Scrum
Scrum is one of the more popular Agile Software Development techniques. Interestingly enough it just Waterfall Software Development rebranded. It is one of the few that you can purchase training and certification for, which should be your clue that Scrum really isn’t agile in the strictest sense. However, in comparison to other techniques like Six Sigma it is much lighter weight. There are some good points which you should try in whatever development process you use.
The good:
- Sprint Planning
- Scrum Team
- Definition of Done / Acceptance Criteria
- Retrospective
The bad:
- Daily Scrum / Standup
- Backlog Grooming
- Points
- Burn-down Charts
The ugly:
- Infinite Backlog
- Sprints
- Moving Goal Posts / Crunch Culture
- “Full stack”
- Ceremonies
Most of the good part of Scrum align the team’s focus with delivering value. Most of the bad and ugly parts are ceremonies, which folks oft confuse as value. This can lead to a death spiral of more formal process being used as a “fix” for a delivery problem.
Care must be taken as following Scrum does not guarantee results. Instead Scrum should be treated like a collection of light weight techniques that can be applied or ignored as needed.