[agile] What is the difference between Scrum and Agile Development?

What is the difference between Scrum and Agile Development? Are Sprint and Iterations the same?

This question is related to agile scrum sdlc

The answer is


Waterfall methodology is a sequential design process. This means that as each of the eight stages (conception, initiation, analysis, design, construction, testing, implementation, and maintenance) are completed, the developers move on to the next step.

As this process is sequential, once a step has been completed, developers can’t go back to a previous step – not without scratching the whole project and starting from the beginning. There’s no room for change or error, so a project outcome and an extensive plan must be set in the beginning and then followed careful

ACP Agile Certification came about as a “solution” to the disadvantages of the waterfall methodology. Instead of a sequential design process, the Agile methodology follows an incremental approach. Developers start off with a simplistic project design, and then begin to work on small modules. The work on these modules is done in weekly or monthly sprints, and at the end of each sprint, project priorities are evaluated and tests are run. These sprints allow for bugs to be discovered, and customer feedback to be incorporated into the design before the next sprint is run.

The process, with its lack of initial design and steps, is often criticized for its collaborative nature that focuses on principles rather than process.


As mentioned above by others,

Scrum is an iterative and incremental agile software development method for managing software projects and product or application development. So Scrum is in fact a type of Agile approach which is used widely in software developments.

So, Scrum is a specific flavor of Agile, specifically it is referred to as an agile project management framework.

Also Scrum has mainly two roles inside it, which are: 1. Main/Core Role 2. Ancillary Role

Main/Core role: It consists of mainly three roles: a). Scrum Master, b). Product Owner, c). Development Team.

Ancillary Role: The ancillary roles in Scrum teams are those with no formal role and infrequent involvement in the Scrum procession but nonetheless, they must be taken into account. viz. Stakeholders, Managers.

Scrum Master:- There are 6 types of meetings in scrum:

  • Daily Scrum / Standup
  • Backlog grooming: storyline
  • Scrum of Scrums
  • Sprint Planning meeting
  • Sprint review meeting
  • Sprint retrospective

Let me know if any one need more inputs on this.


How does Scrum fit into Agile Development?

While the Agile methodology can be applied to product development not only in the software industry but in other industries as well, Scrum is specific to software development.

Scrum is not a methodology. It simply provides structure, discipline and a framework for Agile development. The whole project is made up of a series of Sprints or Sprint Cycles (1 to n) where each Sprint is of the same duration. If ‘time’ is denoted by T, then T1 = T2 = T3 =… Tn. Sprints could be anywhere between 2 to 4 weeks. Sprints shorter than 2 weeks are not ideal and are used less frequently. At the end of each Sprint, a functional / working piece of software is produced that the users can actually test.

Original article is here...

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/agile-development-using-scrum-what-you-dont-know-sri-prakash?trk=prof-post


SCRUM :

SCRUM is a type of Agile approach. It is a Framework not a Methodology.

It does not provide detailed instructions to what needs to be done rather most of it is dependent on the team that is developing the software. Because the developing the project knows how the problem can be solved that is why much is left on them

Cross-functional and self-organizing teams are essential in case of scrum. There is no team leader in this case who will assign tasks to the team members rather the whole team addresses the issues or problems. It is cross-functional in a way that everyone is involved in the project right from the idea to the implementation of the project.

The advantage of scrum is that a project’s direction to be adjusted based on completed work, not on speculation or predictions.

Roles Involved : Product Owner, Scrum Master, Team Members

Agile Methodology :

Build Software applications that are unpredictable in nature

Iterative and incremental work cadences called sprints are used in this methodology.

Both Agile and SCRUM follows the system -- some of the features are developed as a part of the sprint and at the end of each sprint; the features are completed right from coding, testing and their integration into the product. A demonstration of the functionality is provided to the owner at the end of each sprint so that feedback can be taken which can be helpful for the next sprint.

Manifesto for Agile Development :

  1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
  2. Working software over comprehensive documentation
  3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
  4. Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.


At an outset what I can say is - Agile is an evolutionary methodology from Unified Process which focuses on Iterative & Incremental Development (IID). IID emphasizes iterative development more on construction phases (actual coding) and incremental deliveries. It wouldn't emphasize more on Requirements Analysis (Inception) and Design (Elaboration) being handled in the iterations itself. So, Iteration here is not a "mini project by itself".

In Agile, we take this IDD a bit further, adding more realities like Team Collaboration, Evolutionary Requirements and Design etc. And SCRUM is the tool to enable it by considering the human factors and building around 'Wisdom of the Group' principle. So, Sprint here is a "mini project by itself" bettering a pure IID model.

So, iterations implemented in Agile way are, yes, theoretically Sprints (highlighting the size of the iterations being small and deliveries being quick). I don't really differentiate between Agile and SCRUM and I see that SCRUM is a natural way of putting the Agile principles into use.


Agile and Scrum are terms used in project management. The Agile methodology employs incremental and iterative work beats that are also called sprints. Scrum, on the other hand is the type of agile approach that is used in software development.

Agile is the practice and Scrum is the process to following this practice same as eXtreme Programming (XP) and Kanban are the alternative process to following Agile development practice.