The Scrum development approach is the most popular agile method in software development. The scrum methodology, developed by Schwaber and Sutherland, was initially presented in 1995 at a conference in Austin, Texas. Scrum utilizes incremental fixed timebound iterations in software construction. The term scrum comes from the sport of rugby, where team members organize and collaborate to achieve the goal of winning the game. The critical factors of scrum are transparency and visibility to everyone, inspection to detect problems in the early stages of development, and the ability to adjust through adaptation.
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The scrum development method uses sprints, which are timebound iterations in software construction and delivery. Sprints are typically 2 to 4 weeks long. At the end of the sprint, the team is expected to provide a potentially shippable working model. The development goal and team should not change during a sprint, and the product owner or development team may redefine the scope as needed. The sprint team iterations (time length of the sprint) remain constant but can vary from team to team.
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