for Agile based testing

    Reply
  51. Hi
    This is really innovative information for me and other aspirant .I would like to give my sincere thanks for a lot information about Agile Testing

    Reply
  52. This is very nice article. Thanks a lot

    Reply
  53. can anybody tell me what is meant by CSS testing

    Reply
  54. can anybody tell me what is Rational Clear case and where we use in testing.

    Reply
  55. Please tell me about clear case?

    Reply
  56. sir,
    Hw would u say tat this process is better than other process… can u pls giv me an example

    Reply
  57. Very Informative but i have a clarification here

    Do we have “Risk” in Scrum(Agile)? if so how mitigation is handled ?

    Reply
  58. Very Nice Article.
    i have a small confusion that, in this process how ca we reduce the project delivery time line. Phase by testing may increase the time line.

    Reply
  59. Nice Article, just one quick question, what if one or more items are incomplete (development or testing is in progress) in a sprint and next sprint is ready for execution?

    Reply
  60. Hi
    Nice article.I need a answer for how a day starts in an agile scrum process? please.

    Reply
  61. I appreciate the effort taken by Mr rajkumar to highlight the salient points of agile testing and its advantages for general benefit.I am a marketing person with 25 of expertise and interested in an environment which encourages team work, which has become redundant these days. For want of corporate concept the companies are having problems to survive.
    great work. Thanks

    Reply
  62. I appreciate the effort taken by Mr rajkumar to highlight the salient points of agile testing and its advantages for general benefit.I am a marketing person with 25 of expertise and interested in an environment which encourages team work for optimum out put, which unfortunately has become redundant these days. For want of corporate concept the companies are having problems to survive.
    great work. Thanks

    Reply
  63. can u pls tell me the methodoligies and the process that is involved in scrum testing in brief.

    thank u waiting for ur reply

    Reply
  64. +1 on last post

    Reply
  65. Can scrum have minimum or maximum members?

    Reply
  66. very good article, can anyone has real time examples ???

    Reply
  67. Hi,
    How to Performed security testing of basic levels in the Finance Tracker application??

    If someone help me..

    Thanks
    JD

    Reply
  68. i love you dear

    Reply
  69. papa pandu

    Reply
  70. chudri ha ha

    Reply
  71. goobal choudariiiiiiiiiii :-)vogi kuthmadu

    gunnamadtini ninge

    Reply
  72. how can we handle regression piece in agile methodology

    Reply
  73. i find this article and the posts by Mr Raj Kumar extremely helpful since we are adopting almost everything mentioned here like agile method/sprint/scrum etc.but i need inputs regarding the most modern trends/additions to agile methodology so that we can adapt what suit us from among them.to be clear we are looking for information regarding hiw can the projects be streamlined(more)and estimates and risk reduction done more effectively.finally is agile mpre suited for product testing/services…Thanks

    Reply
  74. Good information about agile methodology

    Reply
  75. Its good information but too many companies are not following any of these methodologies..

    Thanks for posting

    Reply
  76. can you please tell us some test scenarios for regression testing,smoke testing,sanity testing and UAT

    Reply
  77. Scrum/Agile wat ever u call it has become a slavery nowadays.. team was heavily loaded and they need to work extra time to complete the tasks so that we cannot think of working on. previous sprints..

    Reply
  78. Thanks for all the comments and the knowledge sharing related to scrum. Can anyone guide me on TDD(Test Driven development). I would like to know in detail about the test driven development in Scrum Methedology. Thanks in advance for your answers.

    Best Regards,
    Harihara Prasath

    Reply
  79. I want to know about working of Agile Model in Testing and its related term .Kindly review me as soon as possible.

    Reply
  80. @sugar Seen that most of the time scrum master push too much stories ( tasks) into a sprint. A good scrum master would prioritize the stories to be developed for the sprint broken into sub-tasks. And then keep some of the other tasks in the parking lot. If during the sprint all the stories are completed, then items from the parking lot is picked. Refer Kanban model of agile for details.

    Reply
  81. @rimjhim there is no concept of separate testing in agile. Development & testing go hand in hand. While developers do coding for the task (story), testers write test cases. Once story developed, anyone from the team can execute test cases.

    Reply
  82. The explanation is clear. But from my understanding: Scrum testing we test the modules soon as it it done with the development. Actually with Unit testing also we do the same. We take a separate unit or functionality and validate it.

    please correct me if I’m wrong: Is the Scrum testing and Unit testing more or less the same?

    How can we differentiate between Scrum and Unit testing?

    Reply
  83. Agile testing methodology is automation or manual we can test?

    Reply
  84. Absolutely brilliant, thanks.

    Reply

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