Considerations about the efficiency and sufficiency of the utilization of the Scrum methodology: A survey for analyzing results for development teams

Abstract

Abstract SCRUM is an important strategy used for software development. However, developers may face specific issues considered relevant that might fail to lead to the best solutions implemented or result in longer development times. Literature has a significant number of ”best practices” to guide development teams; however, sometimes are very theoretical and may or may not be relevant to a particular environment or organization. This study evaluated these best practices in terms of if they were properly followed and how effective they were within various organizations. Aiming to gather information as to how tasks are actually performed as compared to SCRUM standard practices, the study performed a survey to software developers, product owners, and others. The survey focused on gathering and presenting data on the perceptions, needs, activities and issues from the various Scrum traditional roles involved in software development. A questionnaire was designed that included 15 multiple-choice questions and 2 open ended questions, Questions related to effectiveness of collecting development features/requirements, daily meetings duration, overall efficiency of the Scrum structure, and interactions with Product Owners all were distributed within multiple organizations. Overall, the study compared the implementation and use of SCRUM effectiveness based on traditional methodology SCRUM methodology. The study was designed to aid all roles involved in scrum when implementing such a framework within an organization. This study focused on specific features considered relevant for successfully developing systems using SCRUM as methodology. Among these features, the focus were on: (1) is the ticket allocation strategy effectiveness for the development processes? (2) are the daily stand-up meetings efficient and do they represent an important activity during the process? (3) is the timeline defined for each sprint appropriate? and (4) are the team members improving their capabilities on designing, coding and testing activities as they might be allocated to perform a variety of front or back-end development activities? As with other best practices, whether software development related or in other industries, theoretical guidelines should only serve as a basis for implementation as each organization has its unique characteristics, varying number of software developers, and local requirements.