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Scrum

The widely popular king of the hill.

Scrum is the ruling mainstream agile methodology, probably with XP right behind it. Most agile projects probably use some mix of these.

📝 Scrum is idiot-safe, meaning it is sure to attract idiots. The theory of Scrum is so simple to understand, that many are tempted to put all their faith into Scrum saving their doomed project. Know this: A doomed project that is sure to fail will also fail if you apply Scrum. The only difference is that you'll discover how doomed it is after 1 sprint and cancel the project (para-quote from Ken Schwaber's talk).

The best thing about Scrum is that it is an easy sell. It's so easy to understand and communicate that it will inspire the audience into trying out Agile for the first time (I mean, cool terms like "Sprint" and "Burndown", who would want to miss out on that?).

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Scrum for beginners

We have made a 1 hour intro on Scrum. Feel free to use it:

^scrum-english.ppt

Certified ScrumMaster

The definition of a "certified" ScrumMaster means that she or he has participated on a weekend long course listening to a Scrum trainer. They have probably learned something over that weekend, but it is by no means a guarantee that the person is a capable scrum master.

Uncle Bob wrote a very good message to the Scrum User mailing list in February 2010 regarding Scrum's shortcomings. The message touches on this subject, and other good points on Scrum as well.

Scrum for advanced use

If you feel you're comfortable with Scrum, try googling these keylines:

  • Distributed Scrum
  • Scrum pitfalls

Resources

Basically, the internet is overloaded with material on Scrum, and much of it is very good. If you are uncapable of Googling, start off with these:

Articles

  • Scrum in wikipedia
  • http://www.infoq.com/scrum
  • http://www.controlchaos.com
  • http://mountaingoatsoftware.com/scrum
  • http://scrumalliance.pbwiki.com/Scrum-Smells
  • Scrum Checklists

Videos

Books

Blog-posts