Jeyaram Thangaponnan’s Post

🔍 Scrum Principles in Action: What Makes It Work in IT 🚀 Scrum isn’t just a framework—it’s a philosophy that helps teams deliver value faster, smarter, and more collaboratively. Here are the core principles of Scrum, along with examples of how they play out in real IT environments: 1️⃣ Empirical Process Control 📌 Principle: Decisions are based on observation, not speculation. 💡 Example: A development team reviews sprint metrics and user feedback to adjust backlog priorities—rather than relying on assumptions from months-old planning. 2️⃣ Self-Organizing Teams 📌 Principle: Teams decide how best to accomplish their work. 💡 Example: A cross-functional team chooses its own tools and workflow to deliver a new feature, without micromanagement from leadership. 3️⃣ Collaboration 📌 Principle: Continuous communication drives alignment and trust. 💡 Example: Daily stand-ups help developers, testers, and product owners stay synced on progress, blockers, and goals. 4️⃣ Value-Based Prioritization 📌 Principle: Work is prioritized by business value. 💡 Example: A product owner shifts focus to a high-impact security patch after customer feedback, even though it wasn’t originally planned for the sprint. 5️⃣ Time-Boxing 📌 Principle: Fixed time periods create rhythm and predictability. 💡 Example: A two-week sprint ensures regular delivery of working software, with sprint reviews keeping stakeholders engaged and informed. 6️⃣ Iterative Development 📌 Principle: Deliver small increments, learn, and improve. 💡 Example: A team releases a beta version of a new dashboard, gathers user feedback, and iterates in the next sprint to improve usability. Scrum works because it’s grounded in reality, not rigid plans. These principles help IT teams stay agile, customer-focused, and continuously improving. 💬 Which principle has made the biggest impact on your team’s success? #Scrum #AgilePrinciples #ProjectManagement #ITLeadership #TechTeams #AgileMindset #ContinuousImprovement

🧩 1. Core Scrum & Agile Fundamentals Purpose: Tests your understanding of Scrum theory and the PO’s role within it. Questions: What are the three roles in Scrum, and what is the Product Owner’s main accountability? How do you define “value” in Agile? Can you explain the difference between “project scope” and “product goal”? What is a Sprint Goal, and who creates it? How do you ensure that the Scrum Team understands the product vision? What are the Scrum artifacts, and which one is the Product Owner responsible for? What is the Definition of Done vs Definition of Ready — and how do they matter to the PO? How does transparency help in Scrum? 💼 2. Product Backlog Management Purpose: Evaluates your ability to handle prioritization, refinement, and stakeholder alignment. Questions: How do you prioritize items in your product backlog? Which prioritization techniques have you used (e.g., MoSCoW, WSJF, Kano Model, RICE)? How do you balance new feature development with technical debt and bug fixes? What’s your approach to backlog refinement? How often should it happen? Can you describe how you’d write a good user story? How do you handle conflicting priorities from different stakeholders? How do you measure backlog health? 🎯 3. Product Vision, Goals & Roadmap Purpose: Tests strategic thinking and alignment with business outcomes. Questions: How do you create and communicate a product vision? How do you translate a product vision into measurable goals? What’s the difference between a roadmap and a backlog? How do you handle changes in product strategy mid-project? How do you decide what not to build? How do you measure whether your product is successful? (KPIs, OKRs, etc.) 🧠 4. Collaboration & Stakeholder Management Purpose: Evaluates your ability to manage people, expectations, and communication. Questions: How do you ensure alignment between business stakeholders and the development team? How do you handle a stakeholder who disagrees with your prioritization? How do you communicate product progress to non-technical stakeholders? How do you ensure customer feedback influences your backlog? What do you do if the team is not delivering as per the business expectations?

Teams struggle with complexity and unpredictability.  The solution? An agile framework that transforms chaos into order - Scrum. But what exactly is it, and why should you care? --- 👉 WHAT is Scrum? Scrum is more than just a methodology; it’s a framework that empowers teams to build, deliver, and enhance complex products effectively. • It defines essential roles like the Product Owner and Scrum Master.   • It creates structured ceremonies and deliverables to ensure everyone is aligned and constantly improving. Key Benefits:   • Boosts teamwork and fosters transparent communication.   • Accelerates delivery through iterative progress.   • Increases adaptability to changing requirements.   • Promotes ongoing feedback and continuous enhancement.   • Elevates product quality and customer satisfaction. --- 👉 WHY use Scrum? • To manage evolving project demands efficiently.   • To simplify complex work into achievable tasks.   • To enhance collaboration and rapid responses.   • To embrace real-time feedback for continuous learning. --- 👉 WHEN to Use Scrum? • When requirements are fluid or unclear.   • For innovative and complicated projects.   • In dynamic environments where speed is crucial.   • When regular stakeholder input is essential. --- 👉 WHERE Can Scrum Be Applied? • Software Development: Innovating and refining digital solutions.   • Event Management: Streamlining logistics and coordination.   • Marketing Campaigns: Implementing and measuring strategies.   • Research & Innovation: Crafting cutting-edge ideas.   • Product Design: Iteratively enhancing products. --- 👉 HOW Does Scrum Work? 1. Team Composition: Small, diverse groups with specialized roles.   2. Artifacts: Including Product Backlog and Sprint Backlog.   3. Ceremonies: Encompassing Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, and more.   4. Cycle: Short, fixed-length iterations called Sprints (1-4 weeks).   5. Process: Plan, deliver, gather feedback, and adjust. --- follow Shraddha Sahu for more insights

