Why is Scrum called Scrum?
What does Scrum represent?
The origins of Scrum
The term ‘scrum’ itself is an abbreviation from scrummage (transferred sense of a “noisy throng”, “tumultuous crowd” or a “rabble”). Scrummage or scrimmage is an alteration of skirmish.
Scrumming is often used to describe a tightly packed disorderly crowd. But in Rugby it defines a joining together in a tight organised formation.
Paddy Corry shares an interesting anecdote in Scrum’s Connection to Rugby that “the origins of rugby (supposedly) are that the brilliantly named Englishman William Webb Ellis broke the rules of an existing game: football.”
“The origin of rugby football is reputed to be an incident during a game of English school football at Rugby School in 1823, when William Webb Ellis is said to have picked up the ball and run with it.” Wikipedia
The history of the use of Scrum in product development starts in a paper published in 1986 featured in the the Harvard Business Review:
Although this paper originates back over three decades it is still surprisingly actual and reading it today makes one wonder why…
