The Evolution of Scrum

The evolution of Scrum is a quintessentially Agile story; reflecting the ever-changing demands of our workforce realities. Beginning in 1985 with the first emergence of the term ‘Scrum,’ to today’s scalable implementation throughout distributed Teams, Scrum’s elegant framework has evolved to address the real-world needs of a complex Team environment.

1985: The term ‘Scrum’ emerged[1]

Use of the term ‘Scrum’ is first introduced by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka as a new, holistic approach to commercial product development where one cross-functional, self-organized team works as a unit throughout the entire development process – similar to a rugby team[2] passing the ball back and forth as they move down the field as a unit.

1993: Scrum 0 First Scrum Team[3]

The first Scrum Team is created by Jeff McKenna, Jeff Sutherland and John Scumniotalesas as software development team at Easel Corporation to build an object-oriented design and analysis tool.

1995: Scrum 0.1 First Formal White Paper OOPSLA[4]

Jeff Sutherland presents the SCRUM Development Process white paper and introduces it as unpredictable, complicated process that uses a loose set of activities which combine known, workable tools and techniques with the best that a development team can devise to build systems.

1998: Scrum 1.0 First Definition of Scrum[4]

The Scrum framework for developing and sustaining complex software is defined, including the first implementations of Scrum with a Product Owner who was outside the Team, often on the “Business Side” of the organization.

2008: Scrum 2.0 First PO as Member of Team Formalized[5]

In response to the need for Teams to both build and maintain software, resolve time-sensitive issues, and for the Product Owner to be increasingly Agile, Scrum 2.0 emerges as a framework with the Product Owner as a full-time member of the Team.

2016: Scrum 3.0 First Fully-Scalable Scrum Formalized[6]

Scrum continues to evolve as it recognizes the need for a framework that reflects distributed Teams and the need for two Product Owners – one with the Stakeholders for strategic prioritization and one with the Team for tactical prioritization.

2017: 3Back publishes Scrum Handbook with Scrum Zone 3.0 white paper.

3Back’s Scrum Handbook white paper brings groundbreaking insight and real-world analysis to the newest evolution of Scrum – to make Scrum work better for you and your Team.

Understand the 9 Zones of Scrum to put the whole picture into perspective and gain more flexibility in your thinking approach to what Scrum is and how best to apply.

Discover why The Scrum Handbook is the cleanest, most flexible,
and most Agile version of Scrum there is.

Sign up now to receive 3Back’s Scrum Handbook white paper.

As Always, Stay Agile.


Notes and Sources

  1. Takeuchi, Hirotaka, and Ikujiro Nonaka. “The New New Product Development Game.” Harvard Business Review. Accessed February 09, 2017.
    https://hbr.org/1986/01/the-new-new-product-development-game.
  2. Definition of Scrum in rugby: A game formation in which players huddle and interlock to gain possession of the ball.
  3. “Jeff McKenna.” Scrum Alliance. Accessed February 09, 2017.
    https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/profile/jmckenna2.
  4. Schwaber, Ken. “Scrum Development Process.” Jeff Sutherland. Accessed February 09, 2017.
    http://www.jeffsutherland.org/oopsla/schwapub.pdf.
  5. “The History of Scrum.” Scrum Guides. Accessed February 09, 2017.
    http://www.scrumguides.org/history.html.
  6. “Scrum Handbook White Paper.” 3Back. Accessed February 09, 2017. https://3back.com/scrum30/.