Scrum

Deliver Value Faster with the Power of Scrum

How Scrum is Used at Core

Scrum enables the teams to divide large work into small manageable chunks and report progress on a regular basis. It focuses on openness, auditing and transformation.

Sprint Planning

The team settles which work must be done at the beginning of every sprint. They drag tasks out of a product backlog and promise to produce a product of a range of features within a small period, typically two to four weeks (at Core, we strive for one release once or twice per week).

Daily Scrum (Stand-Up)

Each day, the Core team holds a short meeting to talk about what they worked on, what they’re doing next, and any obstacles they’re facing. This keeps everyone aligned and helps identify issues early.

Sprint Review

At the end of the sprint, the team demonstrates what they’ve built. Stakeholders provide feedback, and the team discusses what to improve.

Sprint Retrospective

After each sprint, the team reflects on the process. They look at what went well, what didn’t, and how to improve in the next sprint.

Continuous Delivery

By delivering a working product every sprint, teams can respond to change quickly and release new features more often.

Scrum Roles

Scrum defines a few key roles that ensure clarity and accountability:

Product Owner: Responsible for defining what needs to be built and managing the product backlog. They represent the customer’s interests.
Scrum Master: Acts as a coach and facilitator. Helps remove blockers, ensures the team follows Scrum practices, and promotes a healthy working process.
Development Team: A cross-functional group that builds the product. They are self-organizing and collectively responsible for delivering the sprint goal.

Key Features of Scrum

Sprints: Short, time-boxed cycles of development.
Product Backlog: A prioritized list of features, enhancements, and fixes.
Incremental Delivery: Working software is delivered at the end of each sprint.
Empowered Teams: Developers decide how to accomplish their goals and self-organize their work.
Focus on Feedback: Regular reviews and retrospectives help teams continuously improve.

Pros and Cons of Scrum

Pros

- Fast and frequent delivery of working features.
- Highly adaptive to change, making it ideal for evolving projects.
- Encourages collaboration between team members and stakeholders.
- Promotes transparency, with daily check-ins and visible progress.
- Improves quality through early feedback and continuous improvement.

Cons

- Requires team discipline to follow ceremonies and stay on track.
- Not ideal for loosely defined projects where goals shift too often.
- Overhead from meetings can become a burden if not managed well.
- Relies on team maturity; inexperienced teams may struggle without strong guidance.
- May not scale easily without adjustments or additional frameworks (like SAFe or Scrum@Scale).

Final Thoughts

Scrum is a practical and effective way to manage work in short cycles while keeping teams focused and aligned. It helps organizations deliver value quickly, learn from feedback, and continuously improve how they work.

If you are building products in a fast-changing environment or need to keep teams closely connected to users and stakeholders, Scrum is one of the most widely adopted framework, and a proven framework adopted at Core to make that happen.