Scrummerfall...
...is now one of my favorite made up words. This interesting mash-up of Scrum and Waterfall was used in a conversation yesterday and it made me smile. It also got me thinking about how many conversations I've had with people about Agile, Scrum and the stories I hear about how these SDLC strategies are being used (and mis-used.)
If an organization is going to 'buy in' to SCRUM there are two fairly critical Agile principles they need to follow:
- "Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done"
- "Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project."
Sounds good, right? Give business a daily voice in development and give the technical team the resources they need to do the job.
So why can we relate to Scrummerfall?
Let's start with Agile. Like it's predecessor Waterfall, Agile is a general label. It's a foundation that has generated different ideas and styles along with new tools and technologies for delivering software.
Kanban, Scrum, TDD / BDD / FDD, paired programming and other development strategies fall under the Agile "brand." Tools such as JIRA & TFS, Selenium & Cucumber, Docker, & CruiseControl are just a handful of the hundreds of platforms available to deliver in an iterative and continuous fashion.
By definition, if they serve the underlying purpose of delivering software efficiently, you can mix and match these strategies. When you boil it all down Agile is simply finding a way for business and technology to work together to find a better way to put usable software to production.
Scrum & Kanban have been mashed up into Scrumban so why not mash up Scrum and Waterfall? Some would argue DSDM could be branded Scrummerfall.
After all, Agile is not without it's foibles. Fifteen years after the manifesto was written organizations still struggle to implement an Agile strategy that works for everyone. This is especially true in large, established organizations where there are many impediments to large scale Agile adaptation.
Who knows, maybe in the next few years we'll see Scrummerfall (or a variant) pop up on the drop down in TFS. And that's the beauty of Agile.
Great term! At most companies Agile is just politics as usual rebranded. Unless developers own everything end to end and you have eliminated testing and operations as separate roles agile is not possible.
I agree Susan. Companies should find their own path to agility but I would caution against allowing too much waterfall into their environment. For example a best agile practice is to solicit the clients feedback frequently throughout the development process. Waterfall on the other hand waits until the very end to ask for feedback which is usually too late and the team's time is wasted.
I use that word, and philosophy, on a weekly basis. However, it is frequently misused (or used as a crutch) as people with the waterfall mindset can't make the paradigm shift to agile.
Love it! I have used scrumfall many times in discussing agile, but scrummerfall rolls off the tongue quite easily!