Agile vs Scrum: Which Project Methodology do You Choose

Last updated on May 23rd, 2023

Every company or group wants to hear ideas to help them do their jobs better. It helps keep the cost and quality of the service the same. So, picking a good Project Manager is just as important as choosing the right way to run a project. So, let’s discuss Agile vs Scrum when discussing project management methods. These methods give the product a steady, step-by-step growth.

Agile and Scrum are project management systems that are based on sprints. So, they work toward the same goal of giving the stakeholders the most value possible. But in the agile method, sprint refers to the time slots. The team fills these slots to finish the tasks, deliverables, and milestones. Also, sprints are called “iterations.” This means that the project delivery schedule needs to be broken up into small chunks of time that can be used to keep track of how much work was done.

Before we discuss Agile and Scrum in more detail, let’s discuss these methods individually.

Table of Contents

What is the Agile method?

Agile is the process that tests and builds during the SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle). So, this method encourages testing and making products at the same time. Also, it is a big part of getting people to talk to each other in person. Businesses, stakeholders, and developers work together during this process to make the product.

Principles Of Agile:

• This method’s primary goal is to provide early, continuous, and helpful delivery.

• The agile process takes advantage of the change to meet the needs of a growing market.

• Help, trust, and encourage the team members to do their best work.

• The team thinks about how to be more effective regularly and changes its behavior accordingly.

• Communication with the customer over negotiating a contract.

• Focuses on the technical details to improve agility.

Pros of the Agile Methodology

Because Waterfall’s process is rigid and linear, Agile came along in the 1990s to help with different lightweight software approaches. The Agile vs Scrum Methodology is mostly about being flexible, continually improving, and getting things done quickly. Some of the essential benefits of Agile methods are,

1. Stakeholders Engagement

2. Let Changes Happen

3. Transparent

4. Quality

5. Delivery You Can Count On

6. Cost and schedule that can be predicted

Bad things about Agile vs Scrum method:

According to the above, flexibility is a good thing about the Agile process. But they also have some terrible things about them. Some items that are wrong with Agile are:

1. Sometimes, it can be hard to say precisely when a feature will be ready.

2. Agile teams are usually made up of a few people,

3. The development team member has the most to do with how well the Agile process works.

4. The Agile Manifesto says that much documentation should be made during development. But some developers may think documentation isn’t as necessary.

What is the Scrum method?

Scrum is the process in the SDLC that tests and builds all the time (Software Development Life Cycle). So, this method encourages testing and making products at the same time. It also helps people talk to each other in person in a big way. During this process, the people who have an interest, the businesses, and the developers all work together. This helps make the product better.

Backlogs of products
Backlogs for sprints
Sprint goals

The main ideas behind Scrum are:

• Commitment

• Courage

• Focus

• Respect

• Openness

Scrum’s Pros and Cons:

Through the sprint, the process lets us develop a product that is good enough to sell even when the development team is working at full speed. This incremental delivery system always shortens the time for the stakeholders, and it may lead to more money because each completed backlog is a new product release. So, in a nutshell, scrum is a framework with prominent roles and ceremonies. There are many things to learn in this process, but these rules also have a lot of benefits. Scrums are most often used because,

1. The scrum process is much more open and lets you see how a project is coming along. Confusion and misunderstanding. Problems are found ahead of time, so the team has time to solve them.

2. The scrum process has always made teams more responsible.

3. The short sprint duration of 1 – 2 weeks allows regular feedback from the stakeholders or testing team related to the sprint release.

4. The scrum process ensures that time and money are used well.

5. Since Scrum is an agile method, customers and stakeholders can always give feedback.

6. During the daily scrum meetings, it’s easy to see what each team member has done.

Disadvantages of Scrum

Even though the Scrums process has some of the same pros as the Agile process, it also has some cons. Every team member had to have a lot of experience and be very dedicated for the scrum process to work. Some things that are wrong with Scrum are:

1. Scope creep can happen in some Scrum projects because there are no set end dates.

2. In this process, every team member must know the Scrum principles well enough to reach the end goal.

3. A Scrum master is not a project manager in the Scrum process. The scrum master’s only job is to help the team work together.

4. In the Scrum Process, it’s hard to know how much a project will cost and how long it will take if tasks aren’t well defined.

Which method should you choose, Agile vs Scrum?

At first glance, you might think that the two approaches are similar. But the points below will help explain the differences between agile and Scrum.

• Agile is a type of philosophy, while Scrum is an agile method.

• The delivery is done at the end of a project using the Agile method. In the Scrum method, the project moves forward by using sprints.

• People from the cross-functional team are part of Agile, but people with different roles, like a scrum master and a product owner, are on the Scrum project team.

So, the conclusion about how agile and scrum methodologies differ can be stated very clearly. We can say that Scrum is an Agile method, but that doesn’t mean that Agile always means Scrum. Also, Agile is one of the most important ways to manage projects. Scrum, on the other hand, is a part of the agile method used to help people with different tasks.

There are many other ways to finish different projects using the agile process. But to complete a project, you need to look at what’s going on and choose the best way to do it. This is the best way to do things, and will work best. But if you think the agile methodology is the best way to finish the project, you still need to figure out which method in agile is best. On the other hand, the Scrum method can be suitable for projects that won’t stay the same and will change.

So, it’s not hard to pick the proper method for a project; it’s hard to put it into action and do it right. So, you need to know everything there is to know about project management. Also, having experience with agile scrum master certification will significantly help the company.

When it’s best to use Agile

Agile works well for projects still going on and for projects where some details aren’t precise at the start. Because of this, Agile is suitable for industries that change often or in ways that are hard to predict or for teams making a new product. Event planning is an excellent example of a project that might work better with a more traditional project management style, like Waterfall, because it has strict limits, like a set time and budget.

When to use the Scrum method

Scrum is a great way to handle complex projects in constantly changing environments. Scrum is an Agile method that works well for continually changing industries or projects that are the first of their kind. A more traditional approach might be better if you’re working with fixed requirements or an organization that doesn’t make it easy to work with people from different departments.

When do we have to start using a hybrid process for Agile vs Scrum?

There were times when the pure Scrum method didn’t work for the project. We can try a hybrid model in these situations. There are a lot of ways that are based on the ideas of Agile or Scrum, and we can use those frameworks to make scaling the project more manageable.

The Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) uses Agile vs Scrum to build a solid foundation for scaling. DAD was made to make Agile work better by combining ideas from Scrum, Extreme Programming, and other methods.

Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS), which adds scaling rules and guidelines to Scrum, and Scaled Agile Framework (SaFE), based on Lean and Agile principles, are two other hybrid methods.

Are You Still Confused Between Agile vs Scrum Methods?

Choosing Agile vs Scrum seems hard enough if you don’t know which. These two are often used in place of each other. When you decide to use the Agile framework, you can add the Scrum method to the process.

Agile and Scrum have a lot in common regarding making software. For example, teams can work together openly because they are iterative. Even though Agile lets you use different methods, your development team will do best if you choose the one that works best for them.

The success of your team depends on how healthy work gets done. This includes the methods and frameworks you use to deliver and finish your software product regularly. Whether or not your team uses Agile and Scrum together, they must ensure quality.

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