From the course: Cert Prep: Scrum Master

Agile overview

From the course: Cert Prep: Scrum Master

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Agile overview

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- As you begin preparing for the Certified ScrumMaster, or CSM, exam, it's important to understand the context of the Scrum framework. By understanding this, you'll more easily grasp the concepts. Often, the terms Agile and Scrum are used interchangeably. The problem is, they're not really the same thing. In the early 1990s, small groups of software development professionals began developing advanced project methodologies. One of these methodologies, Scrum, was the earliest to evolve, however, there were other frameworks being developed at the same time, for example, extreme programming, XP for short, and test-driven development, or TDD, were appearing on the scene too. These individuals were interested in eliminating waste from their projects. In the process, they recognized they were competing with each other, but they understood they had the same goals in mind. So the founders of several methodologies, including Scrum, XP, and TDD, got together in February 2001 to discuss the similarities and differences among them. The result was the Agile Manifesto, which documented the overarching goals they all shared. They established the term Agile to represent all the lightweight frameworks that shared those goals. So, given the context, let's uncover why Scrum has become the most popular framework of the Agile family. Scrum is a very simple framework that's entirely focused on doing just enough preparation, just in time for development work to begin. The founders of Scrum understood that doing too much preparation too far in advance of the work resulted in poor design and a lot of rework, as teams learned more and had to change directions. Because of this insight, they proposed that the detail designs only happen close to when the work is slated to be done. They were interested in postponing all the decisions they could in favor of discovering details within the process of development itself. This maximized the efficiency of the developer. That, however, wasn't quite enough to produce the highest quality product they could. The other major shift in Scrum is the role of the business. They recognized it was impossible to deliver exactly what a customer wanted if the developers never got to speak to the customer. To combat this problem, Scrum insists that the customer become part of the team. Simply by making these two changes, Scrum teams immediately began producing better results more quickly than their traditional methodology peers. Since the Scrum framework is relatively simple to implement, it took off very quickly, and is now the leading methodology in the industry. That being the case, obtaining your CSM can be a critical stepping stone to furthering your career goals.

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