What are the differences between Scrum and Traditional Project Management Method?

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.

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Stakeholders in Scrum

The term stakeholder creates a lot of confusion in Scrum. Usually the term is confused with the responsibilities of a Product Owner. Let us now clear all the confusion around it.
Best definition of stakeholders is that they have legitimate interest in the project and another important point to be noted is that stakeholders are not always product owners but product owners are always stakeholders.
Product owners help define the backlog the Scrum team and also help in prioritizing the work units of the Scrum Team and continually communicate the progress to the stakeholders.
Stakeholders are the purpose for which a Product or service is created in the first place. Stakeholders are the people who have certain necessities, wants and desires; thus in business terms they have certain requirements which needs to be fulfilled. It is the responsibility of the Scrum Team to fulfil the requirements of the Stakeholders and satisfy them. Usually stakeholders do not have clear understanding of what they need and even if they do they keep changing their minds very often. Usually figuring out the actual needs of a stakeholder is achieved through a lot of meetings with the stakeholders and also after a lot of trial and error.
The stakeholders are very vital to the success of the Scrum team as they keep reviewing the team’s products and progress and keep providing continual feedback. There could be many people, who have genuine interest in the Product, but not everyone should be taken in to account as Stakeholders – some are purely engrossed bystanders. Clear identification of the stakeholders who have requirements is as important as determining the exact market segment you need to target for your products.
So, now we get another important question. Who or what qualities make a good stakeholder in Scrum?
Good stakeholders are those who provide constant and constructive feedback to the Scrum team and help in improving the product. One big challenge is to manage other stakeholders who don’t support or just become part of the scene. Good teams need strong leadership that can facilitate positive discussion and create better services or products.

Hence to be successful in a Scrum project understanding the needs and requirements of the stakeholders plays a very critical part and most of the times make or break the project.

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