Misconceptions about the Scrum Framework

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it.” This is how the Agile Manifesto starts. In simple words, the way people have learnt better ways of implementing Agile is by doing it and trying out things. As such practitioners have tried out multiple things and some of those have worked and some didn’t. However, with time, a few misconceptions started getting associated with Scrum. We will look at some of the most common ones.

a)Documentation – There is this belief in certain quarters that there is no documentation in Scrum. Obviously, not correct. Compared to traditional project management, there is less documentation in Scrum Documentation in Scrum is as per the requirement of the project and stakeholders and is kept to a minimum.

b)Planning –This is another misconception where people believe that there is no planning in Scrum. The reality is that unlike traditional project Management which involves a lot of upfront planning, Scrum believes in iterative planning because remember scope and priorities keep on changing in Scrum. As such there is no use planning for everything at the beginning of the project.

c)Only meant for collocated teams –Although it is true that the principles behind Agile manifesto state that, “The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.”, still with teams working from all around the world, it is not possible to always have collocated teams. With globalization, you have companies with offices around the world and teams working together. Even with distributed teams, you could still have face-to-face conversations with the help of web conferencing tools. These are as good as being in the same room.

 d)Only meant for Software Development – Since the Agile Manifesto was meant for Software Development and it started with Software Development, there is this misconception that Scrum cannot be applied in any other industry. That is actually not the case. With time Scrum framework also evolved and is currently being used in almost every industry. Scrum is best suited for projects where the domain is exploratory/unpredictable and a lot of change is expected.

 e)Only meant for Small projects: Since Scrum recommends a team size of 6-10 people with some research showing the productivity of Scrum teams going down with anything more than 6 people in a team, it is erroneously believed that Scrum is meant only for small projects. It is true that Scrum recommends small teams but one Scrum project could have multiple Scrum teams. As such, you could easily scale up and deliver bigger projects. The 3rd edition of Scrum Body of Knowledge (SBOK?Guide) has two additional chapters detailing Scaling Scrum for Large projects and Scaling Scrum for Enterprise.