Pyae Thuta - BlogComponents of SCRUM: The 3-4-3 Breakdown
July 10, 2024 ⋅ 10 mins read
3-4-3 of SCRUM
The SCRUM, an agile project management framework helps teams to work with a mindset which emphasizes lean thinking and empiricism control while supporting collaborative, transparent and iterative working nature. Being a popular framework, there are several blogs and articles demonstrating different tools and techniques of SCRUM which may cause some confusions to the newbies. In this article, we will dive to the 3-4-3 structure of SCRUM which provides a concise framework for better understanding of SCRUM’s essential components. (It’s sometimes called 3-5-3 structure when sprints are also considered as events)
The 3-4-3 is a solid and one of the quickest ways to understand SCRUM. It describes that SCRUM Framework is based on 3 Roles, 4 Events and 3 Artifacts.
3 Roles
Product Owner: Product owner known as value maximizer, will prioritize on the Product Backlog. Product owner is responsible for prioritizing the backlogs items by evaluating the value of each backlog items. A product owner is neither team leader nor a decision maker. But a product owner has the right to decide the value of product. He should be able to provide guidance to team and make sure that team vision is aligned with product value.
Scrum Master: A scrum master is a coach and a mentor for making sure that the team is following SCRUM practices. SM will guide a SCRUM team to bypass the impediments and look for innovative approaches to provide smoother workflow. He will encourage the team by making continuous improvement and delivering values.
Development Team: A group of self-organized and cross-functional professionals who work together to build a product and delivery best quality products. Team members can have different roles and responsibilities such as developers, designers, business analysts, testers, etc. Based on the scope of product, a development team can have around 10 members. The whole team is responsible for following the guidance of SM and building the products that align with vision of PO.
4 Events
Sprint Planning: The development team and product owner work together to identify what to focus and prioritize in order to build a plan on how to efficiently delivery the tasks. Sprint plannings are mandatory that they are ‘formal agreement’ on the deliverables and priorities. Sprint planning meeting should not time more than 8 hours for 1 month sprint time box.
Daily Scrum: A 15-minute daily meeting, normally at the beginning of working hour, to discuss the progress, impediments, dependencies, etc. Daily scrums not only provide the transparency but also provide a rapid feedback loop. Each team members can understand the current progress and adapt the changes.
Sprint Review: Sprint Review is a showcase of completed tasks and deliverables to the stakeholders. In this way we can get the insights and feedback whether we need improvements or not. It also helps us to evaluate the outcomes and align the outcomes with the clients’ needs. 4 hours of sprint review time box will be needed for 1 month sprint.
Sprint Retrospective: The whole SCRUM team gathered and discuss how a sprint was done during a 3-hour long sprint retrospective. During this time, they discuss on how to make improvements in the next sprint. The main goal of a retrospective is to discuss the action items that can provide better workflow in next sprint.
3 Artifacts
Product Backlog: Product backlog is an up-to-date vision of Product Owner which is maintained continuously. Product owner regularly updates the product backlog by prioritizing the items with high value.
Sprint Backlog: While product backlogs contain visions, a sprint backlog has the task of development team which are considered to be finished during current sprint. The development team define the backlog items.
Product Increment: Product increment is an outcome of a sprint. A set of completed tasks during a sprint which are reviewed and approved by stakeholders, especially Product Owner. The product increment is a working and usable part of a product that delivers value to clients.
Conclusion
Remember, following the 3-4-3 structure of SCRUM is not just about ticking boxes. It’s about unlocking the full potential of SCRUM and faster understanding of SCRUM practices. You may find some articles with 3-5-3 structure in which sprints are considered as events. It’s also a correct structure of SCRUM. Embrace these components, iterate and enjoy the speed and benefits observed in high-performing SCRUM team.
(First published on 2024-07-10)
by Pyae Thuta
Co-Author and Editor: May Thu Htun
#SCRUM #343Structure