The Scrum Framework — Second Edition

This chapter retains the second edition’s historical and practical teaching context. The third-edition curriculum is also available in the contents below.

---

What Makes the Scrum Framework Succeed? - International Scrum Institute

The Scrum framework changes the classical triangle of project management. Rather than treating quality as a variable to trade away, this model emphasizes trade-offs among budget, time, and functionality.

Triangle of Project Management

Quality is no longer an option. In Scrum the factors that define when a feature is complete (in terms of quality, required testing, documentation etc.) are defined by the Definition of Done (DoD) before the work is considered complete, and refined as the team learns. No incomplete or untested feature will be released to the customer. Now the functionality to implement will be defined throughout the course of the project and implemented incrementally. This incremental development allows the team to remain flexible and to change in a controlled manner without the additional costs and risks of jeopardizing large chunks of previous work. At the end of each Sprint a result is available that can be shown and discussed with the customer to get and incorporate feedback as soon as possible.

As this flexibility does not only apply to software requirements, but also to the operational processes themselves, the Scrum Framework helps teams optimize their use of resources (time and budget) and reduce waste.

The second-edition material describes the following positive effects reported in practice:

• Increased productivity
• Better product quality
• Reduced or stable project costs after introducing agile methods
• Higher customer satisfaction
• Increased employee satisfaction and motivation

So even if introducing and using the Scrum Framework is sometimes non-trivial, the flexible and iterative approach of the Scrum Framework eases handling of complexity and better copes with the fact of ever-changing customer and business requirements. For the kinds of complex, changing projects discussed here, these are strong reasons to choose Scrum over a rigid sequential approach.