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Origins of Scrum vocabulary

Last post 09:36 pm November 22, 2020 by Eric Naiburg
3 replies
Alison Ballard
10:12 pm November 21, 2020

I'm curious to learn how the terms Scrum, Scrum Master, Sprint, burndown, etc. came into being. After some searching, I learned that scrum is a rugby term, but that's all I know.

Eric Naiburg
02:53 pm November 22, 2020

Hi Alison,

Scrum as it is currently defined began when our chairman and founder Ken Schwaber jointly with Jeff Sutherland presented their work at an event OOPSL95 in Austin, Texas in 1995 on Scrum.  This was based on work from the HBR Article "The New New Product Development Game".  Many of these pieces you mention evolved over time.  There are several videos that Ken has recorded talking about the history of Scrum which can be found here.

Alison Ballard
07:48 pm November 22, 2020

I actually interested in how the word "scrum" came to be used. Were either Ken Schwaber or Jeff Sutherland rugby fans or players? I don't know enough about rugby to understand how it fits. Is a scrum in rugby like a huddle in American football? Or, did it just sound like a good word they pulled from the air? It's no stretch of the imagination to understand the sports metaphor for sprint. 

Eric Naiburg
09:36 pm November 22, 2020

Alison, please click the link above for The New New Product Development Game as it is used in there and that is where it originated. The concept of the Scrum Team is based on Rugby and how the team comes together to move the ball forward all as one.  In Scrum, the Scrum Team works together to move the product forward together.

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