Scrum is Hard and Disruptive 11 - Scrum is Harder than Waterfall

Ryan and Todd look back at a 2006 post by Ken Schwaber, which covers 15 ways Scrum is both hard and disruptive.

The eleventh statement from Ken:

"Iterative, incremental development is much harder than waterfall development; everything that was hard in waterfall engineering practices now has to be done every iteration, which is incredibly hard. It is not impossible, but has to be worked toward over time."

Iterative and incremental development in Scrum is more challenging than traditional waterfall development, requiring constant attention to engineering practices and frequent iterations.

Extensive upfront design and architecture planning in waterfall development is believed to reduce future risks. However, software development often leads to outdated designs as customer needs and market conditions change over time.

Scrum emphasizes quick decision-making on basic architecture, like frameworks and databases, while building the product incrementally. It demands disciplined, professional attention to ongoing architectural and design decisions in response to evolving customer demands.

The Scrum approach challenges traditional development models like waterfall, where work often expands to fill the allotted time, leading to over-engineered solutions. Scrum requires a shift in mindset, focusing more on doing and building features rather than extensive planning and discussion.

Adopting Scrum effectively requires gradual, sustained effort to improve engineering practices and architecture. Teams and organizations need to develop this skill set over time, including a solid understanding of their definition of "done" to reflect the maturity of their Scrum implementation.