The Core of Agile Success Understanding the Five Scrum Values
If you're in charge of a Scrum Team, you probably know Scrum is a good way to manage projects. It's used a lot nowadays. But just using Scrum isn't enough. You must also know and use five important Scrum values to get all the good things out of it.
Think about these values like rules for your team. Just like how a company has rules they follow, Scrum Teams have these special rules called values. These values are like the building blocks of Scrum. If you want your projects to be as good as they can be, everyone on your team has to agree to follow these values.
Let's see these five Scrum values and why they are essential for a team. We'll also look at the difference between values and principles in Scrum.
What are the Five Scrum values?
They are commitment, focus, openness, respect, and courage. The Scrum guide says that using Scrum well means getting good at following these values.
Scrum is a way to handle tricky projects that need to change fast. That's why these values are super important for making a Scrum project work well. Each of these values helps the project succeed.
1. Commitment
The first Scrum value is commitment, and while it might seem simple, there's more to it. It's not just about showing up and doing what you're told. It's about sticking to the goals your team made together. That means trusting each other and doing their tasks well.
Leaders of Scrum Teams can help with commitment. They can plan things well and keep the team from getting distracted by changes or pressure.
2. Focus
Scrum has a special thing called a sprint. It's a set amount of time where the team works hard to finish a goal. To do this right, everyone must focus on their tasks and how they help them reach the Sprint Goal. Leaders can help the team stay focused by not giving them too many tasks simultaneously. Also, ensuring everyone participates in the Daily Scrum meeting helps everyone stay on track.
3. Openness
For a Scrum Team to do their best work quickly, every team member must be super honest about how things are going. The Daily Scrum meeting is where they talk about problems and fix them. But this can't happen if people keep problems to themselves. Also, team members should be ready to work together and see each other as important project parts.
Leaders, like Scrum Masters, can make openness easier. They should be honest with the team and give good feedback in the Daily Scrum meeting. This helps the team be honest, too, and work together better.
4. Respect
Respect is about treating everyone equally, regardless of age, Education, or origin. It doesn't matter who they are outside the Scrum Team – What matters is how well they work together for the team's goals. It's also about understanding and showing consideration for customers and others who care about the project.
In simple terms, respect means valuing each person's strengths, both in what they know and how they act. Respect helps people with different roles talk better and lets them take helpful feedback without getting upset.
5. Courage
Show courage by stepping out of your comfort zone to reach success. When you stick to the goal and think less about yourself, surprisingly, you can solve hard problems and make things happen. Speaking up and questioning how things are done can help the team improve during a sprint.
Are Scrum values and principles the same?
No, they are not the same. Scrum values and principles have different roles. The five Scrum values are guidelines for how team members should act, while Scrum principles are like outside rules that help make Scrum work well.
What are Scrum principles? Even though they're not officially in the Scrum guide, there are six Scrum principles:
- Empirical process control: Scrum Teams change as needed based on the project's requirements.
- Self-organization: Each team member manages their own tasks and completes them.
- Time-boxing: Teams have a set time for Sprint Planning, review, Daily Scrums, sprints, and retrospectives.
- Value-based prioritization: Team members start with the most important tasks.
- Inspection and adaptation: The team often checks to stay on track and makes changes as needed.
- Iterative development: The team keeps making things better by looking at what they're doing.
- Working collaboratively: Team members work together for the project's good. Trust is important for smooth communication. Everyone focuses on the project, not personal issues.
Conclusion
Scrum values are really good qualities that everyone on a team should have. When you embrace these values, they can help you tackle tough tasks and improve your teamwork. They also make your decisions clearer. These values are like the rules that shape how a Scrum Team works.
Reference
- https://nulab.com/learn/project-management/what-are-the-5-scrum-values-and-why-are-they-important/
- https://www.wrike.com/blog/scrum-values-guide/
