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Agile Methodology: From Waterfall to Scrum

Agile Methodology: From Waterfall to Scrum

March 29, 2019 7 min read

Agile Methodology: From Waterfall to Scrum

Touch screens, holograms, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence are some of the things that come to mind when we think about innovative technology. Yet, innovation is also taking place offline thanks to methods like Agile. But what is Agile software development? And what is the difference between Agile and Scrum?

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, being agile means “having a quick resourceful and adaptable character.” That’s exactly what this disruptive method wants to help us become – within IT departments and beyond.

Now, how well does it transfer from paper to execution? Today, we’ll be discussing a bit of Agile and Scrum.

Agile vs. Scrum: What is the difference?

The Agile Method is a project management philosophy that follows specific practices and guidelines focused on adaptability. Scrum, on the other hand, is one of the framework that fall under the Agile umbrella. Scrum takes Agile’s adaptability to another level, by providing flexibility to integrate different teams into one project.

Let’s find out more about both Agile and Scrum.

The Agile Method’s origin story

At the turn of the millennium – February 2001 to be exact – a group of 17 tech experts met up at a ski resort in Utah looking to find common ground when it came to software development. Although each had dedicated their careers to different tech avenues, all of them had used a similar approach to develop software. Thus, the “Agile Manifesto” was born.

Its core values are:

  • Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
  • Working software over comprehensive documentation
  • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
  • Responding to change over following a plan

In that sense, Agile is a different way to do things – one that can be better suited for fast-paced projects and environments. It doesn’t focus on the production chain, but rather on involving all those who care about the product.

Waterfall vs. Agile Methodology

Due to conventional education, most of us are trained to function linearly. We set the pan, ignite the stovetop, pour the oil and crack open the egg right into it. This is called the “waterfall method,” and it worked wonders when most tasks could be done by hand.

However, the products and services the market demands today can’t be produced at the necessary rhythm if we’re following a step-by-step process. Creating digital products of the future requires a different approach to software development, not to say a different general thinking approach.

Consider a programmer who is tasked with developing an app for monetary transactions. While he’s still coding the basic functions, regulatory laws have changed, and the client is requesting a new form of eKYC to be implemented. Before these changes are done, the company has already rebranded itself and is asking for the app’s look-and-feel to match the new style.

Our products and services are now living, breathing things, and as such will remain ever-changing. This is why the Agile methodology focuses on releasing iterations, or what we’d call software updates, of the same product on an on-going basis.

The idea is to ensure the consumer always has the best, most optimized version of a product or service at any given time.

Scrum Framework: Definition and Players

The Scrum framework is an Agile framework that can be used for all kinds of projects. Although it’s frequently associated with software development, all departments can take advantage of this methodology. By separating work into specific goals to be achieved within sprints (more on those later), Scrum helps teams better organize their work and improve results.

To get the ball rolling, Scrum depends on three key roles: the product owner, the team members and the ScrumMaster.

The product owner is the overseer who ensures the project is heading in the right direction, prioritizing tasks and ensuring the pipeline is progressing as expected.

The team consists of five to nine members specializing in different aspects of the project. However, they all share the responsibility and work together to ensure it is ready on time.

So, if the leadership and the work are taken care of, why do we need a ScrumMaster?

Because the ScrumMaster wards off distractions and hiccups from the rest of the team. Their job is to keep the team focused on the task at hand.

Once these roles are claimed, we move on to the next phase: organizing sprints.

Sprints and the Inner Workings of Scrum Methodology

In order to fully understand how Scrum works, we need to have a clear idea of what sprints are. They are periods in which a team is working on a specific task, usually lasting one to three weeks. Once the clock runs out, it’s pencils down.

Each team has the option to hold daily progress meetings to discuss and compare notes. After a week or two, the team will have a potentially shippable product for the owner to review. The product is ready when it responds accurately to a user story, a concise definition of the user’s needs.

The idea is that no matter how many updates a project undergoes, there will always be a usable product at the end of every sprint.

Scrum tools and workflow

Within Scrum, teams create different lists or charts to keep the sprints organized. Take the product backlog, for instance. It details concrete goals for the sprints and overall project, specifying how to achieve them. A sprint backlog is equivalent to a project pipeline, listing tasks in order of execution.

Finally, a Scrum board illustrates the stage of every task. A team member can list her or her task as “to do,” “busy” or “done.”

To keep the process moving, the team will engage in four kinds of meetings. The first meeting presents the project and assigns roles, while the second meeting, which could be broken down into daily progress meetings, serves to verify everything is going as planned.

The last two are for feedback and reflection, one is used to present the product and the other to discuss how to tackle future sprints.

Working with Scrum

Scrum’s strong suit is its ability to keep teams producing relevant work. At the end of every sprint, a problem has been solved, or a vital part of a project has been finished.

Take marketing strategies, for example. After a sprint requiring customer engagement, the team will adjust their plan for the next sprint based on the feedback received. However, there is value already in having collected the customer feedback, even if the next step isn’t as successful.

Ria Europe’s Marketing Director, Juan Basurto, commented on his experiences leading our marketing efforts saying, “When planning for a new campaign, we use Scrum to organize our workflow in a way that harnesses our individual skillsets. Our marketing team is comprised of multicultural professionals with differing specialties, so Scrum ensures each person is taking on what they’re best at while helping them retain a big-picture perspective of the task at hand.”

As we’ve been able to confirm, Scrum is simple and can be easily adapted to any and all departments within your company. So, why not give it a try?

Applying Agile to the workplace

Although this methodology supposes a big change for corporations, Agile can help teams optimize their workflow. But how does including more people and forgoing a linear structure make a company more prolific?

Applying Agile requires a leap of faith. José Luis Soria, our Continuous Improvement Manager, likes using the following image to illustrate what it’s like to implement Agile for the first time:

“To successfully implement Agile, you have to acknowledge and understand the team’s perspective. Even if the method is foreign to them, what you need to convey is the flexibility and autonomy Agile creates. And it doesn’t just enhance productivity and quality, it also creates a better work environment by encouraging communication,” he shared.

For us at Ria Money Transfer, Agile works wonders by helping us align our development teams located all over the world, from the United States to Spain to Malaysia. We started implementing Agile almost a decade ago, and we continue to fine-tune our approach every day.

In the end, it’s the method’s very essence that keeps Agile relevant, with its open dialogue and its system of continuous releases. And isn’t that the very recipe for innovation?

Ready to send money? Download our Ria Money Transfer app today for iOS or Android to get started!

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