Although there are similarities in Scrum and traditional project management methods with regard to definition of ‘quality’ (i.e., the ability of the product to meet the agreed Acceptance Criteria and achieve the business value expected by the customer), differences exist in terms of how the approaches address the implementation and achievement of the required quality levels.
In traditional project management methods, the users clarify their expectations; the Project Manager defines those expectations in measurable terms and gains agreement from the users. After detailed planning, the project team develops the product over an agreed period of time. If any of the agreed criteria are to be changed, changes can happen only through a formal change management system where impact of changes is estimated and the Project Manager gets approval from all relevant stakeholders.
In Scrum, however, the Product Owner collaborates with the Scrum Team and defines the Acceptance Criteria for the User Stories related to the product to be delivered. The Scrum Team then develops the product in a series of short iterations called Sprints. The Product Owner can make changes to the requirements to keep pace with the user needs and these changes can be addressed by the Scrum Team either by terminating the current Sprint or including the adjusted requirements in the next Sprint as each Sprint is of very short duration (i.e., one to six weeks).
One of the major advantages of Scrum is the emphasis on creating potentially shippable deliverables at the end of each Sprint cycle, instead of at the end of the entire project. So, the Product Owner and customers constantly inspect, approve and accept deliverables after each Sprint. Also, even if a Scrum project is terminated early, there is some value created prior to termination through the deliverables created in individual Sprints.
