MSIN0019 AGILE

ASSIGNMENT BLOG
Student number 17051020
 ‘Agile Blog Post’
‘Change your mind and your life will change’. In project development, there was a complete
change in mindset from ‘Waterfall’ to ‘Agile’ and it has enhanced life for the better in many
ways.

By using ‘Waterfall’, the traditional method, many project developers and companies had
difficult times to follow the market trends and make adjustments to their products. However,
the formation of ‘Agile’ totally changed this by allowing companies to obtain frequent
feedbacks and stronger understandings on the market trends (Varhol, 2018).

Agile is an object-oriented development that enhances customer satisfactions on the final

product. In order to execute Agile, there are many different technologies available including
‘Scrum’ (Cunningham, 2018).

At the end of this blog post, you will know more about Agile and Scrum and how they are
applied in the business.

What is ‘Agile’?

Figure 1: Agile Development Process (Tushar, 2018)

Agile Software Development is a software development method, which portions out the
developing phases into several functions; requirements, plan, design, develop, release, track &
monitor. The project stakeholders iterate the whole phase for every functionality, aiming to
produce the maximum output in terms of functionality. At the end of each phase, the product
prototypes are depicted to all the project stakeholders. This allows the developers to gain
frequent feedbacks and produce highly satisficed product, with higher team efficiency.

1
Core beliefs of Agile
According to AgileAlliance, there are 12 principles of Agile that reflects its core beliefs (Agile
Alliance, 2018):

1. Agile aims to produce highly customer satisfied product through continuous delivery
of the development status to the stakeholders
2. Similarly, Agile aims to deliver the software frequently to the customers
3. The Agile team aims to be openminded with making adjustments on the project
requirements, at any time throughout the project
4. Every developer is working cooperatively in a daily basis to avoid potential problems
and delays
5. Agile requires the individuals to be motivated in providing sufficient support to finish
the project (It is important to believe in them on finishing their own job without giving
high pressure to them)
6. It is believed that the most efficient way to convey information to others is face-to-face
conversation
7. Agile believes that the primary measure of progress is the software itself
8. A sustainable development status, including constant working pace, should be
maintained throughout the project
9. Developers should continuously prioritized and give full attention to the software’s
technical excellence and design quality
10. Agile believes that simplicity allows to avoid delays and making mistakes
11. Self-organizing teams tend to be working more efficiently and collaboratively
12. Frequent team reflection leads the team to obtain more feedbacks and enhance the team
efficiency and unicity

2
What is ‘Scrum’?
There are many different models to execute Agile Software Development such as Adaptive
System Development, and Kanban. Nowadays, Scum is considered to be the most popular
model.

People get confused about the relationship between Agile and Scrum. However, it is important
to recognize the certain difference between them. Agile signifies the value and principles that
consists frequent feedback loop and adaptation iterations. And, Scrum is a set of frameworks
that enables a Scrum team to implement and execute Agile as a part of their project. For
instance, if Agile is a menu then Scrum is a recipe with several steps to create a menu
(Littlefield, 2018).

Principles of Scrum

Figure 2: Scrum Principles (Scrum Study, 2018).

To successfully applicate Scrum, Scrum team should follow the 6 principles of Scrum based
on how is explained in ‘A Guide to the Scrum Body of Knowledge’ (Scrum Study, 2018).

1. Empirical Process Control: Core ideas of Scrum are transparency, inspection, and
adaptation.
2. Self-Organization: Under an innovative environment, individuals can be more self-
organized and this leads to effective collaboration and shared ownership
3. Collaboration: Three dimensions (awareness, articulation, and appropriation) should
be considered when working as a team. Scrum team should also create a shared value
to maximize final product value.
4. Value-based Prioritization: The maximum business value should be prioritized
throughout the project.
5. Time-boxing: In Scrum, time is a limited constraint to enhance the project progress.
3
 Examples of time-boxed elements are Sprints, Daily Stand up Meetings, Sprint
Planning Meetings, and Spring Review Meetings.
6. Iterative Development: Iterative phases allow the project team to understand better
about customer wants and easily adjust requirements throughout the project.

While we have to follow the Scrum principles, the Scrum aspects can be modified by Scrum
teams.

