Companies using Scrum for development

**thunderlizard** · 14 October 2010, 18:09

Yes, I've had a couple of clients that fit that profile pretty well. The only bit of Scrum that nearly all corporates conveniently ignore is the Scrum Master role - i.e. that he's explicitly not a manager and is supposed to act as if he's lower in the pecking order than the team.

**nomadd** · 15 October 2010, 19:25

Originally posted by wonderboy View Post

Does anyone know of any companies that use contractors for software development that use Scrum. By this I mean having some or all of the following:

- a product owner
- a product backlog
- developers estimating in points
- sprint reviews
- 2-ish week sprints and demonstrations at the end of each sprint
- buy-in from management

I know a lot of companies stretch the truth a little when they say they are doing agile development, so I'd appreciate any information people can share here.

Yep, had one who worked that way. Project was a shambles. Glad to be out of it.

Fine for projects in production and just needing bug fixes. Useless for any Enterprise scale development. (And no, I'm not interested in getting in a debate over this with the Scrum zealots/trolls...

)

**oversteer** · 18 October 2010, 10:07

Tesco definitely did about two years ago.

**oliverson** · 18 October 2010, 11:17

My last couple of contracts have featured SCRUM.

The big problem here is that organisations recognise they need to develop software in a more agile manner yet everything they know is waterfall. Sprints don't lend themselves well to MS Project plans and therein lies the problem. You can end up with a really non-agile variation of SCRUM such as 'define 5 sprints upfront'. Yuck.

For SCRUM to be a success you need total buy-in from the client. I've been lucky enough to work on a project where this was the case but even then it was problematic though this was due to 'first SCRUM project' syndrome and a first-timer SCRUM Master.

I'm a big fan of SCRUM. I'd rather find out from the business that my understanding of their requirements is wrong after a few weeks instead of a few months. I'm sure the business would as well!

There's a fantastic free PDF on the web about SCRUM. It's called 'SCRUM and XP from the Trenches'. Great and informative reading though I don't buy into XP and pair-programming personally.

**configman** · 18 October 2010, 17:53

See lots of SCRUM - full of Agile zealots who blame the rest of the business for not doing it the (fr)agile way when the zealots are fresh out of uni and know it all? Another acronym for agile is DAFT - design after first testing, or CRAP constant refactoring after programming.

**MrGrunge** · 18 October 2010, 18:05

Originally posted by configman View Post

See lots of SCRUM - full of Agile zealots who blame the rest of the business for not doing it the (fr)agile way when the zealots are fresh out of uni and know it all? Another acronym for agile is DAFT - design after first testing, or CRAP constant refactoring after programming.

There is an element of truth in this. CRAP - this is the better version. Sometimes see BAR - Bog All Refactoring.

**d000hg** · 18 October 2010, 21:08

Not this again. We've already got a thread for discussing the merits of Agile... this one isn't asking the same question.

Most of the places I've worked have been more traditional. The ones I act as technical lead on I don't even know what to call it. We take some things like Scrum meetings and close customer involvement have tried to work on short iterations but it's more a hybrid approach.

**gadgetman** · 19 October 2010, 01:19

I have used "Agile-lite" on a couple of projects (half-hearted implementations) so am no expert.

Just about to start a gig managing (testing of) three streams where one is using "Agile".

At the interview they spouted all the buzzwords but when I asked about business involvement in the testing (a key requirement from my understanding) there was a momentary blank stare followed by some bluster. Hey ho....

**SupremeSpod** · 19 October 2010, 07:11

My current project is moving towards an agile environment.

I'm leaving so wish them the very best of luck.

Companies using Scrum for development