John McFadyen walks us through his interpretation of what Scrum is and how it is most effectively deployed in developing great products.   

Scrum is a process invested by Dr Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber in the early 90s. It went through several years of testing and iterations before being launched in 1995 as a great way for software engineers to build and develop software.  

Since then, it has had multiple applications outside of the software engineering environment and is one of the most widely adopted Agile frameworks available today.  

I like to think of Scrum in the same way that you think about scaffolding around a new building or renovation.  

The scaffolding gives you a rough idea of the size and scope of the building but doesn't show you the details such as windows, doorways and any decorative features.  

It is a lightweight framework that gives you an idea of what to build, especially when you aren't 100 percent sure of what needs building, and provides a methodology for going about that build.  

Scrum offers a process that empowers a team of people, from the scrum master to the product owner to the development team, to create products and services that truly delight customers.

John McFadyen walks us through his interpretation of what Scrum is and how it is most effectively deployed in developing great products.   

Scrum is a process invested by Dr Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber in the early 90s. It went through several years of testing and iterations before being launched in 1995 as a great way for software engineers to build and develop software.  

Since then, it has had multiple applications outside of the software engineering environment and is one of the most widely adopted Agile frameworks available today.  I like to think of Scrum in the same way that you think about scaffolding around a new building or renovation.  

The scaffolding gives you a rough idea of the size and scope of the building but doesn't show you the details such as windows, doorways and any decorative features.  It is a lightweight framework that gives you an idea of what to build, especially when you aren't 100 percent sure of what needs building, and provides a methodology for going about that build.  

Scrum offers a process that empowers a team of people, from the scrum master to the product owner to the development team, to create products and services that truly delight customers.

The development team are the highly skilled individuals who solve the complex problems and create the most valuable products and features they are capable of. Working through a Scrum process empowers them to focus on the most valuable work first and iterate as they learn and improve throughout the process.  

Scrum empowers teams to also pivot when necessary and go in a new, more valuable direction than what may have originally been planned. They do this whenever they learn something that indicates a new direction may be a better call than what had originally been thought.  Sometimes, a team can recognise 90% of the value whilst only having completed 20% of the build. It may then make sense to look at how to do something even more valuable than the remaining 10% of value that would require a great deal of time and effort to complete.  

Scrum is built on empiricism, the concept of learning through doing and using that knowledge and insight to inform decisions moving forward.  It prevents the team from wasting time on products and features that don't add any value to customers and empowers them to work with the product owner to invest their time, efforts and creativity into only solving problems and creating products that will delight customers and help the company achieve competitive advantage.