DZone
Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile
  • Manage Email Subscriptions
  • How to Post to DZone
  • Article Submission Guidelines
Sign Out View Profile
  • Post an Article
  • Manage My Drafts
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone.
Log In / Join
Refcards Trend Reports Events Over 2 million developers have joined DZone. Join Today! Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile Manage Email Subscriptions Moderation Admin Console How to Post to DZone Article Submission Guidelines
View Profile
Sign Out
Refcards
Trend Reports
Events
Zones
Culture and Methodologies Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Culture and Methodologies
Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering
AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture
Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding
Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance
Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
What's in store for DevOps in 2023? Hear from the experts in our "DZone 2023 Preview: DevOps Edition" on Fri, Jan 27!
Save your seat
  1. DZone
  2. Culture and Methodologies
  3. Methodologies
  4. Scrum: Just a Shorter Waterfall?

Scrum: Just a Shorter Waterfall?

Robert Maclean user avatar by
Robert Maclean
·
Oct. 09, 13 · Interview
Like (0)
Save
Tweet
Share
8.44K Views

Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.

Join For Free

when i speak to people about scrum , i often hear people describe scrum as: waterfall but with shorter iterations. that view, imho, is fundamentally wrong and will lead to you not getting any of the benefits from using scrum.

waterfall myths

waterfall provides a structured approach to software development and has a reputation for taking a long time to deliver because each phase must occur and must occur in order. in reality scrum is very similar and has many of the same steps, in the same order as waterfall.

so what about the length of time issue? waterfall seems to be used around massive projects which takes months or years to ship, yet scrum is great because you have a minimum viable product (mvp) every four weeks. that isn’t true either – a lot of the myth here is because during the scoping of a project using waterfall, everyone puts the everything in. in reality, nothing stops you having smaller deliverables of a mvp while using waterfall.

the last myth to dispel is that scrum is better than waterfall because it allows the product owner to change the goals as they learn about what is built & the market conditions change. waterfall does allow that too. in waterfall it is called change controls and, done right, they work very well.

in addition, if you use smaller iterations with waterfall, you can use the requirements, design & verification stages as you would sprint planning & retrospectives to adjust the course of the team.

how is scrum different from waterfall?

a side thought, is that difference in that ownership could also be why projects using waterfall seems to fail more than those using scrum. it isn’t the methodology but rather it is the people doing the work’s commitment which drives the success or failure of the project. for projects using waterfall where they are successful, i think you will find that they do many things outside the methodology to ensure everyone feels committed to the success.

if waterfall can offer everything that scrum does too, how then is scrum different? the major difference with the two methodologies is around the psychology of the developers involved with the project:

  • waterfall: have a single centralized, ownership for the project
  • scrum: have a distributed, ownership for the project

that may not make much sense, so let me explain what i mean by ownership of the project. the ownership for the project is made up of a number of things:

  • how much responsibility a person involved has?
  • how much authority a person involved has?
  • how much control and influence a person involved has?

when we look at waterfall, the developers involved in the project have very little with regards to the above conditions. those conditions are almost solely handled by the project head and project managers, and because of this lack of authority, responsibility and influence the developers are not invested in the ultimate delivery of the project.

scrum on the other hand, drives verifying levels of responsibility, authority and influence to everyone involved. for example the product owner has the most responsibility but there is still responsibility shared to the rest of the team. it is impossible in scrum for a developer to bury their head in the sand and say the problems are not their problem.

conclusion

for me the major difference can easily be summarized using the old fable of the chicken and the pig . waterfall allows developers to be chickens but scrum requires the developers to be pigs.

choosing between waterfall and scrum isn't so much about choosing between methodologies as choosing between designs of ownership and responsibility. that design is vital because how your team is designed directly impacts what you ship .



scrum waterfall

Published at DZone with permission of Robert Maclean, DZone MVB. See the original article here.

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

Popular on DZone

  • A Guide To Successful DevOps in Web3
  • The Future of Cloud Engineering Evolves
  • Type Variance in Java and Kotlin
  • Top Five Tools for AI-based Test Automation

Comments

Partner Resources

X

ABOUT US

  • About DZone
  • Send feedback
  • Careers
  • Sitemap

ADVERTISE

  • Advertise with DZone

CONTRIBUTE ON DZONE

  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • Become a Contributor
  • Visit the Writers' Zone

LEGAL

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

CONTACT US

  • 600 Park Offices Drive
  • Suite 300
  • Durham, NC 27709
  • support@dzone.com
  • +1 (919) 678-0300

Let's be friends: