What are the values involved with scrum?

Since the invention of the scrum software development process, it gradually became popular among the programmers and developers because of its values. 

In this article we are going to discuss about the values that made the scrum development process quite popular in the field of the software engineering. 

Values associated with Scrum Methodology

The scrum is known to support the values of:

  i) Commitment

 ii) Focus

iii) Respect

iv) Openness and

 v) Courage

The scrum is said to be powered by the above mentioned values. It may seem like following so many of the values might be so difficult! But to be honest there is nothing like that in scrum and this is what makes the scrum as one of the best agile software development methodology. You just have to follow these values to the maximum extent you can and later on it is taken care of by the development process itself.

1. Commitment

- Commitment as we know is an art in itself i.e., it is the art of binding oneself with the task at hand. 

- According to the philosophy behind the scrum software development process,  a person can only act if he/ she can commit himself/ herself to the task or work whatever the case may be. 

- Normally, it happens that we work in a state of inaction, which means we work quite unwillingly. 

- Scrum helps you to commit to the tasks. 

- For a genuine scrum process usually high levels of commitment have been observed. 

- The authenticity of a scrum process is maintained by the level of commitment of the members of the development team towards the whole development process.

2. Respect

- Respect is a value that is considered to inculcate a feeling of self esteem in a person for others as well as for oneself and also towards the work that is being done.

- There is no doubt regarding whether the scrum supports this value or not! Of course it does. 

- According to the philosophy of the scrum, no positive communication can be developed without a feeling of respect towards one’s and towards all.

- Due to a lack of respect there are possibilities of misunderstandings developing among the team members which in turn may hurt the sentiments of the people. 

- This is another value that plays an important role in maintaining the authenticity of the scrum process. 

- Respectful iterations are needed.

3. Focus

- By focusing on a particular task you concentrate all your attention on a task. 

- This value is encouraged by the scrum since according to its philosophy without focus, you cannot pay attention to any task in any meaningful way. 

- Without focusing, learning cannot be done in a meaningful way either.

- For a scrum process to be quite genuine and authentic, high levels of effective focus are required.

4. Openness

- Openness is a value of the character or behaviour of an individual defining one’s attitude of ready accessibility.

- It means one’s actions do not speck of secrecy and concealment. 

- Scrum has a habit of dealing only with openness. 

- Scrum involves extensive sharing of information among the team members. 

- This value increases the transparency of the whole development process. 

- In a genuine and authentic manner, everyone knows everything about the process and the project.

5. Courage

- Courage is strongly supported by the scrum because the truth about the reality becomes obscured when nobody speaks out regarding it. 

- Often it happens that many of the team members feel very insecure while describing the reality, they fear they might get fired.