Scrum Roles, Ceremonies and Artifacts

Figure 3: Scrum Framework (Sudan, 2018).

Scrum consists 3 roles, 4 ceremonies, and 3 artifacts.

Scrum Roles

Figure 4: Scrum Roles (Scrum Alliance, 2018).

4
It is significant to be aware of three different Scrum roles when starting with Scrum. Product
Owner, Scrum Master and the Development Team communicate each other to product with
highest value (Scrum Alliance, 2018).

➢ Product Owner
The Product Owner is a person who is responsible for prioritizing the product backlog. He/she
gathers ideas and wants from other and include it to the product backlog as a prioritized list.
This allows the Development Team to work efficiently based on the prioritized tasks (Scrum
Alliance, 2018).

➢ Scrum Master
The Scrum Master makes sure that the team capacity is at its maximum and acts as a
communication link between other two roles. With Scrum Master, the developers can move
towards to the final goal in a good order. Basically, the project process itself is the main product
for the Scrum Master.

The Scrum Master also acts similar to the secretary. For instance, he/she is also in charge of
organizing meeting schedules and making sure those meetings are carried efficiently (AgileDad
University, 2018).

➢ The Development Team

The Development team refers to the group of people who are actually building all the pieces
for the final product. They work collaboratively based on the prioritized backlog. Hence, it is
required for the Development Team to have a good understanding of the product and how they
are going to build the product with high functionality.

5
Scrum Ceremonies
In Scrum, Sprint is a time-boxed effort during the project, which duration is consistent over
time. When one sprint ends, the other starts and so on. As a part of sprint, there are four Scrum
ceremonies, that provide the project framework for the team to work in a good order.

➢ The sprint planning meeting

The sprint planning meeting occurs at the beginning of a sprint, to set up the future planning
and forecasts the team to success in each sprint. The duration of this meeting is approximately
about one hour before each sprint starts.

The Product Owner brings the prioritized product backlog for the team to discuss and estimate
the effort required for the development process. It is mandatory for all three Scrum roles to
attend (Huston, 2018).

➢ Daily Scrum
Daily Scrum refers to the short daily meetings (less than 15 minutes) between all three Scrum
roles members. Its purpose is to allow everyone to have a knowledge on the project progress.
This meeting is based on the three main questions:
1. What did you do yesterday?
2. What will you do today?
3. Are there any impediments in your way?
Through Daily Scrum, all the Scrum members will know up to date progress and information
about the project.

➢ Sprint (Iteration) Review meeting

Sprint review meeting is the opportunity to show the works that have been done by the
Development Team to the Scrum members and obtain feedbacks from them. This meeting will
be a bit longer than the daily scrum (about 30-60 minutes) as it is to gather all opinions on
current product (Radigan, 2018).

By gaining immediate feedbacks and thoughts from all stakeholders, the development team
could improve their works and produce higher valued product.

➢ Sprint retrospective meeting

Sprint retrospective meeting will be held at the very last point of the sprint. It is to critically
reflect the project; what went well and what have not. This enables the Development Team to
understand what could they do better for the next sprint/ project. They could continue working
on the tasks they have done well and refine tasks that they were not good at it. This process
leads the team to make a continuous improvement for the very final product. As it is the last
sprint meeting, all three Scrum roles members should attend (Radigan, 2018).

6
Scrum Artifacts
Scrum artifacts refer to values or outputs that are produced during the product development. It
is designed to increase the transparency of the works and to ensure that all the Scrum members
have same knowledge and understanding on the artifacts (Scrum Alliance, 2018).

Transparent processes allow less room for miscommunication and help workers come up with
a united decision, naturally decreasing the possibility for issues to occur.
Below are some examples of scrum artifacts.

➢ Product backlog: “What is most important to build next?”

A product backlog is a list of everything needed to build the final product, which allows the
owner prioritize tasks to account for the limited resources compared to unlimited demands.

It also allows the project team to decide which tasks they are going to start with and set the
working pace based on the amount of works. It not only includes description but also includes
estimates and values of each tasks.

Thanks to the flexibility of product backlogging, the developers can change the priorities
depending on the rapidly changing market.

➢ Sprint backlog

Figure 5 Sprint backlog diagram (Scrum.org, 2018).

