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Impact of Rugby on software product development.

08 Dec, 2022
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RUGBY and SCRUM

HISTORY

England 1823, 26-year-old William Web Ellis was bored in a football match held at ‘THE RUGBY SCHOOL’.

He played mischief by picking up the ball and started running towards the goalpost. All the players ran to stop him and accidentally a new sport was invented. They called it ‘Rugby football’.

SCRUM – The evolution

One hundred seventy years later, in 1993, Jeff Sutherland introduced the world to an agile process called SCRUM that can be used for any product development company.

The modern SCRUM method was developed while crediting how Rugby is played by combining it with a few white papers written by Takeuchi and Nonaka, two Japanese authors.

SCRUM in Rugby describes the moment in the game when the team works together to move the ball down the field, all united by the same apparent goal reflecting a team-oriented approach.

Team building and constant feedback characterise SCRUM .

Benefits of using the  SCRUM method in software development

  1. Better quality
  2. Cost control
  3. Transparency
  4. Reduced risk
  5. Flexibility
  6. Better visibility
  7. Better customer satisfaction
  8. Speed to market
  9. More enjoyable
  10. Team building

How does it help?

It helps you give a free hand to the team to select how to accomplish their goals.

It ensures your team has a more comprehensive goal because teams can accomplish far more than individuals.

As groups are more potent than the sum of their parts, this helps raise the bar for your co-workers and ensure they are all working toward the same objectives.

Another change SCRUM helps you with is enhancing teamwork by occasionally forming new, independent teams and asking various groups to share their results.

This is crucial since cross-functional teams must have all the skills to finish a project. Diversity in abilities, perspectives, and experiences will produce more outstanding results because it is about the final product and not just the individual team members.

Finally, it makes your teams more efficient by pruning their numbers. The ideal number of members is seven (plus or minus two).

Why are small SCRUM teams effective?

The brain cannot handle an increase in the number of communication channels in a group of people. When we have to exert too much effort to understand what everyone else is doing, we become slower.

The main benefit of this method is that it enables you to react fast to issues; by checking in frequently, you can adjust the goal for the subsequent round of Sprints.

A Sprint is a short, time-boxed period when a SCRUM team works to complete a set amount of work.

Using Sprints, no one will waste time working on a project for months to have it rejected.

Concentrate on one item per Sprint to apply this approach effectively. You will be able to focus well because the Sprint times are so brief. Avoid following a one-week Sprint with a three-week Sprint to create a steady working rhythm.

Daily mentoring:

Before every Rugby game, the team has a Stand-up meeting. You can also do daily Stand-ups, ask questions which always occur and revolve around the same topics, such as

  • What did you do yesterday to help the team finish the Sprint?
  • How are you spending today?
  • What challenges do you face?

Make sure everyone stands up, and the meeting lasts at most 15 minutes.

Another core idea in SCRUM : avoid waste –anything that distracts you from completing the task.

Let’s look at the three critical roles in the SCRUM model while comparing it with a RUGBY team.

  1. Your team members are like the Rugby players.
  2. The SCRUM Master, who helps the team figure out how to work together effectively, can be described as the captain.
  3. The Product owner is responsible for the project’s overall vision, managing the backlog and setting the course for each sprint. In rugby terms, he is the coach.

SCRUM is all about practical teamwork, just like any sport.

The SCRUM approach will improve employee satisfaction and increase productivity at your business since it is founded on employee-friendly ideas like teamwork and open communication. Ultimately, Scrum’s central concept is to establish a continuous feedback process. You’ll move in the correct direction if you continually assess and adjust your goals.

At coMakeIT, we have experience setting up world-class SCRUM teams of 6-8 people in less than 90 days to develop software products.

If you would like to know more about how we can help you build software products using SCRUM teams.

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