Scrum Is the Better Way to Build Software Products

Rugby is one of the toughest sports on the planet. Rugby players are no-nonsense, dedicated sportsmen who are not afraid to take what the opposing team gives them. And what rugby teams give each other is not for the faint of heart. Unlike football, Rugby players do not wear protective gear. It’s just muscle against muscle on a field of titans who have one mission, and that is to win. One of the most interesting formations on a rugby field is the Scrum lineup. Scrum is the formation that begins play after a minor rule infraction. The forwards on each team line up. They put their heads down, and their arms together, and they make a chain. They push against each other when the official throws the ball in between them. Each team tries to get the ball by kicking it to their side of the field. 


Scrum is a close-quarters free-for-all on the Rugby field, but in the business world, Scrum represents a project method that helps executives find solutions in the software development space. Sixty-eight percent of the active software developers use Scrum or a version of Scrum, according to the 11th Annual State of Agile report. The agile movement finds software solutions that are untraditional. The agile approach helps software teams find unpredictable challenges using a mathematical or computational approach. Sprints is the word that describes mathematical work in an agile movement. 


Using the word Scrum to describe software methodology is the brainchild of two Australian executives, Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber. Sutherland and Schwaber call their initial work, the Scrum Guide, and they call their company Scrum On. The Melbourne company is professional Scrum trainers, and they work directly with Scrum teams. There are more than 180,000 members of the Scrum community, and most of them use the Scrum Guide. 


A Scrum training team consists of a Scrum Master, development team, and product owner. Agile Scrum training emphasizes creativity, productivity, and flexibility. And the result of the training is better quality products, quick response to market needs, and higher productivity as well as employee satisfaction and cohesive team dynamics. 

Scrum training starts with a spreadsheet and sticky notes. A spreadsheet manages product backlog as well as the progress of sprints. But scaling the agile method so it functions in all aspects of an organization is a complex task. Trainees learn how to use the VersionOne Agile ALM platform. That platform provides an environment that plans, tracks, and then reports on software delivery throughout an organization. 


If Scrum training, VersionOne, Sprints, and the Agile method sound like things that come from another world, you may be right. Scrum brings new awareness and creates new ventures in the world of software. If you are not a software junkie, Scrum training and agile methodology are as foreign as the terrain of Mars. But Scrum training is a game-changer for people who work in the software business every day. Australia may be “the Land Down Under,” but in the technology industry, Australia’s Scrum training leads the heard in software development.