Agile Project Management
Scrum is one of the agile methodologies designed to help teams using the incremental product delivery approach (Sliger, 2011). Scrum application follows a set of meetings also known as ceremonies. These ceremonies include the sprint planning meeting, the daily scrum, and the sprint review. These meetings have specific people who attend them. For instance, the scrum planning meeting, which is help on the first day of every sprint has the scrum master, the product owner, and the team in attendance.
The product owner presents the “what” aspect which includes the features he or she would like to see accomplished. The product owner also ensures that all requirements of the backlog are prepared before the meeting. In agile project management, backlog refers to a list of all the things that need to be done for a project to ne complete. In software projects where scrum is usually employed, backlog is presented to the team as a list or task board. Among all the ceremonies, the scrum planning meeting is the most important for the product owner.
The scrum master is another party that attends the scrum planning meeting. The role of the scrum master is to facilitate the sprint planning ceremony by ensuring meeting rooms are book, the necessary supplies are available and the people are prepared (Noll et al., 2017). The scrum master also ensures that the connectivity required to make the meeting successful is available. Additionally, the scrum master must manage time efficiently to ensure there is complete alignment on the sprint objective before the ceremony ends. For one to qualify as a scrum master, he or she must complete three essential steps. One is to familiarize with scrum and complete requirements for attending a CSM course. Then the person should attend CSM course that is taught by a scrum trainer. The course is attended in-person. The person then qualifies as a scrum master on passing a CSM exam with a 37 out of 50 pass mark.
References
Noll, J., Abdur, M.R., Bass, M.J., & Beecham, S. (2017). A Study of the Scrum Master’s Role.
Sliger, M. (2011). Agile project management with Scrum. Paper presented at PMI® Global
Congress 2011—North America, Dallas, TX. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management
Institute.