I've started reading Agile Software Development with Scrum. This is just the first few sections of the book, but I've tried to pull out key thoughts and instructions that can be skimmed over and later used as a benchmark.

Take a look at the other posts:

• Agile Software Development with Scrum

Background

A chicken and a pig are together when the chicken says, "Let's start a restaurant!" The pig thinks it over and says, "what do you want to call this restaurant?" The chicken says "Ham n' Eggs!"

The pig says, "no, thanks. I'd be committed but you'd only be involved!"

Team members commit to a goal and do the work that is required to meet it. They are called pigs becaue they, like the pigs in the joke, are comitted to the project. Everyone else is a chicken. Chickens can attend Daily Scrums, but they have to stand on the periphery. Chickens are not allowed to interfere with the meeting in any way.

The Meeting

The Scrum Master is responsible for ensuring that the daily scrum goes well. They help to minimise distractions so it keeps focussed and quick.

Every team member must arrive on time for each Daily Scrum. The meeting starts promptly even if people aren't there.

Questions each team member answers:

• What have you done since last Scrum?
• What will you do between now and the next Scrum?
• What got in your way of doing any work?

Impediments

These are anything which is stopping a team member from achieving the agreed goal.

Here are a few examples, more of which are in the book.

• Workstation, network, and/or server down
• Need to attend hr or management meetings
• Asked by management to do something else
• Don't know how to proceed
• Unsure of a design decision

The Scrum Master's top priority is removing impediments. Impediments are displayed on a wall visible by the team.

If open impediments get to be lengthy, this may indicate the larger organisation isn't supporting the team. In worst case scenarios the Scrum Master may have to cancel the sprint. This is a very powerful card to play.

Decisions

The team have full authority to make all of the decisions necessary to turn Product Backlog in to a Product Increment to meet the Sprint Goal.

Completed work has momentum and usually will be "good enough" or at the very least, it will be far better than nothing.