Agile as a word may sound familiar to you. It means being able to move quickly and easily. However, in the context of product development, Agile means more than moving quickly and easily. Agile is the ability to create and respond to change in an uncertain and disordered environment. Environment here could be a workplace, a team, a virtual team, etc. It is an approach that encourages collaboration and constant communication among people who are involved in developing a product. In addition, the Agile approach helps teams to respond to change as quick as possible.

As you know, there is no point in developing a product that will not satisfy customers’ or stakeholders’ needs. To this end, Agile treats people as the most important part of work environment. The whole idea about Agile is that it encourages continuous improvement and rapid response to feedbacks.

Scrum is one of the Agile approaches or frameworks. The characteristic of any Agile approach or framework is its alignment to the values and principles of the Agile Manifesto. Scrum is one of the globally-recognized Agile frameworks. It is a framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value. It helps teams to deliver products incrementally; enabling quick feedback, continual improvement, and rapid adaptation to change.

Scrum is designed for small teams who perform time-bound activities called Sprints. The Sprints usually last for a month or less with daily stand-up meetings of about 15 minutes.  At the end of any Sprint, the team must produce a working software. A working is a fully integrated, tested, and ready to be shipped to customers or deployed into production.

The difference between Agile and Scrum can be likened to that between ‘blue’ and ‘colour’. Blue is a type of colour. Similarly, Scrum is one of the Agile approaches or framework.