Science and Engineering » Hönnun » Skyward Sword

h1. SCRUM Information

We'll be using some sort of a variation of SCRUM.

Here is an 8 minute video that introduces the idea behind SCRUM:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5k7a9YEoUI

The whole idea with using this system is to avoid being too formal. Please keep that in mind and speak up if you would like to adjust the process to better fit our specific project.

h2. SCRUM in Skyward Sword

h3. What we'll use

* Product Backlog - a list of tasks that need to get done

* Sprints - a period where we try to finish a sub-set of tasks from the product backlog

* SCRUM Board - a whiteboard with categories and progress (*)

* Daily SCRUM Meetings - we'll meet up at 12:00 sharp in V106 every day for a short (10 minute) meeting

h3. What we might not use

* Burndown chart - depending on how formal we want to be on tracking time with this we may opt to not use these

** These sorts of projects also have an added complexity with some tasks being difficult to estimate a time for, such as meeting with ISAVIA and performing a "screen freezing test".

h3. Product Backlog

We need to define all the tasks we can think of, put each of them down on a Post-It and put it somewhere where everyone can see. These are all the tasks that need to get done for us to finish the project.

Examples of tasks would include:

* Install software to show slideshow of Avatars

* Buy a memory card for the video camera

* Order 10 1200gram balloons

Be careful not to confuse tasks with milestones. For example, "Launch balloon" is not a good task, but it's a decent milestone involving a number of tasks.

h3. Sprints

In our project, we'll probably use 1 week sprints. Before each sprint we need to decide which tasks we need to finish during that sprint (this is called sprint planning and is usually a 1 hour meeting or so). After each sprint, we may have a demo of the things that got done. For this project we may opt to not do this after each sprint but instead have some number of launches where we will see the result of the previous sprints "come to life".

h3. SCRUM Board

(*) Below is the setup of our SCRUM board

|_.                                         |_. Tasks     |_. In Progress     |_. Done    |

| Logistics                                 |             |                   |           |

| Balloon                                   |             |                   |           |

| Camera / Display                          |             |                   |           |

| Platform / Structure                      |             |                   |           |

| Landing System                            |             |                   |           |

| Tracking, Recovery, Electronics, Sensors  |             |                   |           |

"Tickets" (aka. "features" or "stories") will be put down on Post-Its and put in the "Tasks" column initially. As work begins on each ticket, it moves to "In Progress" and once it's done it's put into the "Done" column. These transitions are usually performed during the daily SCRUM meeting so that everybody is kept in the loop.

Since we have two initial teams (Alpha and Bravo) I think it would be a good idea to use different colored Post-Its for each team.

h3. Daily SCRUM Meeting

Each day we will have a short (10 minute) meeting at 12:00 sharp in V106.

There are few but *very strict* rules:

* Be on time! Showing up 5 minutes late for a 10 minute meeting is _rude_ to everyone else!

* Be ready to answer the following three questions (important to be concise and to the point):

** What did I do since last time we met

** What do I plan on doing until next time we meet

** Am I having or do I anticipate any problems (do I need any help)

* Know which tickets you want to transition (either from "Tasks" -> "In Progress" or "In Progress" -> "Done") and have a very short explanation on why.