Agile Mindset for Manufacturers: Scrum versus Agile

The Action Engineering team embraces an Agile mindset & Scrum practices in our work.
In our Agile articles, we share tips & coaching opportunities that work well for us. 

We often hear the terms “Agile” and “Scrum” being tossed around interchangeably. While the terms are related, they are not interchangeable. Here’s why…

Agile is a mindset. Agile is an approach that was developed by a group of software developers who knew there was a better way of working than the traditional waterfall approach. The developers wrote the Agile Manifesto to detail out the principles. The principles of Agile focus on incremental, iterative development while encouraging cross-functional teams and face-to-face communication. The principles state ideas, but not the specifics on how to accomplish them.

Scrum is a framework. It builds upon the Agile principles with a set of rules that can be adjusted to fit the team. As the Scrum Alliance states, “Scrum is a lightweight yet incredibly powerful set of values, principles, and practices. Scrum relies on cross-functional teams to deliver products and services in short cycles.” Scrum details the use of a Scrum Master and Product Owner, along with ceremonies such as the daily stand up, the sprint retrospective, and the sprint review.

Scrum is not the only framework in Agile. Kanban, XP, SAFe, and Agile Manufacturing are all frameworks that were developed based on the Agile principles. If the waterfall approach just isn’t cutting it for your project or team, try looking at an Agile framework.

Just because Scrum doesn’t fit your team doesn’t mean there isn’t another Agile framework out there that won’t work for you! Send us a message to chat about how you can put the Agile methodology to work for you and your team.