Scrum an Agile Framework
The 21st century is becoming more and more dependent on software than ever before, in the 20th century most companies had predefined projects and was therefore more predictable. With predefined projects, the tasks involved in developing or manufacturing the final product could be planned in advance. If the requirements, design and implementation can be planned in advance and the final goal is in sight, a framework called the waterfall method is suitable. It is a step driven method were each step is planned in advance.
In software development the waterfall method is not as suitable, as the market today calls for more flexibility and responsiveness, hence more unpredictability. The Scrum method is more suitable for projects that are unpredictable, that is the requirements and design of the project is constantly changing. Scrum works on the agile framework, by using iterative and incremental processes in order to cope with the ever changing requirements and customers’ needs.
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History
The Godfathers of Scrum
Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka are regarded as the godfathers of Scrum. They realized that companies were moving towards more flexibility and speed in developing new products, at the same time minimizing cost and have high quality products. Takeuchi and Nonaka, described the old approach as a relay race, a team working towards a common goal but not working together at the same time to reach their goals, instead one player ran at a time and when he finished the next one could go. This is much like the waterfall method. Takeuchi and Nonaka introduced a new holistic approach and described it as a rugby team working together to reach a common goal.[1]
Modern Scrum
In the 90´s Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber continued working on the idea from Takeuchi and Nonaka, it later involved into the Scrum method. In 1995, they first presented their method at the Oopsla conference in the US and published a paper “SCRUM Software Development Process”.[2]
Sutherland and Schwaber developed the Scrum method with software development in mind. Complex software development projects can have a high level of uncertainty and are constantly changing, therefore the traditional step-by-step method did not fit.[2]
In 2001, Sutherland and Schwaber alongside 15 other software developers worked together to come up with the Agile Manifesto. The Agile Manifesto is a set of 12 principles for software development.[2]
