I felt the need to climb on to my soap box for a few minutes. As agile has become more and more mainstream, and risen higher in the buzzword index a fairly interesting misconception has appeared with respect to categorization.
It seems that whenever agile is mentioned, authors feel this odd compunction to treat agile as if it were Kordell Stewart (aka “Slash). Admit it, you’ve seen it. You’ll be reading along expecting the obligatory mention of agile and come across one of the following:
- Agile and Scrum
- Agile or Scrum
- Agile/Scrum
- Agile Scrum
I have to admit, every time I see this, it sets my teeth on edge.
Why?
Because Scrum is one of many agile frameworks. Sure, it happens to be the most popular due to some clever marketing and the ease by which it can be described. All that said it is one of many.
It is not an alternative.
Put another way, when someone decides to refer to Agile and Scrum, they are in effect saying this:
When in fact, this is a more appropriate representation of the true relationship of the two words:
So the next time you need to refer to agile, just refer to agile. If you specifically mean Scrum, then say Scrum.
And while we’re at it, can we stop referring to a team based on what framework they use? Instead of saying Scrum Team, or even agile team, how about… team?
And please, please, please resist the urge to capitalize SCRUM. It’s not an acronym.
Whew… glad to get that off my chest.
