A Brief Introduction to Scrum:
Who Uses Scrum?
This is just a small sample of the name-brand firms who have changed their approach to building products.
- State Farm
- Electronic Arts
- Northrup Grumann
- Hewlett Packard
Scrum is a world-class software project delivery power tool that is designed to enable development teams to begin delivering real, working software in as little as two weeks. I recommend it to all teams who are wanting to begin agile software development because it is easy to learn and can "wrap" around existing practices to minimize organizational disruptions. It is important to note that Scrum is not a methodology: It doesn't prescribe how you should build software itself or resolve problems that arise in due course; it is a set of rules of engagement that help define who-does-what to optimize productivity and value while controlling scope.
Scrum (n): A simple framework within which people can address complex problems and productively and creatively develop products of the highest possible value.
Scrum was developed over 20 years ago by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, who adapted lean manufacturing techniques for software development projects, taking inspiration from Takeuchi and Nonaka's 1981 Harvard Business Review paper, The New New Development Game which described how Japanese firms were able to quickly bring consumer products to market with higher quality than previously attained. It has since been used by thousands of software development teams and organzations to deliver all manner of products and systems.
The core of the Scrum process framework is a repeatable 2-4 week time box called a Sprint that starts with collaborative planning between the development team and customer, and concludes with a review of the delivered product increment. Each day during the Sprint, the team has a short meeting called the Daily Scrum where they inspect their progress and make any necessary adaptations to maintain progress.