Why Use Scrum in Blockchain Projects?

Bruce Daley
Sep 4, 2018 · 2 min read

Scrum was initially conceived for managing software development projects by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, among others. The term scrum itself comes from the sport of Rugby where a scrum is an ordered formation of players with interlocking arms, used to restart play. It was created in response to the shortcomings of the prevailing “waterfall” methodology when it came to dealing with intangible products. Since then, the scrum framework has been applied in many innovative ways.

Starting in the early 1990s, Scrum has been used around the world to:

1. Identify the potential for new products, markets, and technologies more accurately;

2. Develop products and enhancements more quickly;

3. Release products and enhancements more frequently;

4. Maintain and renew existing products more easily.

Scrum has been used to develop software, hardware, embedded software, interacting networks, autonomous vehicles, to reorganize schools and governments, conduct marketing campaigns, and manage the operation of organizations. It has found a particular niche in the development of products and services in the Cloud where the number of interactions and complexities of the environment lend itself well Scrum’s proven adaptability for both operations and development. Scrum proved especially effective in iterative and incremental knowledge transfer.

Will Scrum provide a similar value to the development of blockchain applications as it has to Cloud applications? Certainly may, at least in these early days, until something better is developed.

At the heart of Scrum is a small team of people. Small teams are generally more flexible and adaptive than large ones. When used correctly, Scrum empowers small teams while guiding them towards common goals. Where large networks of small teams can be established to do complex work, which is also called “development” in Scrum vernacular, the fame work is highly scalable although they require sophisticated development architectures and target release environments.

Since most blockchain projects consist of small, unstructured teams, Scum seems to me to be the logical next step in the maturing of this technology.

Source Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nzdave/ Creative Commons License Some RIghts Reserved
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