Agile Methodology vs Scrum: What’s the Difference?
If you’re somehow related to development, you might have heard about Scrum and Agile. However, if you haven’t had a chance to explore what exactly each of these terms means, and the difference between Agile and Scrum, you’re in the right place to learn more about them.
What is Agile?
Agile stands for the whole project management philosophy based on twelve principles, aka Agile Manifesto, established in 2001 by Agile Alliance. Let’s put these principles in a simple, rephrased way here.
- The highest priority is customer satisfaction.
- Changing requirements are welcomed.
- A shorter timescale for developing working solutions is preferable.
- Business people and developers work together on the projects.
- Projects are built around motivated people with trust in their vision.
- The best way to communicate throughout the project is a face-to-face meeting.
- The primary measure of progress is working software.
- Sustainable development is key, and the team should maintain a constant pace.
- Attention to technical excellence and designs improves agility.
- Simplicity is essential.
- The best architectures and designs emerge from self-organized teams.
- The team should regularly reflect on their work and change behavior patterns for improvements.
The Agile methodology is all about adaptivity and flexibility. While resources and time are set here, the final product elements may change a bit based on changing requirements. Given that, this methodology perfectly suits projects with fixed budgets. Also, each project iteration brings some deployed product elements, making this methodology the best fit for those who need fast development.
What is Scrum?
Scrum is a well-documented team collaboration framework based on agile principles. Its short development cycles are called sprints. Within every sprint, the development team is supposed to complete some of the project tasks and demonstrate their work to stakeholders. After each iteration, the team reflects on how they can improve the overall process. A person in charge of a scrum team called scrum master. The other two categories of a scrum team are developers and product owners. ClickUp, Jira, Asana, and Trello are the most popular scrum tools.
Agile methodology vs Scrum
What is the difference between Scrum and Agile? The main difference is that Agile is a broad compilation of philosophical principles while Scrum is a structured framework with specific elements like sprints, daily scrums, etc., and rules. However, some Agile Manifesto creators criticized Scrum for not fully correlating with Agile principles, such as the fact that individuals and interactions are valued more than processes and tools. So, are Agile and Scrum the same? No, if you take Agile versus Scrum, you can find differences in the concepts that lay their foundation. But at the very core, Agile is a more abstract representation of what’s inside the Scrum.
What is the proper methodology for your project?
If you’re looking for a methodology for your process or for organizing a dedicated development team, it’s crucial to compare various approaches. You may start by exploring Scrum, Kanban, and Waterfall models to find their strengths, weaknesses, benefits, and drawbacks for your specific needs. While Scrum helps speed up development processes, Waterfall better suits complex projects with strict specifications. At the same time, Kanban is another Agile project management framework that can help you rearrange your project vision. If you compare this kind of Agile development vs Scrum, you may find that it can optimize your project even further in some situations than it’s possible with Scrum.
Agile project management vs Scrum – Let’s sum up
If you’re comparing Scrum vs. Agile, you should consider an in-depth exploration of Agile philosophy and how well Scrum logic corresponds to its concepts. However, if you’re trying to understand the difference between an Agile team vs Scrum team, you’ll probably find that the first one is almost the same as the latter. Finally, if you’re just looking for the right team for your project, try to learn more about different project management frameworks with clear rules and workflows like Scrum, Kanban, or Waterfall. This exploration will allow you to look at your project from different perspectives and find the best way to organize your team and processes.
