Note : Before asking this question I did an exhaustive search, and found little bits of the answer in various other questions, for example:
- What is the best resource for learning Scrum?
- Scrum Process Management - tips, pitfalls, ideas
- Two questions regarding Scrum
However, I feel like this question hasn't been directly addressed (if it has, please let me know).
Do you track time in Scrum as a function of hours/days spent on a task, or simply whether that task is complete or not? Can you adjust those tasks and estimates?
Background: Our new VP of development came from a Scrum environment, and so we're all learning about the process, but one of the things he has brought with him is the concept of very carefully quoting estimates of actual hours each task should require to complete, with the intention of getting more accurate with our estimates over time: thus once a project has started we cannot add new tasks or adjust the hourly estimates on those tasks.
But it was my understanding that agile practices, specifically Scrum, were based upon the concept of tasks being buckets that store individual deliverable goals, and you add/remove/adjust them as the clients' needs evolve after each sprint.
I realize this could potentially be argumentative, but I assume that viewing Scrum as a process, only one of those concepts is the "correct" philosophy for that system.