When I first encountered agile development, I found it hard to understand. Okay, I might not be the brightest person you’ve ever met! But I’m not stupid either, I think 🙂

There’s a myriad of different approaches, principles, methods and terms, all of which are characterised as ‘Agile’. And from my perspective, all this ‘noise’ makes agile software development sound far harder, far more scientific, and far more confusing than it really needs to be.

For this reason, I favour the Scrum agile methodology. Admittedly there’s a bit of jargon to learn. But otherwise Scrum provides what is fundamentally a very simple way of managing software development more effectively.

Sure, it’s great to have a deep understanding of the underlying values and principles of agile development.

Sure, it’s great to have a thorough understanding of why Scrum works.

Sure, it’s great to know lots of case studies where Scrum has been applied and try to relate them to your own individual situation.

But, fundamentally, I believe you can implement Scrum without all this knowledge. And still find many benefits and have a very positive experience of agile development.

In these 10 posts, I outline specifically how to implement Scrum in 10 easy steps:

– Step #1: Get your backlog in order!
– Step #2: How to estimate your product backlog
– Step #3: Sprint Planning/clarify requirements
– Step #4: Sprint Planning/estimate tasks
– Step #5: Create a collaborative workspace
– Step #6: Sprint!
– Step #7: Stand up and be counted!
– Step #8: Track progress with a daily burndown chart
– Step #9: Finish when you said you would
– Step #10: Review, reflect, repeat…

Kelly.

See also:
‘Implementing Scrum’ PowerPoint Presentation
10 Key Principles of Agile Software Development