Ask an Agilista
What does SCRUM stand for?
Apr 27, 2009
Dear Agilista,
What does SCRUM stand for?
- Doesn’t Understand Heuristics
Dear DUH,
SCRUM is not an acronym. Its proper spelling is Scrum (not all caps). It’s a rugby term used when members of the rugby teams form a circle to get the ball back into play. Think of Scrum as a way to get software delivery teams unstuck and moving again.
However, a student forced by his company to attend a Scrum training course I once taught disagreed with me. He insisted that Scrum stood for “Stupid Crap Required by Upper Management.” Ah well, can’t win ‘em all.
Comments
Earl Everett said:
Only some members of both rugby teams (collectively known as forwards) are in the scrum. They don’t form a circle, but rather 2 triangular-ish formations, who crouch down and come together base-to-base, with a tunnel between the legs of the opposing front rows. The ball is tossed down the middle of the tunnel by the scrumhalf of the non-offending team.
Despite the misuse of the word scrum by sportswriters (and now, sadly, spreading into more general usage) to indicate an unorganized melee-type happening, the scrum in rugby is highly-organized, and generally contains the more gifted athletes.
The ‘disorganized’ melees occur when a ball-carrier is tackled. If he or she remains on their feet, it is called a maul, and if the are off of their feet, it is called a ruck.
Earl Everett said:
Oh, and Matthew, if your daily stand up (or Scrum) is taking more than 15 minutes, much less all day, you’re not doing it right.
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Matthew Sacks said:
Jun 12, 2010 at 9:50 pm
The second one is definitely convincing.
I think daily Scrums are absolutely useless. It might belong in kindergarten, and maybe first grade elementary school, but not for a serious software development project. It is a huge time waste and often times, a day has been spent in meetings, thus there is nothing new to provide an update the following day, and your workflow is being interrupted yet again, instead of getting actual work done.