Here are some more advantages which i would like to share on my earlier statement gaining insights of what all are its actual implications to overall project or customer deliveries when we talk about Sprint window. In today’s era of ever-growing client demands, respecting the timebox is more critical than ever to uphold the true essence of Agile. ✅ Focus over Scope Creep – Timeboxing forces teams to prioritize what really matters, ensuring that the highest-value items are delivered first. ✅ Predictability builds trust – When teams consistently respect the sprint boundary, stakeholders gain confidence in the team’s ability to deliver reliably. ✅ Encourages innovation – Constraints fuel creativity. Within a set timeframe, teams often find smarter, leaner ways to achieve outcomes. ✅ Promotes sustainable pace – By avoiding endless extensions, timeboxing protects teams from burnout and maintains steady, long-term productivity. ✅ Improves inspection & adaptation – Short, consistent cycles allow for faster feedback loops, enabling continuous improvement and responsiveness to change. Ultimately, timeboxing is about discipline, not limitation. It ensures that Agile teams deliver value iteratively while keeping both clients and teams aligned on expectations.

Scrum is dead! Let’s stop pretending otherwise. For years, companies have treated Scrum like the holy bible of product development. But here’s the ugly truth: Most teams don’t follow it. The ones that do end up wasting hours in pointless ceremonies instead of building real value. What’s left is nothing but Scrum theatre; standups for the sake of standups, sprint reviews nobody cares about, and retros that fix nothing. Here’s a real story. At a fast-growing fintech, leadership enforced Scrum by the book. Every sprint came with the full checklist: 2-hour planning sessions Daily standups Backlog grooming Reviews and retros On paper, it looked perfect. Leadership proudly told investors, “We’re Agile.” But the reality inside the team was brutal: Engineers spent more time in meetings than building. PMs were stuck managing Jira tickets instead of talking to customers. Critical bugs sat untouched for weeks because the “sprint plan” had to be followed. One incident still stings: a payment bug that blocked thousands of users sat unresolved for three sprints because it wasn’t in the current backlog. By the time it was fixed, customer churn had spiked, and competitors had already captured the frustrated users. Eventually, the team revolted. They cut most of the ceremonies, reduced meetings, and switched to a flow-based approach: short cycles, direct communication, and shipping value fast. Within a month, bug resolution time dropped drastically, delivery speed improved, and customer satisfaction rebounded. The irony? They became more agile the moment they stopped “doing Agile.” Scrum has become a corporate checkbox, a way for leaders to feel in control while teams underneath drown in rituals. The best teams don’t worship frameworks. They steal what works, drop what doesn’t, and obsess over outcomes. So let’s call it: Scrum is no longer helping. It’s a crutch. Agility is about results, not rituals. Flexibility beats frameworks. What do you think? Is Scrum still delivering value in 2025, or is it finally time to bury it?

🚀 Scrum-But: When Agile Dreams Meet Reality Scrum promises a magical framework: iterative delivery, empowered teams, and continuous value. ✨ But in the real world, reality often sneaks in—and with it, the infamous “Scrum-But.” “We follow Scrum… but we don’t do Daily Stand-ups.” “We do Sprints… but we skip Retrospectives.” “We have a Product Owner… but decisions are made by management.” These tweaks might feel small, harmless even, but each “but” chips away at Scrum’s core: transparency, inspection, and adaptation. ⚠️ The Hidden Risks of Scrum-But When we let the “buts” slide: 🤝 Collaboration weakens: Teams drift apart without daily alignment. 🔄 Continuous improvement stalls: Retrospectives aren’t just a meeting—they’re the engine of growth. 🎯 Value delivery misfires: If business decisions bypass the Product Owner, the team may deliver what sounds good instead of what matters. Scrum-But isn’t just a quirky phrase—it’s a warning sign. ✅ Flip the Script: From Scrum-But to Scrum-Yes Here’s the good news: Scrum-But isn’t inherently bad. It’s a mirror showing where teams and organizations need guidance. Each “but” is an opportunity to: 🧩 Reconnect with the why behind Scrum practices 🚀 Experiment safely and adapt iteratively 🌟 Align teams around true Agile principles Think of it as Scrum’s secret superpower: it highlights friction points before they become full-blown problems. 💡 Takeaway Scrum is more than ceremonies—it’s a mindset. Notice your Scrum-Buts. Ask why they exist. Turn them into stepping stones toward: Stronger collaboration Continuous learning Truly value-driven delivery Scrum isn’t about perfection—it’s about progress. Start small, adapt often, and watch your “buts” transform into breakthroughs. 🚀

