When using an agile process, is Pair Programming required? In fact, a 2009 survey by SearchSoftwareQuality found that 56 percent of organizations were using an agile process on at least some of their projects. With this long history, agile processes like Scrum have clearly passed the fad stage. Other agile processes started popping up shortly after this but the term “agile” was first applied to Scrum and similar processes in early 2001.
#Scrum process software
Software teams started using the Scrum agile process in 1993. The first paper on Scrum appeared in the Harvard Business Review in January 1986. Scrum has been around a lot longer than you may think. In order to remain competitive, companies developing software need an agile process that can help them keep up with the accelerating rate of change.Īgile and Scrum helps teams develop software quicker, and at lower costs, giving them a competitive advantage in a fast-paced market. Today's “fast enough” will likely not be fast enough tomorrow. There is no reason not to expect this quickening trend to continue. Product development cycles that were acceptable 10 years ago would be laughable now. Keep in mind, though, that the rate of change in the world has accelerated dramatically over the past 30 years and especially over the past 10. If whatever process you're using today is working, by all means stick with it. The data behind these claims are available in Chapter 1 of Mike Cohn's book, "Succeeding with Agile." What's so bad about Waterfall development?
Having more engaged employees leads to more productivity gains, initiating a virtuous cycle of continuous improvement. Organizations that have made the switch to the Scrum agile process report the following benefits, all of which are related and build on each other: The benefits of doing so must outweigh the cost.
The flexibility of the agile process is a large part of its appeal. You can choose to primarily use Scrum, for instance, but also incorporate some of the desirable features of the other agile processes.įor example, many teams that use Scrum also employ test-driven development and pair programming, both of which are components of Extreme Programming. Unlike refrigerators, however, you can customize the agile process to better fit your team.
In the same way that Maytag is a brand of refrigerator, Scrum is a brand of agile. You would leave the store, let's say with a Maytag, because its unique features best fit your needs. You might see refrigerators from Maytag, General Electric, Viking, Whirlpool, Frigidaire, SubZero, Bosch and so on. Another way to think about the relationship between agile and Scrum is this: If your refrigerator were to break, you would go to an appliance store and be shown various refrigerators.