Agile Vs Scrum: Which is The Right One for You? A 2021 Guide

Introduction

A recent report shows that about 97% of enterprises today have adopted agile methodology and almost 55% of them are going the scrum way. This sentence itself sets in the base for the agile vs scrum distinction. In the software development lifecycle and/or project management, agile is a methodology that is made up of a set of principles, while scrum is the implementation of agile methodology or a framework.

Many in the project management field and the software development field tend to confuse agile for a scrum and vice versa, using the terms interchangeably. Let us first understand what agile and scrum mean and then explore the difference between agile and scrum.

1. What are agile and scrum?
2. What is the difference between agile and scrum?
3. Which is the right one for you? Choosing between agile and scrum methodology

1. What are agile and scrum?

Before we understand the major agile and scrum methodology differences, let us first understand the agile and scrum overview.

Agile 

As mentioned, Agile is a framework with guidelines for incremental and iterative approaches. The key highlight of Agile is that it is flexible, enables user involvement, and helps adapt the software to change continuously as per requirements. In this methodology, the product development process is broken down into small builds; testing happens simultaneously along with development; promotes better teamwork with F2F communication with every stakeholder involved – development teams, management, stakeholders, users, and more.

Scrum 

This is a framework that enables the implementation of agile principles and methods. It is one of the most dynamic agile frameworks where the development team is empowered to produce quick results, sprints that are small-sized, focus on iterative progress, teamwork, and the ability of the team to adapt to the changing requirements. In scrum, there are three main roles – product owner, scrum master, and the scrum team. 

2. What is the difference between agile and scrum?

Safe Scrum and Agile – Similarities

After the difference between the scrum and agile model, there is a need to understand the obvious similarities between agile and scrum because scrum is an agile approach.  Both work on incremental builds. Since scrum is part of agile, hence, it follows almost the same methodologies like Agile. It is important to remember that Scrum is always Agile; but not the other way around. 

Agile and Scrum explained – With the regular inspection of the product, and testing, quality control and maintenance is a big priority in agile, therefore in the scrum. Scrum follows the Agile Manifesto that contains the core values of project management and also the 12 Agile Principles. 

3. Which is the right one for you? Choosing between agile and scrum methodology

Now that you know what Agile and Scrum mean you know that you do not need to choose between the two because scrum is a part of agile. The first thing that you need to do is to decide if you wish to adopt an agile methodology for your project or not. If yes, then in the next phase, you need to decide which agile approach you would use for software development – will it be scrum or some other agile methodology. Thus, the first step is the most important one in the SDLC – agile may or may not suit your project type. So, this is a crucial step before the determination of agile vs scrum. 

Conclusion

Agile methodology is good for projects that have flexible scope and requirements. So, if your project suits agile adaptability, then you need to decide if it is going to be scrum or not. Scrum is suitable for projects where the requirements are routinely changing and the project requires regular testing. 

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