Hey Reader,

Ok, this past week I went back to very foundational stuff, and made a video about what Scrum is.

In case you haven't seen it, you can watch it here.

In that video, I explain how a Sprint runs, where it starts, and how it ends.

(just FYI, I'm going into a bit of philosophical monolog in this email )

I also talk about Scrum as a framework under the Agile umbrella.

So after I posted the video, one of my fellow Scrum trainers reached out to me to express appreciation for the work I do, but also let me know that I might have shared some incorrect information.

Big thanks to him for sharing!

It was related to my Agile umbrella explanation, and he said:

"Ken destroyed this idea a few years ago (7?) by reminding us Scrum - 1995, Agile - 2001".

I thought it would be a good idea to share this perspective with you to give you some food for thought. A perspective that is different from mine.

Now, we are still looking for the source, and once we find it, I'll definitely share it in the blog post.

But whether we find it or not, I think it's an important point from Ken.

That is true that Scrum has been created BEFORE the Agile Manifesto has been created.

So does it really make sense for Scrum to be under the Agile umbrella?

We can argue that it is not and it is a completely incorrect way of looking at it. I get it.

But I also will continue to stand by what I said in that video because I think it makes sense. For me. And, hopefully, for you.

If Scrum came earlier, then can we say that Agile should be under the Scrum umbrella?

That doesn't make much sense since Scrum is a framework with certain rules and elements that must be respected, while Agile is a set of 4 values and 12 principles we should work by.

The two are still related. So should they be standing next to each other?

This still doesn't make sense.

But we can't just put them in two completely different buckets.

And this is why I believe that it makes sense to say that Scrum is sitting under the Agile umbrella alongside other frameworks and methods.

It's not really about what came first, but how these things are related.

What happened is that many people across the globe have been experiencing the same challenges when software development started to grow.

And they came up with different solutions to it:

• Scrum was created in 1995 by Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber;
• Extreme Programming (XP) started in 1990s by Kent Black;
• Feature Driven Development was initially devised by Jeff De Luca in 1997;
• and many many more.

All of these methods and frameworks helped the teams and companies become more adaptive, build better products to satisfy customer needs and create a good working environment for the developers.

Some frameworks survived and are still popular until this day. Some disappeared. Some only saved certain practices.

And if we actually read the history of the Agile Manifesto it says that the representatives from different frameworks and methods came together trying to find common ground and came up with the manifesto together.

So it makes even more sense to look at the Scrum living under the Agile umbrella, under the Agile Manifesto, alongside all other frameworks.

I think I've re-convinced myself in my outlook on the Agile umbrella

In any case, what I think is important is that in my opinion, this outlook helps people to understand the concepts, making them more relatable and down-to-earth.

I will continue to use this metaphor when explaining the frameworks.

But it is up to you to decide what you believe is the best way to look at it.

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A fun fact that I've found while doing the research for this email. We (at least I) usually refer to Agile practitioners as "agilists". But Alistar Cockburn used the term "agilites"! Should we switch? :)

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When I started writing this email, I didn't know that I'll go into history and philosophy.

I generally don't really know where my thoughts will take me.

But I hope that this little history lesson gave you some new insights and ideas on how you can approach teaching (or understanding) Scrum and Agile.

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I'll keep this email short this time as I'm planning on sending you another one this Friday with a little secret (hush hush).

Just a quick reminder if you haven't watched my latest video, you can find it in my blog.

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And how do you view the relationships between Agile and Scrum?

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