Scrum Myths

‘Scrum is bigger than software’ – Part 3 of the Scrum Myth-Buster Series


Posted by Ilan Goldstein on July 16, 2015

Welcome back and now that we’ve warmed up in part one and two with some terminology myth bugbears, let’s move up a level to some ‘bigger picture’ myths.

Scrum outside of software – you don’t say!

So here’s a serious myth for you – Scrum is an approach only for software development. Now there are no arguments from me that Scrum (in it’s current form) was certainly born out of the software industry starting with Dr Jeff Sutherland’s (founder of Scrum) success on the 1993 Easel project. It’s also true that even today, most of the stories and reports are still coming out of this space. But here’s the thing; if you read the axiomatic Scrum Guide there is no mention of the word software or engineering anywhere to be found! Scrum has been purposely abstracted above this level so that it can be applied in a whole host of other domains and industries.

The Scrum Guide

There is no mentioned of the word “software” in The Scrum Guide.

There are now many documented examples of Scrum being successfully applied outside of the software space. Here are but a few interesting examples:

Wikispeed Car

Scrum is used in the manufacturing of Wikispeed cars.

I’m getting in on the act!

These days, we are seeing more and more non-software people come along to our Certified ScrumMaster and Product Owner courses and I have personally helped teams to apply Scrum and other agile frameworks in alternative environments. Some recent coaching that comes to mind is helping a government agency to compile a white paper, assisting a tertiary education organization to develop learning-and-development training materials, helping a large financial institute to structure lower-risk marketing campaigns (check out the Agile Marketing Manifesto) and not to mention the fact that my book Scrum Shortcuts Without Cutting Corners was developed incrementally and iteratively using Scrum.

Onto the next one!

Once again, I thank you my fellow mythbusters for joining me on the third leg of our truth-revealing journey. See you next time when we tackle the next Scrum myth!

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Find out more about Scrum outside of software by taking one of our CSM training courses.

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