Consider Scrum Framework for Efficient eLearning Development

The Scrum framework offers an approach to projectdevelopment and management that is related to the agile software development model. Agile development places an emphasis oniterative development by collaborative teams that are responsive to customerfeedback.

Agilemethodology does not prescribe specific steps to developing an eLearning orother software product. Scrum offers a team-based approach that fits within theagile paradigm.

The Scrum team

A Scrum team includes a project owner and a scrum master,along with team members. Each team is self-managing. Thus, while the project owneris responsible for communicating the project vision to the team and forrepresenting the customers, including any learners who will use the endproduct, the project owner is not the manager or boss of other team members. Theproject owner identifies, prioritizes, and maintains a list of tasks that mustbe done over the project. This is the “backlog.”

The scrum master is a sort of coach who guides the team inimplementing Scrum methods. The scrum master also encourages debate among teammembers and helps them reach consensus. If the team encounters any barriers toprogress, the scrum master attempts to remove or resolve these, facilitatingthe team’s ability to accomplish its goals during a sprint and throughout theproject.

A foundational assumption in Scrum teams is that thedevelopment team members are the people best positioned to solve anydevelopment problem they encounter. Ideally, a Scrum team has between three andnine members whose expertise includes programming, engineering, projectarchitecture, and more. In an eLearning development project, the team might be amix of instructional designers, developers, testers, user interface designers, andeven animation or audio experts. The entire team takes the project through tocompletion.

The Scrum framework

Organizations devoted to promoting Scrum emphasize that itis not a process or definitive method; it is a framework for approachingproject management and development that allows the development team to choosethe best processes and techniques for the problem at hand. Like the agile approach,specific steps are not dictated. Also like agile, the Scrum methodology isiterative; that is, prototypes are tested and user feedback is incorporatedinto the design during development. This is in contrast to “waterfall”approaches, such as ADDIE,that only provide access to users—and solicit feedback or evaluation—oncedevelopment is complete.

Scrum development occurs in short bursts called “sprints.” AScrum team carries out these sprints following the sprint planning meeting.

A sprint can be anywhere from day to a month in length. Asprint creates a defined, usable product, as determined in a sprint planningmeeting. During the sprint, the development team may ask the project owner forclarification on the scope and goal of the sprint, but the scope is notchanged. Sprints are limited to a month to avoid defining goals that are socomplex that changes or scope creep could derail the team’s focus or ability toprogress toward the overarching goal.

Likewise, a sprint planning meeting is limited in time. Fora one-month sprint, the planning session can be up to eight hours long;planning sessions are shorter for shorter sprints. The planning session definesthe goal for the sprint. The scrum master ensures that the team sticks to thetime limits. During the planning meeting, the team chooses tasks from theproject owner’s backlog to complete during the sprint.

In addition to the planning meeting for the entire sprint,each day includes a “daily scrum.” This 15-minute all-team meeting allows theteam members to review the previous day’s work and plan their individual tasksfor the next day.

At the end of a sprint, the team holds a sprint review or“retrospective.” At this meeting, the project owner reports on what work itemshave been completed during the sprint—and what remains to be done. The teamconducts a postmortem, discussing what went well, what problems arose, and howthey could resolve or avoid those problems in future sprints. The teamdiscussion provides a launching pad for the next sprint planning meeting—andthe cycle continues.

Using Scrum in eLearning development

A key element of the Scrum approach is soliciting feedbackon each increment and element of the project, throughout the developmentprocess. The stakeholders’ feedback is used to improve the design of theeLearning—while it is still under development and changes can be made withoutscrapping months of development work. “The process allows for software to bedeveloped quickly and changes to be easily incorporated into the process, whichimproves the quality of the final product, reducing risk and increasing thereturn on investment,” Karl Kapp writes in “What is a Scrum and How is itRelated to ISD?” (see References).

An additional plus of the iterative style and short sprintsis that the development process is flexible. It recognizes and accommodates thereality that the project goals or scope might change during development. Thismight be because the managers requesting the training changed their list oflearning objectives, because the tools that learners will need to use havechanged, or because additional needs arose. Whatever the reason, a Scrum teamcan adapt, incorporating new and changed goals into the eLearning underdevelopment. In the same vein, if the initial design does not turn out to meetthe needs of the stakeholders, or the learners dislike (or misunderstand) theway it works, testing a prototype can reveal where things went wrong—and theproblems can be fixed prior to release.

References

James, Michael. “An Empirical Framework For Learning (Not a Methodology).” ScrumMethodology.com.

Kapp, Karl. “What is a Scrum and How is it Related to ISD?” KarlKapp.com. 16 June 2011.

Scrum.org. “What is Scrum?”