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Definition: Scrum


An agile software development methodology developed by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland in the mid-1990s. Scrum is based on a "Sprint," which is typically a 30-day period for delivering a working part of the system. Each Sprint starts with a two to three-hour planning session that includes the customer (product owner), the facilitator (Scrum master) and the cross-functional team. The customer describes the highest priority in the backlog, and after the team agrees on how much of it to do, it is left alone to do it. To keep the team synchronized, there is a 15-minute meeting every day. At the end of the Sprint, the results are delivered and reviewed, and the next Sprint is started.

Scrum and Extreme Programming (XP) Work Well Together
Scrum projects support the use of any software engineering discipline. However, since XP (Extreme Programming) and Scrum share many core practices, Scrum and XP integrate well together.

The name comes from the sport of rugby, where a scrum is the mechanism for getting the ball moving after it has gone out of play. See agile software development and XP.