Dum-du-dum Scrum!
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Today I want to talk about… Uhm… Scrum. Yes, I know to all my new visitors, the word Scrum might seem like a new, strange word, or if not, good! You’ve done your homework in game design! But for the rest of us game design students, scrum is a planning device that the people that I’ve met in my course either love or hate. Or maybe I should say, in the time that I have used Scrum, I have both loved it and hated it. But why does Scrum cause such intense feelings? Well, in a short summary for all my new visitors, Scrum is a framework which allows people in a game design group to keep track of all the objects that they are going to create or have created for an upcoming video game. This framework, which was created by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, is meant to be “Easy to understand” and “Difficult to Master” (https://www.scrum.org/), and that is exactly what it is. Scrum is easy to understand, but it was not easy to learn, and for a while, not easy to remember. However, I will say that it helped me keep track in my schedule, something that I have struggled with for as long as I can remember, and it helped me become more responsible to my group, as well as more responsible with my own life.
In the Scrum framework, the Scrum-master sets up in the backlog everything that needs to be created for a video game, and for each week, each of the team-members focus on specific tasks that will later be reviewed by the end of the week. While it seems simple in the description, it was not easy in the beginning of the course, at least not for me, to follow the rules in the framework. For example, I would assign tasks for a week that needed other tasks to be finished before I could continue. I added too many tasks for each week, and in each review, I felt like I hadn’t done enough. I think the reason for this is that I am not used to set up schedules, but surprisingly, this framework, while difficult at times, has done nothing but wonders for my programming, and also for me as an adult. It taught me about responsibility and how to be useful to my group, and as of now, I am more in control of my studies, I am more in control on what to focus on, and I have managed to grow as both an individual and a programmer, which has only benefited my group. On a more personal note, Scrum has done minor, but important, changes in my life, since I now have a new sense of control, which is something that I will always remember. If you’re someone who is looking for more control in your life, I highly recommend setting up a schedule and to make plans for each and everyday. It will be useful for you, and for everyone surrounding you. In conclusion, while Scrum was difficult to manage in the beginning, it has only benefited my team of game designers, and I highly recommend it to any newcomer who is interested in creating a video game in a limited amount of time. Good stuff!
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