Using Scrum in a side project with distributed teams
Date
2013
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
TÜ Viljandi Kultuuriakadeemia
Abstract
Scrum is the most popular agile software development methodology in use today (VersionOne,
2013), (West & Grant, 2010), (Begel & Nagappan, 2007). Many of the Scrum teams work in virtual
distributed formations (VersionOne, 2013). The distributed work model introduces multiple
burdens, like communication issues, matter of trust, time zones and cultural differences to the teams,
which can severely affect performance (Deemer, s.a.). As a result, dislocated Scrum teams have a
considerably lower success rate than collocated ones according to various surveys (Ambler S. W.,
2008), (Ambler S. W., Agility at Scale Survey 2012, 2012), (Cohn, 2010).
This paper researches the topic of “Using Scrum in a side project with distributed teams” and consist
of three main parts: theoretical background, methods and results.
In the theoretical background we cover the different software development methodologies, agile
methodology in particular. We take a deeper look into Scrum; it's history, roles in Scrum, Scrum
artifacts and ceremonies. We also briefly discuss virtual teams theory.
In the methods we cover the online contract bridge card game development, Lean Startup and
Business Model Generation as part of business development, background info on contract bridge,
validating the idea, the design and development tools used to build the minimum viable product and
the methods of data collection for Scrum.
In the results we describe our implementation of Scrum, the building of the minimum viable
product, and research made into other early stage startup teams to support our own findings.