Some Results From Scrum

The benefits of Scrum reported by teams come in various aspects of their experience. At

Yahoo!, we have migrated nearly 90 projects to Scrum in the last 30 months, totaling almost

900 people, and the list of teams using it is quickly growing. These projects have ranged from consumer-facing, design-heavy websites like Yahoo! Photos, to the mission-critical back-end infrastructure of services like Yahoo! Mail, which serves hundreds of millions of customers; they range from entirely new products like Yahoo! Podcasts, which used Scrum from concept through launch (and won a Webby Award for best product in its category that year), to more incremental projects, which included work on new features as well as bug fixes and other maintenance; and we’ve used Scrum for distributed projects, where the team is on separate continents. Several times each year we survey everyone at Yahoo! that is using Scrum (including Product Owners, Team Members, ScrumMasters, and the functional managers of those individuals) and ask them to compare Scrum to the approach they were using previously. Some summary data is presented here:

ƒ Productivity: 68% of respondents reported Scrum is better or much better (4 or 5 on a 5-

point scale); 5% reported Scrum is worse or much worse (1 or 2 on a 5-point scale); 27%

reported Scrum is about the same (3 on a 5-point scale).

ƒ Team Morale: 52% of respondents reported Scrum is better or much better; 9% reported

Scrum is worse or much worse; 39% reported Scrum is about the same.

ƒ Adaptability: 63% of respondents reported Scrum is better or much better; 4% reported

Scrum is worse or much worse; 33% reported Scrum is about the same.

ƒ Accountability: 62% of respondents reported Scrum is better or much better; 6%

reported Scrum is worse or much worse; 32% reported Scrum is about the same.

ƒ Collaboration and Cooperation: 81% of respondents reported Scrum is better or much

better; 1% reported Scrum is worse or much worse; 18% reported Scrum about the same.

ƒ Team productivity increased an average of 36%, based on the estimates of the

Product Owners.

ƒ 85% of team-members stated that they would continue using Scrum if the decision

were solely up to them.

Results From Scrum

The benefits of Scrum reported by teams come in various aspects of their experience. At
Yahoo!, we have migrated nearly 90 projects to Scrum in the last 30 months, totaling almost
900 people, and the list of teams using it is quickly growing. These projects have ranged from consumer-facing, design-heavy websites like Yahoo! Photos, to the mission-critical back-end infrastructure of services like Yahoo! Mail, which serves hundreds of millions of customers; they range from entirely new products like Yahoo! Podcasts, which used Scrum from concept through launch (and won a Webby Award for best product in its category that year), to more incremental projects, which included work on new features as well as bug fixes and other maintenance; and we’ve used Scrum for distributed projects, where the team is on separate continents. Several times each year we survey everyone at Yahoo! that is using Scrum
(including Product Owners, Team Members, ScrumMasters, and the functional managers of those individuals) and ask them to compare Scrum to the approach they were using previously.
Some summary data is presented here:
Productivity: 68% of respondents reported Scrum is better or much better (4 or 5 on a 5- point scale); 5% reported Scrum is worse or much worse (1 or 2 on a 5-point scale); 27% reported Scrum is about the same (3 on a 5-point scale).
Team Morale: 52% of respondents reported Scrum is better or much better; 9% reported
Scrum is worse or much worse; 39% reported Scrum is about the same.
Adaptability: 63% of respondents reported Scrum is better or much better; 4% reported
Scrum is worse or much worse; 33% reported Scrum is about the same.
Accountability: 62% of respondents reported Scrum is better or much better; 6% reported Scrum is worse or much worse; 32% reported Scrum is about the same.
Collaboration and Cooperation: 81% of respondents reported Scrum is better or much better; 1% reported Scrum is worse or much worse; 18% reported Scrum about the same.
Team productivity increased an average of 36%, based on the estimates of the
Product Owners.
85% of team-members stated that they would continue using Scrum if the decision were solely up to them.