If you know the Shape Up concept you might ask yourself, so what is the difference between Shape Up and Scrum. Let's review step by step.
If you have already heard about Shape up or read my last article about what Shape Up is and its pros and cons, you might get the impression that Shape Up and Scrum are similar. But are they?
Let's review!
roles and responsibilities
First, let's look at roles and responsibilities distribution within Shape Up and Scrum. The critical difference is that in Shape Up, you won't find a dedicated Product Owner, as well as you won't find a process owner (like Scrum Master). Let's have a closer look:
​ | SCRUM | SHAPE UP |
Requirments owner | Product Owner | Anyone can write a Pitch and bring it to betting table |
Prioritization owner | Product Owner | Senior Stakeholders (desicion making people in the company) |
Execution owner | Development team | Development team |
Reporting owner | Usually, the Product Owner reports to Senior Management using a roadmap and status reporting | The development team reports on progress using Hill Charts |
Process implementation owner | Scrum Master | No dedicated person |
Product development
Once responsibilities ownership is clear, now is time to review how the entire product execution flow goes along. The essential difference is that the Scrum team first would find a solution, then estimate it and start development. In contrast, Shape up pushes you to begin with appetite, find a solution, and start development. Let's deep dive into product development areas:
​ | SCRUM | SHAPE UP |
Product requirements | Stored in Product Backlog | No backlog however there is a list of proposed Pitches for future cycle |
Prioritization | Product Owner knows current business needs and prioritizes work for upcoming Sprint | ​On the Betting Table, decision makers review the list of Pitches and decide what is going to be delivered in the upcoming cycle |
Development iteration | 1 - 4 weeks Sprints | 1 cycle = 8 weeks |
Size of work and estimations | Team estimate tickets in story points or T-shirt sizes | Pitch owner set appetite for a Pitch which is 2 or 6 weeks |
Testing | Expected to happen during the Sprint or following the Sprint after | Does not account dedicated time for testing |
Work split | Sprint Backlog Tickets are picked-up by the development team | Pitches are assigned to engineers (usually, 1 or 2 engineers are working on a Pitch) |
Scalability | Easy to scale | Works well for small and mid-size organizations, might be challenging to scale |
Scope Creep | ​Happens often and requires effort to avoid | Pitches specify what the solution is and what are no-goes - such approach reduces scope creep significantly |
Feedback and performance
As a final step let's jump into the feedback loop and how development team performance is measured. Both of the topics are very different in Scrum and Shape Up:
​ | SCRUM | SHAPE UP |
​Demo | ​By the end of the Sprint, the team is holding Sprint Review or Demo session to present completed work to stakeholders | No demo is expected to happen at the end of the cycle |
Feedback gathering | Retrospective or Sprint Review | ​No process |
Bugs fixing | Bugs are fixed during the Sprint | Bugs fixing can be done during Cool Down (or during Cycle if time allows) |
Team performance metrics | Velocity and Burn Down Chart | No metrics to catch performance |
Improvements areas | Retrospective | ​​No process |
what is better Scrum or Shape up you would ask?
The answer is easy - both are good. The goal is to choose the right approach for your organization's needs and consider all the advantages and disadvantages of every methodology out there. Need help? Contact me at contact@scandido.com!
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