What is a Scrum Board and How does it work?
A Scrum Board is the face of the Scrum Team's process and the Sprint's visual status. It makes the Sprint Backlog items visible for the group to track the work that is done, on-going work processes, and the future work which is to be completed. A Scrum board helps that team keep track of the workflow. The team members can customize the work process, which they feel is necessary while developing the Sprint. It splits the team's work into different stages of workflow such that the team could see a visual status of the Sprint. There are physical Scrum boards and virtual Scrum boards, depending on whether a Scrum board is physically present or present on the virtual screen. If a team is working in an environment where everyone is available, and everyone has access to the Scrum board, the physical Scrum board can be used. Here, a board is placed where it is visible for everyone, and each team member could easily update the status of their Sprint. However, in cases where the teams are distributed in a large space or may also be working from home or in different organizations, the virtual Scrum board plays an excellent role in showing the Sprint's status.
Before knowing about the Scrum board, professionals should first understand the Scrum concept and how it is used in Agile practices. Scrum is an iterative approach of developing products where complex problems and issues are broken down into more straightforward issues and solved in Sprints. The Scrum Developers creates an immediate product based on the Product Owner's description and priorities. Once a primary product is developed, it is released in the market. The Developers starts working on updating the product based on the customer's priorities and the relevant features for the market.
The Scrum Framework is one of the most used frameworks among the Agile practices and implemented in many companies due to the enormous benefits. The Developers delivers updates in the form of Sprints, enhancing the product, and continuously improving it to create a tough competition in the market. The group takes anytime upto one month duration of a Sprint where the ideal time is about two weeks. The Product Owner and Scrum Master hold different meetings such as Sprint Planning Retrospective, Daily Standups to create an efficient Sprint Development workflow.
What is a Scrum Board?
The Developers requires essential tools to develop a new Sprint based on the Sprint Backlog, which is where the Scrum board comes to play. The Scrum board segregates the work required to be done, in progress, and yet to be done and gives a visual map of the current status of the Scrum Team. Ideally, the Scrum board contents are- stories, To-do, in progress, and done.
The stories section contains all the user stories that need to be completed in the individual Sprint. These are stories present in the current Sprint Backlog, which needs to be divided into different tasks.
Section to-do refers to the Sprint Backlog items that are yet to be done but have not been started by any Scrum Team member. The Sprint Backlog objects in this section are to be finished in the current Sprint and have to be cleared for the Sprint to be successful.
The In-progress section refers to the Sprint Backlogs that the Scrum Team is currently working on. Here, the task mentioned in this section has been initiated by someone from the Scrum Developers , and the process is now going on.
The Done section refers to the Sprint Backlogs which are completed by the team and need to be worked upon. This suggests that the Sprint Backlog is ready to be tested after being developed.
These sections are crucial to keeping track of the Sprint Backlog of the product being developed as it gives a visual status of the work being done by the team. The Scrum board saves a lot of time for all the Scrum Team members as nobody has to ask physically about the Sprint Backlogs that they should work on or whichever is completed. This helps in faster product development and delivery and continuous development, which would give complete customer satisfaction. The Scrum board acts as a constant cheerleader by encouraging the team to complete the work and finish the Sprint on time. Even if the unit is not looking at the Scrum board, they are talking about it most of the time.
Types of Scrum Boards
There may be two types of Scrum boards based on the availability and feasibility of the Scrum Team. They are the physical Scrum board and the virtual Scrum board.
Physical Scrum Board
If the Scrum Team is working in an environment dedicated to them where they are not disturbed by other members of the organization, they can set up a physical Scrum board at a place that is visible for everyone on the team.
The Scrum board's physical availability makes a difference in the work environment and encourages the developers to complete the Sprint on time and clear all the Sprint Backlogs.
The Scrum board can be a constant reminder for the team to keep working harder and track the number of hours they have to allot to complete the pending Sprints every day.
Virtual Scrum Board
The virtual Scrum boards are used when all of the teams are not available at the organization, and most of them are working remotely from different places and sometimes time zones.
These kinds of Scrum boards become helpful during situations where the employees have to work from home and need to keep track of the Sprint development's current status.
Hence, both the types of Scrum boards equally contribute to the success of any particular Sprint Developments.
How to use a Scrum Board?
The Scrum board is an easy to use tool that can be useful for many Scrum Teams to improve their efficiency. Here are a few steps that will allow the Scrum Teams to use the Scrum board to develop the product faster and identify problem areas more quickly.
Step 1: Identify user stories
During the Sprint Planning meeting, the Scrum Team, which includes the Scrum Developers and the Product Owner, should prioritize the Product Backlog items and choose the required things for their current Sprint. This Scrum Event is the start of the development of a new Sprint, and all the Sprint related queries are solved so that the team has a clear idea about the Product Backlog items that become the Sprint Backlog. The selected items become the user stories that the team has to work on to complete the Sprint.
Step 2: Assign the tasks
The Sprint Backlog items are the user stories that are split into individual tasks that need to be completed by each member of the Scrum Team. These individual tasks are moved to the to-do section of the Scrum board, and the Developers is assigned each task to be completed.
Step 3: Working on project tasks
The Developers members gradually take up the individual tasks present on the Scrum board, and the items whichever they chose moves from the to-do section to the in-progress area of the Scrum board. The Developers works on the project tasks assigned to them and, after completion, takes up new tasks available on the to-do list of the Scrum board. The Daily Standup Meetings are held every day so that the Scrum Team knows each individual's status on the team. The Scrum board can be updated with more to-do items if necessary or try to work on the Scrum board's tasks. The Scrum Master reviews the tasks continuously and adjusts if any changes are required to the developed tasks.
Step 4: Finish all the tasks
Whenever a team member finishes a task, the task moves from the in-progress section to the Scrum board's done section. In this case, the team member has to go back to the to-do section and pick up a new task to be completed. This process continues throughout the Sprint, and the Developers members have to complete all the user stories present in the to-do list. Hence, eventually, all the items on the shift from to-do to done indicate that the current Sprint is completed.
Step 5: Sprint Reviewing
At the end of the Sprint, a Sprint Review meeting is held where all the Sprint members, along with the Scrum Master and the Stakeholders, review the Sprint and look at what all tasks are completed (and what all are not completed). The Scrum Master asks whether there is any problem or impediments the team faces during the development of the Sprint and provides solutions to it. After the Sprint is reviewed, it is ready to be released in the market and for the team to take up their next Sprint.
Conclusion
The Scrum board, though is not a core Scrum consent suggested in the Scrum Guide, became an integral part of the Sprint development, which provides a visual status of the on-going Sprint to all the Scrum Team members. The Developers can gather around the Scrum board and analyze who handles particular tasks, which tasks have been completed to date, and where problems are being faced that require help to finish it. This increases collaboration among the team members and helps them to be productive in their work. Also, using the Scrum board has become easy, and anyone of the Scrum Team can use it without knowing many technical terms or jargons. The Scrum board proves to be one of the crucial yet straightforward tools that must be employed by Scrum Teams to deliver productive work for their organization and help in maximizing their revenue and business value.
References
- https://www.Scrum.org/resources/Scrum-glossary
- https://www.Scruminc.com/Scrum-board/
- https://www.zoho.com/Sprints/what-is-a-Scrum-board.html
