Agile Scrum

There are two leadership roles on a Scrum-managed Pega project: the Product Owner (PO) who represents the business, and the Scrum Master who facilitates work for the IT project team.

Specific responsibilities related to each of these roles are as follows:

Product Owner (PO):

• Represents the business and serves as a single point of contact for business decisions
• Manages the project scope and prioritization
• Sets stakeholder expectations
• Sets priorities for the Scrum team’s work by prioritizing deliverables in the backlog
• Answers questions from the Scrum team and clarifies details
• Accepts or rejects user story completion

Scrum Master:

• Is fully dedicated to the team as Scrum Master
• Teaches Scrum and coaches team members on the framework
• Runs the daily Scrum call and sprint ceremonies
• Removes impediments and barriers for the team
• Facilitates conversations between Business and IT teams as required to ensure project alignment

As a Business Architect, you will interact almost daily with the Product Owner and Scrum Master to create and manage the user stories, project backlog, collaborative sprint meetings that prioritize the work completed by the IT project team, and collect feedback from Business team stakeholders.

Software development tasks are tracked using user stories. Created by the Business Architect, each task or item of work is defined in a user story that explains what the user must do and the criteria by which the item of work is to be accepted. 

Here are some examples of application user stories in a Scrum project:

• As a bank client, I want to print a PDF file of my bank statement from a mobile app so that I can review my transactions and ending balance.
• As a parent ordering a child's birthday cake online, I want to pay for my order with Zelle so that I do not have to wait to check out at the bakery. 
• As a gamer, I want to see how much gold I have in my vault so that I can purchase additional artifacts to strengthen my character.

As a framework for project management and application development, Scrum ensures the most value-added stories are developed first, ideas are identified and delivered correctly, and stakeholders and customers are involved in the process, increasing buy-in and satisfaction. 

The product backlog is a prioritized list of all the features and requirements necessary to deliver the goal or vision. It serves as a to-do list for the team. The backlog, as a list of items, may evolve throughout a project's lifecycle. The Product Owner is responsible for prioritizing items in the backlog. The backlog itself is composed of user stories, units of work associated with Minimum Lovable Product (MLP) release.

As a BA on a Pega project, you work in conjunction with the Product Owner to create and manage the project backlog in a management tool such as Pega Platform's Agile Studio.

While not considered a Scrum event, backlog refinement is key to a successful Scrum delivery. Backlog refinement is the process of tending to and adding details to clarify user stories in your backlog. Backlog refinement fills out the detail in user stories to the point where they can be understood and prioritized by the Product Owner and implemented by the IT project team. 

One of the most value added tools that support Scrum practices for the Pega Business Architect is the Pega Express Toolkit.

The Pega Express Toolkit, found on the Pega Community website, is a repository for materials that support the Pega BA throughout project development and application delivery.

Examples of artifacts associated with Scrum include both downloadable files and articles such as:

• Scrum Basics - Scrum Roles
• Scrum Basics - User Stories
• Backlog Prioritization Techniques
• Scrum Retrospectives
• Establish Scrum Ceremonies
• Case Type Backlog
• Sprint Review

As a Pega BA, the Pega Express Toolkit will prove to be invaluable in terms of support resources that help to facilitate your project.