Scrum

Pioneered by Jeff Sutherland in the 1990s Scrum is an iterative and incremental

framework of Agile Development. Further Development of the framework was done
by Schwaber and Beedle. Some of the basic principles that form the pillars of Scrum
can be summed as below[1,2].
1. Small size of the team
2. Enables smooth communication
3. Cost Reduction
4. Better empowerment of team members.
With changing technical and business issues, Scrum can easily adapt to any
development process. The process is to generate software increments. Software
development team are subdivided into small teams. While documentation and
testing is done parallel with the software development and continues even after
completion of software development. In Scrum, developer is able to state that the
product is finished whenever it is needed. Some of the scrum activities include
Backlog, Sprints, Scrum Meetings, Demo.

List of
requirement,Client's priority
List
of requirement,Client's
priority

situation of
Depends
Depends on
on situation
of project
project and
and condition
condition of
of
client
client

Meeting
Meeting of
of few
few minutes
minutes everyday
everyday
Discussion
to evaluate
Discussion to
evaluate constraints,
constraints, target
target
completion
completion and
and progress
progress

Backlog
Scrum Meetings
Demo Activity
Sprint Activity

Delivery of
of software
software increment
increment
Delivery

displayed to
Increment
Increment displayed
to client
client and
and is
is evaluated.
evaluated.

No
new backlog
addition
No new
backlog addition
Units
of work
Units of
work are
are designated
designated in
in a
a
backlog
backlog entries
entries for
for completion
completion of
of

time
for the
time frame
frame for
the
projects
projects

The whole process of scrum activities can be summed as below.

Extreme Programming
Extreme Programming (XP) is an object-oriented approach. Initiated by stories
where customers tell about the want, need and working required from the system. It
utilizes CRC cards (Class responsibility Collaborator). In case of difficulties it
employs building of spike solution (prototype), followed by refactoring. Encoding
activity which is nothing but unit test preparation is done prior to coding. Real time
problem solving and quality assurance is done through pair programming.[1,2]

Survey Results
(https://qtrial.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_1HBNlwhfZwmE0Cx)
A survey was floated in the form of web questionnaire in which we tried to gauge
the understanding, behavior and driving force behind the use of agile technologies.
We also tried to measure how much the projects have been successful, cost of
development and the quality of the systems produced. The survey were sent to
prospective candidates in the software development firms through email and the
data was collected. The results that were collected can be summed as below.
Almost all the software personnel have either heard about the Agile technology or
have worked on Agile. Following pie-charts sums up our findings.

Ever worked on agile?

Experience on Agile

When asked the question that what is the agile methodology they follow almost
70% of the respondents told that they use Scrum or Extreme Engineering.

According to Agile users the biggest benefit that one derives from it is Ability to
maintain change, while increasing productivity came a distant second.

Agile methodology did deliver results as around 50% of the respondents replied that
they were able to satisfy their clients fully.
What percentage of your agile projects have satisfied your customers?

The users of Agile were of the impression that it delivers high quality and high
productivity but they were a bit skeptical about the cost advantage of the Agile as
they were of the belief that it costs the client about the same whether they use
Agile or some other methodology to develop a software.

How have agile approaches affected your productivity?

How have agile approaches affected the quality of the systems produced?

How have agile approaches affected the cost of development?

Almost all the users responded that there is a very involvement of the client when
we make software through Agile methodology.

Appendix
[1]Kniberg, H. (2007). Scrum and XP from the Trenches.Stockholm: Crisp.
[2]Pekka Abrahamsson, O. S. (2002). Agile Software Development Methods: Review
and Analysis.VTT
Electronics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_programming
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_%28software_development%29