Scrum is a framework for developing complex products. It is an interactive, incremental approach to optimize predictability and control risk.
The Scrum Artifacts
Scrum artifacts are tangible by-products produced during the product development. These artifacts consist of the requirements for the overall project, and each individual phase of the project itself.
PRODUCT BACKLOG
The product backlog is an evolving, dynamic and ranked list of requirements that might be needed to made the product. The product owner is responsible for the product backlog, including its content, and ranking.
The product backlog lists all features, functions, requirements, enhancement and fixes that constitute the changes to be made to the product in future releases. In agile terminology, the product backlog item are called user stories.
The user stories are the smallest units of work, and its goal is to delivered customer’s value at the end of the iteration. A good user story should be:
| CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD QUALITY USER STORY: INVEST | ||
| Letter | Meaning | Description |
| I | Independent | The user story should be self-contained, so that there is not a dependency with another story |
| N | Negotiable | User stories, up until the start of the iteration, can be rewritten and re-ranked. |
| V | Valuable | A user story must deliver value to the end user |
| E | Estimable | The story is precise and concise so that the development team can estimate it. |
| S | Small | The user story development should conclude at the end of the iteration. |
| T | Testable | The user story and/or its related description must provide the necessary information to make test development possible. |
EPICS
Epics are feature-level work that encompasses many user stories. Epics are:
- A Group of related user stories.
- They use the same wording and format as the user story:
- Short description;
- Acceptance criteria;
- Estimate.
- Should not be worked on directly.
- Can be considered a project.
- its works can spam more than one release and encompasses more than one product.
The Epic is typically used to monitor and track the development work toward the close proximity of the product release/launch.
THEMES
Themes are feature-level work that encompasses many epics. They are:
- A Group of related Epics.
- They use the same wording and format as the Epics:
- Short description;
- Acceptance criteria;
- Estimate.
- It’s a tracking tool to monitor the overall direction.
- It’s considered as a Portfolio.
- It is also called an Adventure.
The Theme is typically used to discuss with the CEO and board members for tracking the overall strategy direction.