Sprint backlogging, which is a subset of product backlogging, allows how the progress is
‘running’ in one sight (hence its name ‘sprint backlogging’) as shown in the figure. Depending
on urgency or necessity, tasks may be added or removed.

Using sprint backlogging in daily scrum meetings increases the efficiency as it is easy to spot
teammates who are done with their tasks and use the manpower on teammates who have yet to
finish. Sprint backlogging is hence crucial for the efficiency of the progress and must be made
visible for all stakeholders on the information radiator (Tutorials Point, 2018).

➢ Product increment
When the items on the product backlog produced at the end of each sprint (also known as

7
increments) are considered to require no more effort, they are considered to be done. Product
increment refers to the action of aggregating all product increments and testing their
compatibilities with one another.

It is critical to unify the definition of ‘increments being done’ for all stakeholders so that the
team has a same guideline which decides how many product backlog items the team is going
to work on.

Scrum in Real World

Business Objective & Problem

Although ‘Pantech’ has been a strong player in Korean mobile phone industry since 1991,
it started to collapse since 2007. Eventually, they decided not to release new phones from
2018 (The Star Online, 2018).

Pantech’s corporate goals are threefold (Tenacity, Innovation, Fundamentals) (Pantech,

2018). Even though their objective was only focused on enhancing functionality (rather
than on customers), they were always successful due to a narrowed Korean mobile phone
market.

The problem occurred as Pantech continues to maintain its old style, despite the changes in
trends with the emergence of smart phones. Because Pantech has mostly been sticking on
to their performance and style, they released products without a proper consideration of
whether such new technologies are needed by consumers (DongAh Business Review, 2018).

As a former user of Pantech’s mobile phone, there were many inconveniences. Pantech did
not open a service centre for a while due to lack of funds and was not very good at
responding to customers complains.

Possible solutions and issues

I personally believe Pantech still has a chance to make a comeback if it applies the Scrum
methodology. Since Pantech’s technology was at the top of the list in Korea, the comeback
could be possible if they change their approach.

By frequently deliver products to stakeholders and obtain feedbacks, team can easily
recognize mistakes and weaknesses. Pantech will be able to understand what customers
really want and make improvements and modifications based on their needs. By looking at
the product from the customer’s perspective, Pantech will be able to enter the mobile phone
market again.

Similarly, time constraints within Scrum processes will allow Pantech to minimize the risks
of working on unnecessary items and to value more on the importance. Pantech’s past

8
products were technologically good in quality, but they could not follow the trends by
working on detailed upfront planning. Hence, I think Pantech’s products could be a part of
the trend if they work with frequent feedbacks within a limited time frame. Also, faster
release of the product will save the financial costs of Pantech.

To avoid being out-dated on trends, decisions should be made based on new observations
and experiments; the Empirical process control (transparency, inspection, and adaptation)
can be used. Transparency of the processes and inspection allow products to be disclosed
to all stakeholders and hear their opinions (HR Bulletin, 2018). Adaptation then allow
Pantech to make even more improvements based on the feedbacks.

Although Scrum is easy to use, experienced members are needed to maximize Scrum’s
efficiency. However, considering Pantech’s current economic situation, might be difficult
to organize a Scrum Team with experienced employees. Pantech could introduce Scrum’s
principle first, then bring tools and techniques after some funding has been made.

Also, Pantech’s gradual loss of customers’ interests over the past decade will be difficult
to recover in short-term.

In addition to this, Scrum in Pantech could cause a scope creep. This is because as Pantech
focused on its technology over customers for long time period, the stakeholders could be
more tempted to add more and more functionalities even with the deadline (HR Bulletin,
2018).

