How to? Getting things done...

[Bluejackets]

Interesting topic. Rookie question.... What does "SCRUM" stand for?

[z_beeblebrox]

Originally Posted by Bluejackets

Interesting topic. Rookie question.... What does "SCRUM" stand for?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scru...e_development)

[DaveL]

+1 that Scrum or an Agile software design methodology does not exactly match up with an FRC project.

I've been on a number of Agile software projects where the project manager used VersionOne to assign tasks, review task progress and to record task completion. You could run your build as a 6 week sprint and add redesign activities as needed.

The software team would hold brief daily meetings and weekly meetings to insure each professional was focused on accomplishing their task so the parts could be combined into the finished product at a defined point in time.

On my team not every student can attend every meeting and sometimes we have to train another student to work on a task to keep it moving.

If you have enough students and mentors, I would suggest planning out the next meetings activities and kitting the needed parts. By this I mean if you need to install a pneumatic cylinder, find all the needed parts and bag them together. Then at the next build meeting, you can hand the bag and the task to a student. If they need some training, have them stop and ask.

I've done this time permitting and it works great. It allows me to engage a far larger number of students at the same time. If your students already know how to find the parts and how to install them, that is great and you can skip the kitting!

To make these parts easy to find, I like to tape the bags to a glass window. Tape works great and its a visual reminder of what we have to get done.

It doesn't help with documenting project status, that would have to be a separate manual activity.

If you want to try the software approach, here are some options:
https://www.versionone.com/

Gantt Charts to visually map project activities
https://www.google.com/search?q=gant...utf-8&oe=utf-8

http://agilescout.com/best-agile-scrum-tools/

Dave

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by Bluejackets

Interesting topic. Rookie question.... What does "SCRUM" stand for?

As far as I am aware (and confirmed by some superficial Google searches, scrum doesn't "stand for" anything, which is why I didn't capitalize it in my post. A "scrum" is a daily cycle in the "Agile" development process (plenty on the web for you to search for info past what I am providing!). Agile is used mostly for software development, and as far as I can tell, the term derives solely from the rugby term. Never having played rugby (but knowing a number of rugby players through the years), a scrum is the analog of a "face off" in hockey or a "tip off" in basketball, but it is more commonly resolved by force/strength than height or speed. As I understand it, each team typically links arms-over-shoulders to form a chain, with the heaviest/strongest members in the center, lightest towards the ends. The ball is tossed to the turf by an official, and it's up to the two teams' feet to get control of the ball. My understanding as to how this applies to agile is that each scrum (usually a 1 day cycle) is violently attacked by a team working closely together on a short time schedule. How they pull this off day after day is a mystery to me, as I have not been part of the scrum process, only the coarser sprint process, which typically involves about twenty or thirty scrums, and results in a deliverable product (often in the form of a patch, release, or other incremental upgrade).

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by Bluejackets

Interesting topic. Rookie question.... What does "SCRUM" stand for?

As others have said, SCRUM is not an acronym.

What SCRUM is, is a structured periodic (daily) meeting to assess issues and find iterative improvements. This structure includes most stakeholders and people have defined roles for this meeting (customer advocate, Technical team, SCRUM master, etc.)

SCRUM is part of the Agile development cycle. The Agile development cycle is a development process whereby unaccounted for issues are expected to happen and that structured iterative releases (think software revisions) can be applied to correct for these issues.

Agile fits into the LEAN (Toyota model) development process at gates 2 and 3 (and sometimes 4).

SCRUM (and Agile/LEAN) could be applied to FRC, but would have to be setup prior to a season, as the development cycle is very short.

[Foster]

A common characteristic in Agile is the daily "stand-up", also known as the daily scrum. In a brief session, team members report to each other what they did the previous day toward their team's sprint goal, what they intend to do today toward their team's sprint goal, and any roadblocks or impediments they can see to their team's sprint goal.

A few key point. The sprint would be a set of goals to reach in a short period of time (in FRC 4 to 7 days) Like working drive base mockup (mechanical and code) in the next 5 days.

So the morning stand up would be a discussion of what needs to happen today. Cover what got done in the prior build period, what needs to happen today including process and parts. Discussing blockers is important so people can be aware of what they are and resources can be assigned to work on knocking them down.

Because of the short cycle in FRC and that people change from day to day, a standup meeting at the end of the day would be good. This gives a better continuity between sessions. It's also a chance to get a list of parts needed so they can be ordered.

The use of the scrum would give most teams the best benefits and quickest return on efforts. There is lots more to Agile, but it you would need to plan in Sept/Oct how to do a full Agile cycle.

You don't need a Scrum Master (I'm certified) to run the meetings. Keeping records of the what, when, how, who of the meeting and keeping the meeting on track (and SHORT) is the primary job.

I like a dedicated whiteboard to track the day to day stuff, YMMV.