Agile vs Scrum: The Differences You Need To Know

Agile and Scrum are some of the most popular project management methodologies in the world. These involve the business, stakeholders, developers, and clients to develop the product most efficiently and effectively. In this article on Scrum vs. Agile, we’re covering the following topics:

• What is Agile?
• Agile Methodologies
• What is Scrum?
• How does Scrum Work?
• Scrum Vs. Agile

Before we get into Scrum vs. Agile's concepts, we’ll cover each of these topics separately. So, let’s talk about Agile now.

What is Agile?

Agile is a set of popular principles used in project management and software development to ensure teams deliver value to their customers at a faster rate. The Agile process delivers outputs in small consumable increments. Thanks to the requirements, plans, and results being continuously evaluated, teams can respond to changes quickly.

Now, let’s continue with some agile methodologies. 

Agile Methodologies

1. Extreme Programming

Extreme programming is a framework that enables teams to create high-quality software while improving their quality of life. It allows software developers to use the best engineering practices.

2. Kanban

Kanban is a methodology used to design, manage, and improve the process flow in systems. With this, organizations can visualize the flow of work and limit the amount of work left in progress.

3. Lean

Lean is a set of tools and principles that can identify and remove the amount of waste produced, increasing process development speed. The aim is to maximize the value of the client by making sure waste is minimized.

4. Scrum

Scrum is a popular agile methodology which we’ll cover in detail in a little bit.

5. Crystal

Crystal is an approach to software development that focuses on people and their interactions, rather than tools and processes, and aims to streamline processes and improve optimization.

What is Scrum?

Scrum is a popular agile framework used by teams to establish a hypothesis, try it out, reflect on the experience, and make adjustments. Teams are also able to incorporate practices from other frameworks depending on their requirements. 

With Scrum: 

• Teams can deliver deliverables efficiently
• It enables to use their time and money efficiently
• Teams have greater visibility
• Gain feedback from clients and customers
• Individual effort of team members are given focus

Let’s now talk about the Scrum framework. 

Scrum Framework

Let’s talk about each of these steps.

1. Product Backlog

A list of tasks that need to be completed to achieve the stakeholders' goals is set up.

2. Sprint Planning

The team determines the tasks from the product catalog they aim to work on during the sprint.

3. Sprint Backlog

The tasks discussed during the sprint planning process are added to the sprint backlog.

4. Scrum Team

A team of 5 to 9 members work on the tasks.

5. Daily Scrum

The team has daily scrum meetings of 15 minutes, where the team members synchronize their activities and plan what they plan to do for the next 24 hours.

6. Sprint Review

Once the sprint is complete, a sprint review takes place. This review involves the scrum master, product owner, and stakeholders. During this meeting, the team shows off what they accomplished during the sprint. During this time, questions are asked, observations are made, feedback and suggestions are also given.

7. Product Backlog (2)

The product owner presents the product backlog to the stakeholders to get their feedback for upcoming sprints and other related product backlogs.

8. Sprint Retrospective

After the review is done, a meeting called sprint retrospective takes place. During this meeting, past mistakes, potential problems, and new ways to handle issues are identified. Data from here is incorporated into the new sprint.

9. Increment

A workable output is given to the stakeholders.

Up next, we’ll talk about scrum vs. agile.

Agile vs. Scrum

	Agile	Scrum
Methodology	It’s a set of principles that are iterative and incremental	It’s an implementation of an agile methodology
Projects	It’s best suited for projects that involve a small team of experts	It’s used in projects where the requirements are changing constantly
Leadership	The project head takes care of all tasks and is vital to the project	There’s no leader. The Scrum master and the team addresses the issues
Flexibility	Changes cannot be handled frequently	Teams can react to changes quickly
Delivery	The methodology provides frequent delivery to the end-user	With each sprint, builds are delivered to other clients for feedback
Collaboration	Face-to-face interaction takes places across cross-functional teams	The daily stand-up meeting enables collaboration between the team members
Design	The design and execution is simple	The design and execution can be innovative and experimental

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Next Steps

In this article on Scrum vs. Agile, we covered how these methodologies are different from each other. Think you need to upskill a little more to make the cut? You can check out Simplilearn’s Agile Scrum Master Certification Training Course. In the course, we’ll cover how Agile can be implemented, different Agile methodologies, Scrum concepts, and much more in detail. The course will also enhance your ability to develop and deliver quality products to customers. 

And in case you have any questions, let us know in the comments section of this ‘Scrum vs. Agile’ article, and our experts will get back to you at the earliest!