How Changes arise during a Project
One of the aims of Agile projects is to deliver as soon as possible in the shortest timespan. The reason for this is change and risk-related; the longer a project runs, the more likely it is that changes will be required. Changes can fall into one of two classes:-
- external changes, such as legislative changes, emerging competition, positive and negative changes in market conditions, mergers and acquisitions.
- internal changes, these are mainly product-related and are requested by stakeholders as the product evolves, but the scrum team can also generate changes where they have identified weaknesses or omissions in the specified product.
Scrum does not accept all changes as a matter of course. They first have to be inspected to determine whether they play a necessary part in delivering the finished product and then they have to be prioritised if accepted.
Managing Change: The Product Owner
As the changes we are discussing here are changes to the product, it is natural that the Product Owner should orchestrate all change requests, as the custodian of the Product Backlog. Anyone who requires a change, whether a stakeholder or a team member, must submit a change request, which then has to go through an approval process. There is no blanket acceptance of changes, the Product Owner should assess and only approve changes that are vital to successful product development. This requires maintaining a balance between flexibility, that is, allowing change, and stability, and not jeopardizing the Scrum because there are too many changes to the original scope. Generally, the changes requested are minor, and the Product Owner has the authority to accept the change and prepare it for the next Sprint.
Recommended Further Reading
The following materials may assist you in order to get the most out of this course:
Course Contents
Section 1: Agile Project Management
Section 2: Using the Agile Manifesto to Deliver Change
Section 3: The 12 Agile Principles
Section 4: The Agile Fundamentals
Section 5: The Declaration of Interdependence
Section 6: Agile Development Frameworks
Section 7: Introduction to Scrum
Section 8: Scrum Projects
Section 9: Scrum Project Roles
Section 10: Meet the Scrum Team
Section 11: Building the Scrum Team
Section 12: Scrum in Projects, Programs & Portfolios
Section 13: How to Manage an Agile Project
Section 14: Leadership Styles
Section 15: The Agile Project Life-cycle
Section 16: Business Justification with Agile
Section 17: Calculating the Benefits With Agile
Section 18: Quality in Agile
Section 19: Acceptance Criteria and the Prioritised Product Backlog
Section 20: Quality Management in Scrum
Section 21: Change in Scrum
Section 22: Integrating Change in Scrum
Section 23: Managing Change in Scrum
Section 24: Risk in Scrum
Section 25: Risk Assessment Techniques
Section 26: Initiating an Agile Project
Section 27: Forming the Scrum Team
Section 28: Epics and Personas
Section 29: Creating the Prioritised Product Backlog
Section 30: Conduct Release Planning
Section 31: The Project Business Case
Section 32: Planning in Scrum
Section 33: Scrum Boards
Section 34: Sprint Planning
Section 35: User Stories
Section 36: User Stories and Tasks
Section 37: The Sprint Backlog
Section 38: Implementation of Scrum
Section 39: The Daily Scrum
Section 40: The Product Backlog
Section 41: Scrum Charts
Section 42: Review and Retrospective
Section 43: Scrum of Scrums
Section 44: Validating a Sprint
Section 45: Retrospective Sprint
Section 46: Releasing the Product
Section 47: Project Retrospective
Section 48: The Communication Plan
Section 49: Formal Business Sign-off
Section 50: Scaling Scrum
Section 51: Stakeholders
Section 52: Programs and Portfolios