Scrum Terminology

Following article on Scrum is very well defined. I think this would be useful for few out there...

Scrum Terminology

is made up of three roles, four ceremonies, and three artifacts.

Three roles

• Product owner: responsible for the business value of the project
• ScrumMaster: ensures that the team is functional and productive
• Team: self-organizes to get the work done

Four ceremonies

• Sprint planning: the team meets with the product owner to choose a set of work to deliver during a sprint
• Daily scrum: the team meets each day to share struggles and progress
• Sprint reviews: the team demonstrates to the product owner what it has completed during the sprint
• Sprint retrospectives: the team looks for ways to improve the product and the process.

Three artifacts

• Product backlog: prioritized list of desired project outcomes/features
• Sprint backlog: set of work from the product backlog that the team agrees to complete in a sprint, broken into tasks
• Burndown chart: at-a-glance look at the work remaining (can have two charts: one for the sprint and one for the overall project)

[Source]

What is Velocity in Agile Environment?

Velocity is the rate at which Sprint teams delivers business value at consistent rate. Velocity is calculated by adding story points of the user stories which are successfully accepted by business in a sprint.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Recently I took a session in my company on SaaS and Cloud Computing.
Here I am sharing few information about it.

Definition of SaaS
It is a software delivery model in which software and its associated data are hosted centrally (typically in the (Internet) cloud) and are typically accessed by users using a thin client, normally using a web browser over the Internet.

Advantages for Customers

• No Capital Expenditure
• No Software Installation Cost
• No Maintenance Cost
• No Upgrades Headache

All above is done by SaaS Providers

Disadvantages of SaaS

• Security and confidentiality
• Choose ISO 27001-certified, or equivalently trustworthy partnering data center
• Risk of data loss
• Dependence on high speed internet
• Low predictability of cost
• Not all applications have SaaS versions yet
• In many cases SaaS versions may not be as powerful as non-SaaS ones

When to use Saas

• intercompany projects are initiated
• Partners and customers need to be connected within a project
• new software is being tested in pilot projects
• you expect to use new software, unencumbered, straight out of the box
• Your organization lacks an internal IT department

When Not to use Saas

• In-house professional IT support
• highly confidential data
• large number of ongoing projects with many participants
• Continuous customization required

It holds little potential for a project-oriented company with its own IT.