🧭 Agile Manifesto: 4 Core Values 1️⃣ Individuals and Interactions 🤝 over Processes and Tools 🛠️ 👤 People matter more than rigid processes. Let team members collaborate in the way that suits them best. Encourage flexibility in tools and workflows to enhance creativity and efficiency. 🗣️ “Empower people – the real magic happens in meaningful interactions, not in the strict use of tools.” 2️⃣ Working Software 💻 over Comprehensive Documentation 📚 ✅ Deliver value through working solutions, not piles of documentation. 📌 While documentation has its place (especially in regulated industries like pharma), the priority is always delivering a functional outcome that meets user needs. 🗣️ “Focus on what works — get it in users’ hands and learn fast.” 3️⃣ Customer Collaboration 🤝 over Contract Negotiation 📄 📞 Engage customers continuously for feedback and alignment. 📜 Contracts are useful but shouldn't limit responsiveness to changing needs. Building strong customer relationships ensures lasting value and trust. 🗣️ “Talk more, contract less — deliver what the customer truly needs.” 4️⃣ Responding to Change 🔄 over Following a Plan 🗂️ 📈 Adapt quickly as new insights emerge. ❌ No need for a formal change control board — Agile welcomes change, with the Product Owner updating and prioritizing the backlog accordingly. 🗣️ “Change is not a disruption — it’s an opportunity to improve.”

Thought of the day... Scrum was not part of the original Agile Manifesto. Scrum was a pre-existing framework, but not part of Agile. Some claim that Scrum helped inspire Agile. Scrum became pervasive for a variety of reasons: Simplicity Business friendly language Certifications But did Scrum actually help? Depends on you who talk to. Some claim that it helped foster iterative delivery, team collaboration, and visibility to management. So there are some pluses. On the minus column there are a lot cases where it contributed to process over principles. Ticket completion in JIRA is not the same as delivering something useful. Worse, the promise of self-organizing teams sometimes changes into anything but that. Teams have complained of constant pressure to always be committing code. Daily standups and sprint reviews, in some cases, have turned into micromanagement. Making matters even worse, incremental delivery offered by Scrum can discourage long-term vision or bold leaps. In short: innovation can suffer. So my big question -- is it time to revisit Scrum? Is it time to re-think it? We've had multiple decades to reflect on it. Perhaps now is the time for a new paradigm. A paradigm that takes the lessons learned and applies them to create something fresh, empowering, and achieving.

🔍 DOR vs DOD in Scrum: Clarifying the Difference for Better Delivery 🔍 If you’re working in software development or agile projects, you've likely encountered the acronyms *Definition of Ready (DoR)* and *Definition of Done (DoD)*. At first glance, they seem similar — but understanding the distinction can significantly impact your team’s efficiency and quality. Here's the key: -DoR ensures that a backlog item is *ready* to be worked on. It’s about having clear requirements, acceptance criteria, and that dependencies are addressed before starting an item. Think of it as setting the stage. - DoD, on the other hand, defines *when* a product increment is truly *done*. It covers all the criteria needed for delivering value—testing, documentation, code reviews, deployment, etc. It’s about completion and quality assurance. In my experience, **clarifying and aligning these definitions** isn’t just a bureaucratic exercise; it leads to smoother sprints, fewer misunderstandings, and more predictable deliveries. A common pitfall? Teams focus only on DoD, assuming work is complete once done, but without ensuring items are *ready* before starting. Conversely, not having a clear DoR can lead to wasted time on ill-defined tasks. My tip: Regularly review and adjust your DoR and DoD as your team evolves. It’s a simple way to keep everyone aligned and improve your Agile process. How does your team handle these definitions? Any lessons learned? I’d love to hear your experiences! #Agile #ScrumMastery #ProductDevelopment #ContinuousImprovement #TeamDynamics

🚀 Mastering User Stories & Acceptance Criteria in Agile Development! 📝 Are you looking to improve your Agile practices? Learn how to craft clear and actionable user stories with well-defined acceptance criteria to ensure your team delivers exactly what users need! 🔑 Why it matters: - Improve communication across your team 👥 - Align your work with user goals 🎯 - Ensure features are developed correctly ✔️ Check out our latest blog post for expert tips and real-world examples! 💡 👉 Read Now: https://lnkd.in/gVdHGnRp #AgileDevelopment #UserStories #AcceptanceCriteria #TaskFord