I see so many philosophical discussions about Scrum. Is it a Panacea? Does it actually work? Is it better than XP? In truth, I believe that many of these discussions are a waste of time. The reason being is that Scrum is useless unless you put it in action. Scrum is just a framework or a lightweight process by which one develops software. The essence of Scrum is not native to software development. In fact, the more exposure I have to other areas the more I see Scrum as a successful pattern that can be applied to many areas of life and work.

I have two examples that I have seen in the last year that are processes similar to Scrum. One example is C.J. Hayden’s book called Get Clients Now. It uses a process that is similar to Scrum only it is applied to sales and getting more clients. Another example I have seen recently is Dan Olsen’s process of designing a killer web app. This method uses a continuous integration process that looks very much like Scrum to figure out how to drive users to certain goals in your app.

I’m sure you can find many more examples of Scrum being used in different areas. Please post comments of others that you know of.

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