All You Need To Know About Agile Scrum Artifacts
If you're looking for software development outsourcing services online, you've probably read through the Agile scrum methodology concept in almost every software outsourcing service provider's website. That is because Agile scrum methodology is one of the most commonly used method nowadays.
According to the Business News Daily, Scrum is a framework that allows more effective collaborations between teams working on complex project. Reading about Scrum, we're sure that you've come upon the term Agile Scrum Artifacts.
Now, when it comes to artifacts, people commonly associate it with archaeological sites or ancient relics. However, in software development world, scrum artefacts refers to a required piece of data that displays jobs or values in many useful ways to provide transparency as well as opportunity for inspection and adaptation.
Agile has its unique byproducts, which emerge from the experience of planning, developing, tracking and repeating tasks to building software.
This article will provide you with all information about scrum artifacts. Let’s find out:
Scrum artifacts: What are they and what they do?
Agule scrum artifacts are document used by scrum teams and stakeholders to describe the product being built, the steps taken to create it, and the actions taken during the project.
Scrum artifact is metadata that help software development team to better understand sprint performance. They are indispensable tools for all scrum teams as they allow and support core scrum characteristics of transparency, inspection, and adaptation.
In Agile development methodologies, when we say scrum artifacts, most of the time we talk about the product backlog, the sprint backlog, and product increment.
Artifacts are created in each scrum sprint activities:
- Plan future work and your objectives/goals.
- Make a list of tasks to accomplish these objectives.
- Sort tasks into sprints based on their importance and dependencies.
- Complete the tasks.
- Review and assess the findings to see how they do compare to the objectives/goals.
- Rep these steps as needed.
What is product backlog?
The product backlog is list of new features, additions and improvements, bug repairs, tasks or work requirements that must be included in the development of a product. It is aggregated from input sources such as customer support, competitor analysis, marketing demand, etc.
The product backlog will be updated on demand frequently as soon as new data becomes available. It's a cross-team backlog that the product owner maintains and curates between sprint cycles and as new ideas occur. It contains activities that were formerly part of an active sprint but have been deprioritized and relegated to the backlog.
What is sprint backlog?
Sprint backlog is a list of tasks needed to be done, derived from the product backlog. These tasks are created by the software development teams to plan deliverables for future enhancements and to explain the work required in detail.
The software engineering team selects and break tasks into smaller and more feasible-to-tackle chunk.For instance, when developing a artificial intelligence virtual assistant, the product backlog is where main tasks located while sprint backlog includes other supporting tasks like "design a visual mockup for AI-chat virtual assistance".
During the scrum sprint planning phase, the sprint backlog is updated. Smaller sprint responsibilities are delegated to appropriate teams, such as design and development. If a team is unable to complete all of the sprint tasks, the remaining sprint tasks will be placed on hold in the sprint backlog for a later sprint.
What is product increment?
A product increment is the a list of customer deliverables produced by completing product backlog tasks during the print. It also includes increments from all prior sprint increments. For each sprint, there is always one increment, which is set during the scrum planning phase.
Regardless of whether the team decides to release it to the customer, the increment will still happen. In version tracking and in some cases, version rollback, product increments are very useful and complementary to CI/CD.
All of team's effort should be linked with backlog items. For instance, fore each backlog item, create a branch and build.
Software development teams can gain more insight when integrating their version control and CI/CD into their scrum tracking software. They can also deduce which backlog items will be launched and sent to clients. This allows the team to look at commits in reverse and link them to a scrum increment to examine the code's history and planning.
Why are scrum artifacts important?
Besides the three mentioned artifacts, there are some other ones that you might want to know, including sprint burndown chart, product vision, definition of Done, increment, etc.
Scrum artifacts are valuable tools that help software development teams to work more effectively. Hence, it is critical that all team members have access to these artifacts and be able to see them.
Product owners and scrum master should review and discuss artifacts with their software team on a frequent basis. Eventually, this will help teams in remaining aware of operational inefficiencies and coming up with innovative solutions to increase velocity.
How to get started with Agile scrum artifacts?
Although scrum artifacts are extremly valuable, they are not required for an agile scrum process to succeed. Your software development team can utilize agile to preserve these byproducts without putting any extra effort, however they will not likely to gain any benefits.
So, if you and your software team want to get started with Agile scrum artifacts, using an agil task management solution with agile scrum artifacts built-in is the best approach.
Shall you need more information regarding Agile scrum artifacts or other custom software development methodologies or requirements, don't be hesitant to contact us to talk to one of our consultants
