Project management and team building are crucial to pulling through a project successfully and not stressing out the team at the same time. Thus enter two methodologies that make software development, project management, and team management a piece of cake. Scrum and agile methodologies share similar approaches and core principles but have some key differences that separate their use cases. It’s important to know these differences to use them in distinguishing scenarios and use them for a company’s benefit. Let’s look into these two in detail and understand their different working natures.

What is Scrum Method?

Scrum is a subset of agile methodology and works on the same core principles as agile. This has become increasingly popular in software development as a team and work management tool. The main reason for its popularity is the approach towards the team and its framework. The method acknowledges that the team doesn’t know everything about the project and will learn as they proceed.

Empiricism and lean thinking serve as the foundation for the scrum methodology. According to empiricism, knowledge is gained via experience, and choices are based on what is seen. Lean thinking eliminates waste and concentrates on the necessities. Heuristic in nature, the scrum framework is built on ongoing learning and adaptation to changing circumstances.

What is Agile Method?

Agile is a philosophy on which the scrum methodology is based. Agile encourages businesses, developers, stakeholders, and clients to work together while developing a product. Agile lets teams offer service to their clients more quickly through an iterative approach to project management and software development. An agile team produces work in manageable, small-scale increments rather than staking all on a “big bang” launch. Teams have a built-in mechanism for fast adjusting to change since requirements, plans, and results are regularly evaluated.

Main Differences Between Scrum and Agile

• Agile is a philosophy/mindset that talks about principles based on the agile manifesto. Whereas scrum is a subset of the agile method, and its process framework implements agile principles.
• Leadership is crucial to the Agile method, whereas scrum encourages a self-organizing, cross-functional team where everyone works towards building the project together.
• Scrum is better suited for those who need to generate results as soon as feasible because it is a more rigid approach with less room for adjustment.
• Agile places a high priority on client happiness through frequent and timely delivery of profitable products. This is accomplished through scrum’s regular, structured incremental user feedback process.
• Agile is not always scrum, but Scrum is always Agile. This means that while scrum will include the same Agile methodology, Agile may not share all of the same characteristics as scrum.

The Benefits of Using Scrum

• Tasks are planned and achieved in increments and specific scheduled time intervals called sprints.
• After every sprint, the team takes feedback and works on the software sprint by sprint.
• It has clearly defined and realistic sprint goals, discussed and set during the sprint planning meeting.
• Scrum can deliver changes in product definition within a few iterations and can quickly adapt to those changes.
• Scrum has four time-boxed meetings for effective communication: sprint planning, daily standup, sprint review and the sprint retrospective.
• Scrum has early and timely feedback loops embedded into the process to deliver the best quality product.

The Benefits of Using Agile 

• Agile methodologies increase the sense of ownership among developers.
• The segregated teams that cause delays are eliminated with agile.
• Faster development lowers the possibility of inaccurate deliverables.
• Teams can pivot away from less-than-ideal solutions with agility.
• Agile can change to fit the specific requirements of a firm.
• Teams can self-organize using agile to form the best arrangements.
• Even in highly regulated industries or workplaces with a lot of processes, agile prioritizes connections.

Scrum or Agile, what is better for improving team productivity?

Since agile and scrum both work towards better product and team management and also have similar approaches, they are highly known to boost team productivity. But since scrum is a better practical approach, it is preferable for team management and productivity. Scrum suits best in changing work environments and project requirements, it offers the team time to change and adapt. Effective and timely planning takes the stress off the team and enables them to deliver high quality products.

Conclusion

Scrum and agile methodologies work towards the same goal- to deliver the best quality product and, in increments, to include feedback and adapt changes. However, while agile is a mindset and a philosophy of how software development teams can work, scrum is a practical application of the philosophy. The scrum framework doesn’t only apply to development teams. Its flexibility and detailed planning can be extended to every sector. Scrum is the way to go to have better-communicated team planning and a great product. Of course, there are some pros and cons to scrum and agile methodologies, but you can always choose a method that suits best for your company.

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