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Question ID: 24663470 Author: srikanthrad Date: 18/08/09 06:42 PM
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RUP vs Scrum Ex ce lle nt
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What is the difference between RUP and Scrum? Since, they both are iterative, I want to know the key Question History (209)
differences between them and Scenarios when they use both of them. Please suggest.
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Author: srikanthrad, Limited Member

Posted: 18/08/09 06:42 PM Request Attention A 5.412

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Assisted Solution ID: 25129237 Author: jaime_olivares Date: 18/08/09 07:29 PM

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RUP is a collection of methodologies, more process oriented, while SCRUM is a single methodology Software Design
more developer oriented.
Since they are not antagonist, both can work together, as explained here: Week Month Year Overall
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/feb05/krebs/ 1. TommySz 11,600
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Author Comment ID: 25129970 Author: srikanthrad Date: 18/08/09 11:11 PM 0 Expert Points Yesterday
2. capricorn1 4,000
Was this comment helpful? Yes No 3. DarrenD 3,800
4. Gertone 3,500
I agree that they are not antagonistic approaches. But, what i understood over research in google is 5. marklorenz 3,000
that
RUP is for the people who knows exactly what they are doing in advance, however requirements can 6. mplungjan 2,800
change in each phase when these iterations are developed to cope with the changes but the 6. murphey2 2,800
changes are not allowed to progress after each phase is complete.
8. phoffric 2,500
where as Scrum is required when requirements constantly change and we are obligated to iterate
9. gurvinder 2,220
and incorporate the changes in the software development as the development progresses.
10. mkobrin 2,000
Please correct me if I am wrong.
10. Nash2334 2,000
10. vrluckyin 2,000
10. sarabande 2,000
Expert Comment ID: 25130034 Author: jaime_olivares Date: 18/08/09 11:29 PM
10. amit_n_p 2,000

Was this comment helpful? Yes No 15. jeremycru 1,500

16. jaiganeshs 1,200
in case of SCRUM, you analyze requirements and decide to attend some of them in a short time 17. pepr 1,000
(sprint, tipically 1 month). You don't need to have all your requirementa already defined, just 17. CraigWag 1,000
enough to be done on next sprint. Once you decide what to do, you don't change it until you finish
your sprint. 17. Tarakas4 1,000
17. santoshm 1,000
21. r3nder 800
Author Comment ID: 25130063 Author: srikanthrad Date: 18/08/09 11:37 PM
22. gdemaria 668
22. SidFishes 668
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24. Hammo777 664
25. carl_tawn 600
So, both of them have requirement frozen for certain period of time
In the case of Agile, the requirements are frozen after the Inception and Elaboration phase. 25. PeteEngin 600
In the case of Scrum, the requirements are frozen for each Sprint.
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Am I right in stating the above?

If I am right, in case of Agile if requirements change in the middle of Construction phase. Should we
wait until the next RUP phases begin starting from Inception? Unlike the SCRUM where the
 wait until the next RUP phases begin starting from Inception? Unlike the SCRUM where the
requirements can be changed after current sprint which is kind of short time.

Accepted Solution ID: 25130399 Author: defi0 Date: 19/08/09 12:58 AM

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I'd like to offer my own view on these two methodologies:

- Scrum is a fully agile methodology that was initially designed for projects implemented by a single
team of around 7 people. Since then, people have designed ways to make Scrum work for multi-
team, even distributed, projects, with mixed results. Also, Scrum is really a set of rules to make a
team more productive. It is not a full methodology; for instance, it does not suggest any
development practice (unlike XP for example). For that matter, Scrum can be applied to all sorts of
projects, not just software. Finally, Scrum emphasizes "time boxing" over "content boxing", i.e.
everything, from meetings to Sprints to Releases, is limited by a fixed duration, not by the outcome
(contents).
- on the other hand, RUP is a full methodology for large software projects. It provides guidance
throughout the project to all "actors" (users, developers, designers, testers, product managers,
project manager, etc.) as well as templates for artifacts, processes, recommendations for tools, etc.
It emphasizes predictability by providing a complete project plan by the end of the Elaboration
phase, and therefore tries to aim for feature completeness in a predictable timeframe.

Personally, I would recommend RUP for large, high-value software projects (such as complex
software products), and Scrum for smaller projects (of any kind), especially projects that require
incremental delivery.

Note that the fundamental idea behind Scrum is empowering the team, making it fully autonomous
and responsible. This can be disruptive in some organizations.
On the other hand, RUP is a "structured" process that gives the power to... the process. This is often
desirable in large organizations but can reduce "nimbleness" and creativity.

As for your question on requirement management, Scrum indeed freezes requirements only for the
duration of each Sprint (usually 15 to 30 days), but that's because Scrum by definition does not
guarantee the contents (features) of the Release in advance. Basically, a Release contains... what
could be delivered in the Release timeframe.
RUP also allows requirements to be taken into account during the Construction phase, but the more
you allow that, the more unpredictable your project becomes, which can be a problem for projects
that choose RUP over Scrum for its predictability.

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Assisted Solution ID: 25130633 Author: Archyon Date: 19/08/09 01:49 AM

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I like to add to the excellent explanation of Defi0 that RUP is capable of delivering software in a
demand-supply organization (whereas the supplier has a contract to deliver software for the
demanding business), because in RUP it is possible to organize progress and changes in a rigid way
so both parties in the organization keep on track during the process. Using SCRUM in a demand-
supply situation will be a huge challenge, since every sprint can (and will) stir up previous
agreements. My experiences tell me that business decision making bodies are commonly not that
flexible.

Another point of consideration is that SCRUM is a way of working that can easily be adopted, also
for a single project. RUP to the contrary will take more time to adopt as one needs to start with
what NOT to use of the 32 roles, 200+ templates and accompanying workflows in your organization,
then have everybody (i.e. everybody, including management, customers etc) put their mindsets in
the same RUP direction. Only when this is put right, you may (or should) start with your first
Inception phase. Any attempt to introduce RUP fpr an standalone project and start using it before
organizing it, fails.

Author Closing Comment ID: 31617400 Author: srikanthrad Date: 19/08/09 07:34 AM

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Thanks for solution.

Expert Comment ID: 25134546 Author: defi0 Date: 19/08/09 09:31 AM

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Excellent comment from Archyon.

Just an additional note: there are variants (deviants?) from RUP that are more agile and less
complex, such as AgileUP or OpenUP (http://epf.eclipse.org/wikis/openup/). The latter is actually
based, in part, on a subset of RUP donated by IBM/Rational.

Expert Comment ID: 25135125 Author: Archyon Date: 19/08/09 10:25 AM

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 To add to this list of "successors" of RUP. Ivar Jacobson, one of the founders of RUP, is now active
with EssUP or Essential UP. EssUP is not based on RUP, but has the best practices of classic RUP,
agile processes and process maturity. More info on EssUP can be found on
http://www.ivarjacobson.com/products/essup.cfm

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