Talk:Scrum Methodology in Agile Software Development

113129's comments:

General thoughts:

• Your language varies greatly; sometimes it is very simple, other times very advanced. You need to work on this – maybe use Microsoft Word when writing the article? Word will make grammatical suggestions (and corrections) if needed.
• You often make very long sentences. I’m personally not very good at using commas (I use them way too much, hehe!) but I think that if you maybe insert a few commas in your long sentences, then it will be easier for the reader to understand :)
• You make several references for the same book or website, but you can actually use one reference more than once! You can find a link on how to do that on the frontpage! (Can't put an example in here, sadly!) By doing this, you wont have the same website listed 5 times, but will just reference the same number more than once! :)
• Maybe make it clearer why Scrum and ASD is important for project/program/portfolio managers.
• Please note, that I have not worked with Scrum myself, so I have no experience with this topic. I can mostly help you with general explanations, language and the like.

Abstract:

• You start the article with an interesting perspective, however the choice of language varies greatly between the two sections.

Scrum Methodology:

• Maybe explain in more detail what the quote “work is divided into small chunks to manage complexity and to get early feedback from customers and end users” means. You only use this quote and the following sentence to explain the scrum methodology. I don’t feel like I fully understood the scrum methodology after reading this.

Manifesto of Agile Software Development:

• Remember to put a reference to the quote “Welcome changing requirements, even late in development” (http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html)
• Good and interesting section!

Application:

• I do not understand how, by focusing on communication, the team is able to make decisions quicker and respond faster. Why are they even focusing on communication in the first place?
• What does it mean to work “in close location”?
• Does the team always consist of seven people? That is an odd group number – why seven?
• I feel like I understand the roles within the Scrum framework now, but I do not understand the “sprints”. Are they “just” timeframes within the project? You keep mentioning them, but you haven’t explained them yet.
• You answer some of these questions later in the article, but it does not feel like there is a natural flow. When introducing a new concept, I suggest you should explain it shortly afterwards. I feel like you mentioned and used some concepts before explaining what they meant, which I found very confusing.

Main Figures in Scrum:

• What are customer-centric items?

Sprint:

• Really good! This one cleared up a lot. It was short and concrete. I liked it.

Scrum Meetings:

• The text is italic in the end of the first section (sprint planning meeting).
• Remember to reference the figure! :)
• These are some good sections. They are informative and easy to understand, however there are a few grammatical errors and a few words missing once in a while.

Artefacts:

• Maybe make an example of a PBI or of what a product backlog could include? ☺
• Maybe explain the Sprint Burndown Chart a bit more – use the picture for examples.

Limitations:

• “because” not “cause” ;)
• This sections is called limitations, but you seem to only refer to M. James’ limitation condition, in stead of discussion it. Maybe you could bring forward a few examples when scrum is used and when it is not? :)

All in all: I liked the article. At times it was a little confusing, and the order of the sections was a little confusing as well. However it was informative and covered a lot of knowledge about Scrum. Maybe work a bit on your language, make a few examples and remember to put references on pictures. Maybe also refer to other wiki-articles on the website, to direct the reader towards similar articles (about the same topic!)

// This concludes 113129's comments! :)

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Reviewer 3, S997303

Hi Giacomo

Formal aspects

• Interesting methodology and your writing style is clear and fluent.

• You use appropriate figures, but consider making them larger, so they become less blurred. Especially I suggest making the Scrum Framework figure larger in scale, because this is the visual overview of the Scrum Methodology in your article.

• Also it could be an advantage to enlarge the Product Backlog figure as well as the Sprint Backlog so they can better visualize and support your text.

Content aspects

• If I look at the balance of the sections in your article I could suggest to focus more on the limitations section and for example supporting your facts with additional literature about use of Scrum methodology in software development.

• Your article is very detailed described for a practitioner – and if I was a practitioner I would also be very interested in knowing more about the Scrum Reference Card and how to evaluate when a project belongs in the chaotic field of the Predictability figure and therefore should select a Scrum Methodology.

Good luck with the completion of your article. Best Regards Jane