All the major high ranking industries are already functioning on Agile and the remaining ones are in the process of transitioning to this methodology. No wonder, Scrum has substantially conquered the mindsets of the Engineers and IT Specialists alike.
It has become so ingrained in the thought process that the managers even do not bother to stop and contemplate that if they are going well with the principles of Agile and more importantly if the project is conducive with this approach? It is only when the end result comes that they are able to get around the problematic issues. Quite obviously, it’s too late by then!
Here’s where CSM Training comes into the picture. With the right knowledge base and practical abilities, you are able to make a clear-cut distinction if the processes are in line with Agile and moving in the right direction. CSM Courses are built around the clear-cut concepts which are essential to sharpen the mind and provide you with the requisite information to make appreciable progress in the project timeline management, quality as well as productivity.
In order to be a successful Scrum Master, you need to get rid of the commonly assumed misconceptions to avoid any sort of issue during the project execution phase.
Let us take you through these wrong practices which you must avoid at any cost.
- Value Is Synonymous To The Speed: In simpler terms as per this misconception, if the velocity at which the job is being finished is good then it automatically translates to the achievement!
This statement in itself is so incorrect on different fronts.
For example, let us say one of the modules of the project is creating the Graphical User Interface. Now, this particular module is getting completed fast at an appreciable speed. Fair enough! But, how does it take you closer to the complete project’s submission date? For the timely submission, every element has to work in sync to achieve the final goal.
Similarly, when Scrum Meetings are conducted, a short review of the work valuation is done. Suppose, the team’s last day efforts contributed to 5% of the final goal, that is great! Yet, your idea of value and velocity should not merge.
The fact is, velocity indeed leads to the value. However, achieving velocity during the interim phase doesn’t guarantee value. For any project to succeed, all the relevant elements need to work in tandem.
- Sprint Zero Is Necessary: This is a widely practiced misconception of Scrum.
In fact, it has become some sort of a norm to have a blank Sprint where the concerned teams need to do a sort of rehearsal in order to get warmed up to the idea of the project.
Honestly speaking, this practice goes completely against the ideology behind the Agile and Scrum.
It is the pressure which is unnecessarily built on the engineers by the Company, managers, client or sometimes the stakeholders to show some progress on the project from the day 1 or the first seven days of bagging it.
The term Sprint zero is coined just as a means to build confidence and start the groundwork at the earliest by putting the teams under forced coercion.
It is important to understand that in Agile, things move in a procedural pattern. Any sort of hastiness can cause more damage than good.
To address this problem, the onus is on the company to build a clear communication channel with the client.
All the stakeholders need to be duly apprised of the project cycle and how the planning phase is crucial. It is also important to genuinely put across how Sprint 0 is not the right way to approach things.
- Completing Sprint Backlog is Mandatory: This is again so not true! Read on to know why?
A Sprint backlog can be termed as a bundle of tasks that were to be completed in a particular sprint.
There are majorly two reasons why these may remain incomplete.
- Issues in planning
- Unexpected Capacity Exhaustion due to some reason.
You cannot make your team slog weekends or put in extra hours to finish tasks. Ideally, these should be moved onto the future sprints to address them in another schedule.
- Backlog Completion Translates To The Project Success: In Scrum, the success of a project is valued by the quality and value of the end product.
Simply, completing a set of tasks doesn’t in any way count as an accomplishment unless of course, it leads to the quality product.
Do keep track of these misconceptions and pitfalls when you are handling your next Agile project.
