Agile Vs. Scrum: Key Difference Between Methodology

What is Agile Methodology?

Agile methodology is a practice that helps continuous iteration of development and testing in the SDLC 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. Business, stakeholders, and developers and clients must work together to develop a product.

What is Scrum in Agile?

Scrum in Agile is a process that allows software development teams to focus on delivering business values in shortest time by rapidly and repeatedly inspecting actual working software. It focuses on accountability, teamwork and iterative progress towards well-defined goals. Scrum Framework usually deals with fact that requirements are likely to change or mostly not known at the beginning of project.

KEY DIFFERENCE

  • Agile is a continuous iteration of development and testing in the software development process whereas Scrum is an Agile process to focus on delivering the business value in the shortest time.
  • Agile methodology delivers the software on a regular basis for feedback while Scrum delivers the software after each sprint.
  • In the Agile process, leadership plays a vital role; on the other hand, Scrum fosters a self-organizing, cross-functional team.
  • Agile involves collaborations and face-to-face interactions between the members of various cross-functional teams whereas Scrum collaboration is achieved in daily stand up meetings.
  • In Agile process design and execution should be kept simple whereas in Scrum process design and execution can be innovative and experimental.

Difference between Agile and Scrum Methodology

Following is a difference of Agile vs Scrum:

Agile Scrum
Agile is a development methodology based on iterative and incremental approach. Scrum is one of the implementations of agile methodology. In which incremental builds are delivered to the customer in every two to three weeks’ time.
Agile software development has been widely seen as highly suited to environments which have small but expert project development team Scrum is ideally used in the project where the requirement is rapidly changing.
In the Agile process, the leadership plays a vital role. Scrum fosters a self-organizing, cross-functional team.
Compared to Scrum it is a more rigid method. So there is not much room for frequent changes. The biggest advantage of Scrum is its flexibility as it quickly reacts to changes.
Agile involves collaborations and face-to-face interactions between the members of various cross-functional teams. In Scrum, collaboration is achieved in daily stand up meeting with a fixed role assigned to scrum master, product owner, and team members.
Agile can require lots of up-front development process and organizational change. Not too many changes needed while implementing scrum process.
The agile method needs frequent delivery to the end user for their feedback. In the scrum, after each sprint, a build is delivered to the client for their feedback.
In this method, each step of development like requirements, analysis, design, are continually monitored during the lifecycle. A demonstration of the functionality is provided at the end of every sprint. So that regular feedback can be taken before next sprint.
Project head takes cares of all the tasks in the agile method. There is no team leader, so the entire team addresses the issues or problems.
The Agile method encourages feedback during the process from the end user. In this way, the end product will be more useful. Daily sprint meeting is conducted to review and feedback to decide future progress of the project.
Deliver and update the software on a regular basis. When the team is done with the current sprint activities, the next sprint can be planned.
Design and execution should be kept simple. Design and execution can be innovative and experimental.
In the Agile method, the priority is always to satisfy the customer by providing continuous delivery of valuable software. Empirical Process Control
is a core philosophy of Scrum based process.
Working software is the most elementary measure of progress. Working software is not an elementary measure.
It is best to have face-to-face communication, and techniques like these should be used to get as close to this goal as possible. Scrum team focus to deliver maximum business value, from beginning early in the project and continuing throughout.
Following are Agile principles:

-Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes allow change according to customer’s competitive advantage.

-Business people and developers will work daily throughout the project.

-Attention to technical excellence and right design enhances agility

-Agile team, work on to become more effective, for that they adjust its behavior according to the project.

Following are scrum principles:

-Self-organization: This results in healthier shared ownership among the team members. It is also an innovative and creative environment which is conductive to growth.

-Collaboration: Collaboration is another essential principle which focuses collaborative work. 1. awareness 2. articulation, and 3. appropriation. It also considers project management as a shared value-creation process with teams working together to offer the highest value.

-Time-boxing: This principle defines how time is a limiting constraint in Scrum method. An important element of time-boxed elements are Daily Sprint planning and Review Meetings.

-Iterative Development: This principle emphasizes how to manage changes better and build products which satisfy customer needs. It also defines the organization’s responsibilities regarding iterative development.