In the team’s work world, Agile methodology and Scrum are two words that are very popular within its environment.

Many project management teams, tasks leaders, Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, etc, manage both of them, and sometimes you might get confused when you work them simultaneously.

But before we go deeper into these details, you need to choose the right project management methodology to guide your efforts and monitor your project through to completion.

While these two process management methodologies share similar approaches, there are key differences as well that are helpful to know if you’re pursuing a career in software development, project management, or both.

That’s why we will set the ultimate guide to differentiate Scrum and Agile. But, here is an alert: do not waste away one of them! Use both whenever you want in your project!

What is Agile Methodology?

Agile methodology is a practice that helps continuous iteration of development and testing in the whole process. Agile breaks the product into smaller builds.

In this methodology, development and testing activities are concurrent, unlike other software development methodologies.

It also encourages teamwork and face-to-face communication. Businesses, stakeholders, and developers, and clients must work together to develop a product.

It is a collaborative and flexible approach that teams typically adopt to accomplish tasks more efficiently.

The project management methodology, which is widely used in software development, is often a more natural way to keep cross-functional team members organized and on track.

The gains: bring back quick responses and flexibility

An agile mindset brings flexibility and responsiveness back to your company in a short amount of time. When working in an agile way, it is necessary to fight for as little bureaucracy as possible.

Agile requires different types of employees too. In agile environments, employees need to share knowledge, act on creative ideas and come up with solutions. The initiative should not come from managers, but professionals.

With an agile mindset, you assume that plans will change. You will not follow the same plan for two years.

You have to keep that goal in mind, but change is possible. Working agile means continuous improvement and that your work never ends.

How does Agile work?

Using Agile, they work on various iterations of a project, which is then organized into a prioritized backlog based on end-user feedback.

Processes or methods provide an environment, which requirements constantly evolve as a result of collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams.

Agile methodologies showcase a disciplined approach to project management that encourages a set of best practices, in order to enable rapid delivery of high-quality software and enhance the business approach by aligning development with customer needs.

These methodologies contrast with traditional waterfall methodology, where all requirements are initially analyzed and documented before development begins.

While in the Agile approach, requirements are real software development advances in each iteration. This approach provides flexibility to accommodate changing business requirements and priorities.

Benefits Customers

In the traditional waterfall model, high-value resources are developed and delivered in longer cycles compared to the Agile approach, which allows for delivery in short cycles. This makes suppliers more responsive to customer development requests.

Benefits the suppliers

Adopting Agile benefits suppliers by having improved customer satisfaction and retention, leading to more contacts with positive referrals.

It also allows the vendor to focus on the effort of developing high-value features, lowering overheads, and improving efficiency.

Quality

There is regular inspection of the work product if you apply the Agile methodology, with tests into each iteration as it evolves through the lifecycle.

This in turn maintains the quality of the product and also allows the owner to make necessary adjustments whenever a quality issue arises.

Visibility

An agile methodology is a collaborative approach that encourages active user participation throughout product development. This provides exceptional and clear visibility into project and product development progress to stakeholders.

Cost control

There is an Agile development process that fixes deadlines, where requirements emerge and evolve as the project progresses and the product is developed, allowing for a fixed budget.

Risk management

In Agile methodology, small incremental releases are made visible to the product owner throughout the development cycle, which helps to identify issues at an early stage and makes it easier to respond to change, if any.

Agile development ensures clear visibility, allowing necessary decisions to be made at the earliest possible opportunity.

What is Scrum methodology?

Scrum, on the other hand, is part of Agile. A Scrum is a simple and flexible Agile methodology for software development.

It’s not a technique or a process, but a lightweight, simple framework for solving complex project problems and creatively delivering a high-value product. The main distinguishing attributes of Scrum are as follows:

Simplicity

You can develop scrum in sprints to last from 1 to 3 weeks. The Scrum Team consists of:

Product Owner: Your primary responsibility is to maximize the value of the product and the work of the development team. Additional duties include managing the product catalog.

Scrum Master: The development team consists of self-organized professionals who transform the product catalog into product increments at the end of each sprint.

Development team: Scrum Masters ensure that the Scrum team is following theory and its rules.

Flexibility

No traditional waterfall model, when technical and business requirements are documented and detailed, it results in endless. Scrum uses user stories to describe the roles used.

A Pivotal Tracker tool helps to store these user stories in a backlog. If a change is necessary or a need arises to add user stories, then the team can adjust as early as possible in the next sprint.

This allows the company to change its mind and the development team to be flexible or sufficient to adjust these changes. The ability to accommodate change is a powerful attribute of the Scrum methodology.

Collaboration

In the Scrum methodology, communication between business users takes place weekly, according to the sprint schedule.

This openness and communication is a crucial factor, promoting the success of this methodology. The Scrum team achieves collaboration in the following ways:

The Product Owner, the Scrum Master, and a development team that works in continuous collaboration.

Sprint planning meetings happen, so development teams can organize their work based on knowledge gathered from the business.

Holding daily Scrum meetings where a development team can account for completed work, prospects, and address issues, if any.

Conducting sprint reviews allows team members to assess their past work, recommending best practices for each sprint.

The gains: transparency, inspection, and adaptation

What are the benefits of dividing your work into sprints? You plan your work more realistically. Knowing what you need to do and how much time you have available. This allows you to achieve more predictable work planning.

The risks are even more manageable when using short work periods. You don’t need to make a long-term plan with a high-risk analysis.

At each step, the team shows the organization what obstacles they needed to overcome, the scenarios the team might face, and the impacts this could have.

Short sprints also make team activities transparent. At the end of the sprint, you show your client what you’ve achieved.

The client provides regular feedback to the team for upcoming sprints. This ensures that the product or service goes out in a way that satisfies the customer.

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