The History of Scrum
Today, Scrum has become one of the most widely adopted Agile frameworks. It enables teams and organizations to deliver value iteratively and incrementally, adapt to changing requirements and foster collaboration and self-organization. The influence of Scrum extends far beyond software development, shaping the way teams approach complex work across various industries. But how did everything begin and what were the main landmarks along the way? Here is a brief summary of the history of Scrum.
1986: Takeuchi and Nonaka Introduce the Concept
Before it was officially known as Scrum, the concept was introduced in Takeuchi and Nonaka’s “The New New Product Development Game (1986)“ article from the Harvard Business Review, which equated creative processes to the sport of rugby. The article describes a scalable, team-based approach to product development that had been used by businesses like Honda, Canon, and Fuji-Xerox to get better outcomes. Takeuchi and Nonaka also highlighted the role that self-organized teams and management play in the growth process.
1993: The First Scrum Team
Scrum, as it is known today, was initially introduced to teams in 1993 by Jeff Sutherland, John Scumniotales, and Jeff McKenna of the Easel Corporation. They adapted their ideas from Takeuchi and Nonaka’s paper. As a result, the concept of “Scrum” was fully developed.
1995: Scrum is First Presented to the Public
Scrum was firstly presented to a public audience in the paper “The Scrum development process” by Ken Schwaber at the Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages & Applications (OOPSLA) Conference, 1995 in Austin, Texas. Simultaneously, Kent Beck started to develop Extreme Programm (XP) with input from Sutherland and Schwaber, so that XP and Scrum would work well together and complement each other.
2001: The Agile Manifesto is Created
The Agile Manifesto was created and signed by 17 evangelists that observed the increasing need for an alternative to documentation-driven and heavyweight software development processes. It consists of 4 values and 12 principles and continues to be the basis for all agile software development until today.
2002: The Scrum Alliance is Founded
The Scrum Alliance was created by Mike Cohn, Esther Derby and Ken Schwaber in 2002. Its mission is to nurture the Agile movement by providing education, advocacy, research, community, and connection. The organization was led by Ken Schwaber and in the years that followed, they created and introduced the enormously popular Certified Scrum Master (CSM) curriculum.
2006: Scrum Inc. is Founded
Jeff Sutherland founded his own organization Scrum Inc to offer training and consulting services. During that time, he also was active within Scrum Alliance.
2009: Scrum.org is Founded
In 2009, Ken Schwaber left Scrum Alliance and founded Scrum.org to provide a variety of Scrum training.
2010: First Scrum Guide is Published
The first Scrum Guide was published in 2010. It was an effort by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland to clarify what Scrum is. Since then it received global acclaim for its minimalistic approach. The Scrum Guide remains the primary reference for defining Scrum and is continually updated by Sutherland and Schwaber. It provides a concise set of principles, roles, events, and artifacts that form the foundation of the Scrum framework. It has been updated and refined in the years 2011, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2020.
Learn More About Scrum
Today, Scrum continues to grow and spread its impact on the way people work around the globe. The history of Scrum is a journey from a niche to a standard, and there is much more to come and the industry is currently shaping many new directions.
Learn more about the history of Scrum, along with practical ways to implement it, by taking our online Scrum Foundations certification. It introduces you to the basics and only takes an hour or two. You could also register for our world-class Certified Scrum Master (CSM) training, if you’re new to Scrum, or take your skills to the next level with Advanced Certified Scrum Master (A-CSM) training. We also offer Certified Scrum Professional-ScrumMaster (CSP-SM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner (A-CSPO), and Certified Scrum Developer (CSD)