Shape Up vs Scrum: What is the difference?

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!