If you’re interested in project management because it can help your business achieve goals, but you still have no idea what these terms are – Scrum and Agile, and what they have to do with you, this article is for you.

We know they may sound difficult, but the fact is that you should not worry so much about technical aspects of methodologies if you work in a completely distinct area. Rather than that, prefer to learn only about the benefits they can bring you, personally and professionally. Many people are so scared about these “names” that they wouldn’t even try to start the reading. In this case, they would also miss the opportunity to learn about their advantages,  the relevant part for you.

So, leave the complicated part to IT specialists, asking their help when necessary, and come acknowledge how Scrum and Agile can impact your projects.

What is Scrum and What is Agile, basically?

Scrum is a project management workframe, first implemented in the manufacturing industry in the late 80s, then consolidated in the 90s, after Jeff Sutherland originated the first Scrum project (1993). It helps individuals work as teams, like on rugby games (the origin of its name), preparing for competitions, learning from victories and losses, restarting, and seeking constant evolution.

Agile is a methodology for multi-talented teams to work and collaborate efficiently, prioritizing value delivery to customers and fast adaptation to changes. It motivates teams to work together, reach positive competitiveness and common goals.

Applying Scrum and Agile to your project management tool is the key to optimize your work, assign tasks, ensure process alignment, increase delivery capacity, and accelerate value development.

Scrum Principles

The Scrum framework obeys 5 main values:

Courage: Scrum Team members have the courage to do the right thing and work on tough problems.

Focus: Everyone focuses on the work for the common goals.

Commitment: People personally commit to achieving the goals of the Scrum Team.

Respect: Scrum team members respect each other to be capable, independent people.

Openness: The Scrum team agrees to be open about all the work and the challenges with performing the work.

Source: Scrum.org

Agile Principles

The GitScrum Agile Manifesto is your guide, based on Agile principles, to build projects around motivated individuals, giving them the environment and support they need, and trusting them to get jobs done.

1. Satisfy clients through continuous delivery of valuable products.
2. Motivate people, grant autonomy and they will do the job.
3. Changing requirements are a competitive advantage.
4. Deliver working improvements often, small or large.
5. Businesses and Developers must work together. Daily.
6. The most efficient communication method is face-to-face.
7. A working product is the primary measure of progress.
8. Attention to detail and technical mastery make the job easier.
9. The best products emerge from cross-functional teams.
10. Regular short meetings reinforce positive behaviors.

Adapted from “The Agile Manifesto“.

Are Scrum and Agile for Everyone?

Yes! Generally, Scrum and Agile can help all individuals and business manage their activities, raise productivity, monitor their progress, and achieve their goals. They are suitable for all business areas, small to large companies, freelancers to big enterprises.

No! From the standpoint that they are only for people who are willing to succeed, achieve more, and evolve constantly. So, for the ones who are satisfied with little, are not open to change, and don’t want to talk about goals, then they would make no sense.

Well, we know Scrum and Agile are for you, and so is project management. To put Scrum values and the Agile methodology into practice, you need a smart project management tool made to support them. It’s not about getting a hundred features, but getting the right ones to make your projects happen.

Start Managing your Projects with Scrum and Agile

Let’s walk a step back: what is a project? Well, a project is any important achievement or creation you want to release within a time. It might be a book, a music album, a training course, a software/app, a product, a building, a catalog, a marketing campaign, an event, research…  whatever!

A project is normally created by an individual or professional, but it can remain solo or be run by a team, a committee, added by its author. Then, the team starts collaborating, sharing tasks, and doing updates about them, until the end result. Even solo projects can get guest collaborators, like partners, clients, or sponsors, depending on their context.

Do you remember those New Year’s Eve “decisions”, and the company’s visionary project ideas to be done someday? If they never come true, it’s probably because they are not being managed as projects yet. When you make project management your routine in your professional and personal life, achieving goals becomes a consequence.

10 Steps to Start Managing your Projects with Scrum and Agile:

Plan your Projects

The first condition to manage projects successfully is planning them. Maybe you already know this, but before you even start a project, you must have some concepts clear to yourself, and also among your team members too. Promote team alignment and creative contributions to complete your projects with a visual method like mind mapping – something you can do during a presential meeting or a remote conference.
Use GitScrum Mind Mapping to plan your project goals.

Create your Projects

Start creating your projects according to your objectives, from short-term, mid-term to long-term. Make sure they are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (see also another article about that).
Lean on a smart project management tool and create a collaborative, interactive working board for every project, where you will add tasks, splitting the project stages. Add your team members as collaborators and delegate power for them to make updates on tasks and subtasks.
GitScrum Board is your collaborative tool to manage projects.

Manage Schedules

How to manage several projects at a time, with multiple teams and assistants? You’ll need a smart project management platform to get an overview of all project schedules, monitor their status, and help your teammates and partners be aware of the next events.
GitScrum Gantt Charts help you lead simultaneous projects efficiently

Boost Productivity

Create monthly and weekly challenges for yourself and your team, to complete a list of accomplishments and meet deadlines. Use the so-called “sprints” as a visual motivational resource to make you aware of the projects’ progress every day.
GitScrum Sprints is the best feature to skyrocket your productivity

References and Training

Add complete documentation to your projects: benchmarking files, research references, guides, manuals, models, exemplary images and explanatory video URLs. This is important for supporting your team in the execution of the tasks, and also for helping you focus on the project purpose. Besides, you must build a project backlog with all its history after every execution stage, so it can be improved every new round.
GitScrum Documents help you build your project backlog

User-focused Info

Write short forms called “user stories” to keep a record of your target persona (end-users) needs and requests. These user hints can be gathered by your teammates,  yourself, or even from your website and other communication channels. They are important to keep you close to your customers and will help you make project adjustments.
GitScrum User Stories help you create relevant projects

Control Budget

Create a financial spreadsheet for each one of your projects, planning costs, and expected incomes. Instead of doing this with an isolated software, you can do this in your own project management tool, saving time.
GitScrum Spreadsheet is your new way to insert calcs into projects

Balance Effort

If you want your team to perform well during all of the stages of your projects, take care and balance your workload. Measure all tasks efforts and distribute them according to your team’s capacity evolution.
GitScrum Task Effort is the feature to make your team go further

Engage your Team

Building amazing projects takes teamwork. Besides guiding your staff (employees or outsourced partners) with clear objectives, remember to recognize and reward them. Gamification is a growing trend to turn your team members into superstars – it consists of adding little rewards to the work process, for every little accomplishment.
GitScrum Rock Star Team is your ultimate gamification feature

Impress Clients

Wow your clients to convince them that your projects will reach the heart of your customers. Be sure to customize your projects’ interface with your brand and a custom domain, and a client subdomain (www.yourcompany.clientname.com). This will add credibility to your projects and make your clients more open to business.
GitScrum White Label is available for you to offer the best client experience

Go agile to turn your ideas into successful projects with GitScrum!
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