9
References

Agile Alliance (2018). 12 Principles Behind the Agile Manifesto | Agile Alliance. [online]
Agile Alliance. Available at: https://www.agilealliance.org/agile101/12-principles-
behind-the-agile-manifesto/ [Accessed 16 Nov. 2018].
AgileDad University (2018). What are the 3 Scrum Roles? - AgileDad University 2018.
[online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojniw8Pkoe4
[Accessed 16 Nov. 2018].
Cunningham, W. (2018). Manifesto for Agile Software Development. [online]
Agilemanifesto.org. Available at: http://agilemanifesto.org/ [Accessed 16 Nov. 2018].
DongAh Business Review (2018). DongAh Business Review. [online] DongAh Business
Review. Available at: http://dbr.donga.com/article/view/1203/article_no/6794 [Accessed
16 Nov. 2018].
HR Bulletin (2018). Agile Method ① : Scrum. [online] Hrbulletin.net. Available at:
https://hrbulletin.net/organizational-
culture/%EC%95%A0%EC%9E%90%EC%9D%BC-%EB%B0%A9%EB%B2%95%E
B%A1%A0%E2%91%A0-%EC%8A%A4%ED%81%AC%EB%9F%BCscrum/
[Accessed 16 Nov. 2018].
Huston, A. (2018). The 4 Scrum Ceremonies Made Simple. A Quick Guide To Scrum
Meetings - The Digital Project Manager. [online] The Digital Project Manager.
Available at: https://thedigitalprojectmanager.com/scrum-ceremonies-made-
simple/#planning [Accessed 16 Nov. 2018].
Littlefield, A. (2018). The Beginner’s Guide To Scrum And Agile Project Management.
[online] Blog.trello.com. Available at: https://blog.trello.com/beginners-guide-scrum-
and-agile-project-management [Accessed 16 Nov. 2018].
Pantech (2018). PANTECH. [online] Pantech.co.kr. Available at:
http://www.pantech.co.kr/comInfo/philosophy.do [Accessed 16 Nov. 2018].
Radigan, D. (2018). Four agile ceremonies, demystified | Atlassian. [online] Atlassian.
Available at: https://www.atlassian.com/agile/scrum/ceremonies [Accessed 16 Nov.
2018].
Scrum Alliance (2018). Agile Resources for Information About Scrum Framework. [online]
Scrumalliance.org. Available at: https://www.scrumalliance.org/agile-resources/scrum-
roles-demystified [Accessed 16 Nov. 2018].
Scrum Alliance (2018). Scrum Alliance Member-Submitted Informational Articles. [online]
Scrumalliance.org. Available at:
https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/articles/2014/september/ittos-of-agile-scrum-
ceremonies [Accessed 16 Nov. 2018].
Scrum Alliance (2018). Scrum Foundations eLearning Series Educational Videos. [online]
Scrumalliance.org. Available at: https://www.scrumalliance.org/learn-about-
scrum/scrum-elearning-series/scrum-artifacts [Accessed 16 Nov. 2018].

10
Scrum Study (2018). Principles in Scrum | SCRUMstudy. [online] Scrumstudy.com.
Available at: https://www.scrumstudy.com/whyscrum/scrum-principles [Accessed 16
Nov. 2018].
Scrum Study (2018). Principles in Scrum | SCRUMstudy. [online] Scrumstudy.com.
Available at: https://www.scrumstudy.com/whyscrum/scrum-principles [Accessed 16
Nov. 2018].
Scrum.org (2018). What is a Sprint Backlog?. [online] Scrum.org. Available at:
https://www.scrum.org/resources/what-is-a-sprint-backlog [Accessed 16 Nov. 2018].
Sudan, H. (2018). Applying Agile Methodology - ppt download. [online] Slideplayer.com.
Available at: https://slideplayer.com/slide/9300727/ [Accessed 16 Nov. 2018].
The Star Online (2018). Pantech shares fall on weaker profit - Business News | The Star
Online. [online] Thestar.com.my. Available at:
https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2018/10/25/pantech-shares-fall-on-
weaker-profit/ [Accessed 16 Nov. 2018].
Tushar (2018). What's the Difference? Agile vs Scrum vs Waterfall vs Kanban. [online]
Smartsheet. Available at: https://www.smartsheet.com/agile-vs-scrum-vs-waterfall-vs-
kanban [Accessed 16 Nov. 2018].
Tutorials Point (2018). Scrum Sprint Backlog. [online] YouTube. Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq8p1oebxA0 [Accessed 16 Nov. 2018].
Varhol, P. (2018). The complete history of agile software development. [online] TechBeacon.
Available at: https://techbeacon.com/agility-beyond-history%E2%80%94-
legacy%E2%80%94-agile-development [Accessed 16 Nov. 2018].

11