From the course: Scrum: The Basics

The scrum approach to project success

From the course: Scrum: The Basics

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The scrum approach to project success

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- Language changes around us all the time. It's like a living, breathing thing. As we use and adapt words, new definitions are created to match what they mean in current times. Similarly, the scrum we're talking about is an adaptation of the word scrummage, taken from the game rugby, but scrum from rugby, how does that work? Well, in rugby, a scrummage, scrum for short, was the method used to restart play in a match after a foul. Visually, it's eight players from each team packed together with heads down, all trying to take possession of the ball. So, not exactly the poster child for project management, but with a little imagination, it makes sense. On a project team, the goal is to get the project done. Historically, using traditional methods, this meant planning and designing the whole project at the beginning and sticking to that plan with no variation. In real life, project work is completely unpredictable. It's impossible to know at the beginning exactly how a project will unfold and how to best meet its unique challenges. The Agile Project Management movement comes out of a desire to adapt in real time to the changing circumstances that teams face, and this is where the rugby team comes in. The founders of the Agile movement recognize that, in rugby, the object is to move the ball down the field, one possession at a time, so why couldn't projects do the same thing? Why not change the focus from just winning the whole game to winning each and every milestone and deliverable? These innovators co-opted the word scrum to reflect this new approach, an approach that breaks the deliverables and milestones into smaller pieces and gets the whole team together to focus on just that one goal until it's done. Like in rugby, if the small individual scores happened on a regular cycle, winning the game or delivering the project would take care of itself, so the sporting word scrum has been transformed in the last several years to have a new meaning. It means to run your projects more like a rugby match, pursuing the small goals and deliverables that will get your project done.

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