Before we get started, let us first have a clear understanding what is the purpose of this document. This is not a document that explains what is Scrum in detail. There are plenty of books that serve that purpose. My goal in writing this document is to explain the key topics of Scrum and to provide a practical perspective on how it was used on a project that requires us to implement fifteen commercial sites in the span of six months (For clarity and confidentiality sake going forward we will refer to “the project” as The Site Company Project or TSC project). There were upwards to 30+ resources with a mixture of onshore and offshore personnel. It was complex and a daunting project to say the least. And in all honesty, given with the timeframe and scope, the TSC Project would’ve been almost impossible to implement if it weren’t for an agile practice such as Scrum.
Scrum is less of a methodology but more of a framework. Therefore, this is can never be a How-To-Guide that you can easily follow and replicate from one project to another. It’s a framework in a sense that there are major pillar points that can be applied, with minor modification, from one Scrum project to another. Each chapter in the document explains briefly the major pillar points of Scrum as it relates to the TSC Project. You may notice that each topic are structured in a very consistent and methodological manner. This was done on purpose. It starts of with an Overview – brief key points in regards of the topic, then Examples – some actual scenario that happened through the course of the project and finally Lessons – a concise summary of what should be done going forward. In doing this, I hope that it makes it easier for readers to grasp the key details more efficiently.
My role in the project is the Product Owner. Briefly, in Scrum terms, Product Owner is the person that owns the product. Hence, he or she decides the definition of the user stories – the core element of scrum – that ultimately will be implemented by the development team, which eventually results to the finish product (i.e. the actual site). Besides the Scrum Master & Technical Lead, the Product Owner is one of key member of any Scrum-delivered project. Given with this perspective, I attempt to write this document in the hopes of providing a more practical perspective on how Scrum can be used.
In the end, hopefully in some way this helps you in your current or potential project that uses Scrum. If that is the case, then I did my part and I’m glad that I’ve made impact in some way. Well then… let’s get Scrumming!
— Paul Vincent Nolasco (pnolasco@adobe.com), November 30, 2012.
P.S. In all honesty, I’m still quite new practicing Scrum for CQ5 projects. However, regardless of my inexperience I intend to write this document hoping to capture the details I now know and share it to the community as soon as I can. And just like a Scrum project, I intend to “enhance” this document as lessons are learned and more practical details are deemed important to be included.
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