What Is The Difference Between Scrum And Extreme Programming

GoRetro Team
December 7, 2022
Posted on
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Scrum and Extreme Programming (XP) are two popular software development frameworks that help teams create better software in less time. Both frameworks emphasize the importance of team collaboration, communication, and continuous improvement, but they have some key differences. In this article, we’ll explore those differences and how they affect project outcomes.

How is Scrum structured?

At its core, Scrum is an agile framework built around a series of short sprints that focus on delivering working software in small increments. This means that rather than getting bogged down in tedious details or trying to plan out every step of the way before starting a project, teams can quickly get to work on creating something tangible.

The Scrum team is made up of 3 roles:

1. The Product Owner (who sets the goals for each sprint)

2. The Scrum Master (who facilitates the process)

3. The Development Team (which does the actual work). The emphasis is on quick feedback loops between these three roles so that problems can be identified early on and course corrections can be made as needed.

How is Extreme Programming structured?

Extreme Programming (XP) is an agile methodology built around delivering working software as quickly as possible. It has 5 core principles:

1. Communication (the team should communicate regularly throughout all phases of development)

2. Simplicity (the team should strive to keep things simple rather than complex)

3. Feedback (the team should provide regular feedback so issues can be addressed quickly)

4. Courage (the team should take risks when necessary instead of playing it safe)

5. Respect (team members must respect each other’s ideas).

XP also puts an emphasis on automated testing which helps ensure quality code is delivered faster.

Scrum vs XP

The main difference between Scrum and XP lies in their approaches to communication and collaboration. While both emphasize collaboration between all stakeholders, Scrum focuses more heavily on quick iterations with regular check-ins while XP focuses more heavily on continuous integration by having shorter cycles with frequent feedback loops between developers and customers. Additionally, while both frameworks require teams to break down tasks into smaller chunks so they can be completed more easily in a given timeframe, Scrum tends to focus more heavily on breaking tasks down into smaller stories while XP encourages teams to break tasks down into small testable units instead.

Conclusion

In terms of results, both frameworks have been proven successful at helping teams deliver better software faster than traditional waterfall approaches would allow for. However, depending on your specific needs one may be more suitable than another – for example if you’re looking for increased customer involvement during development then XP might be your best bet whereas if you need greater flexibility then Scrum could prove beneficial instead due to its ability to adapt quickly to changing requirements or conditions.

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