The impact of Scrum in software development: a case study using

SWOT analysis
M ARIANA DE A ZEVEDO S ANTOS1
J ULIANA G ALVANI G REGHI2
PAULO H ENRIQUE DE S OUZA B ERMEJO2

UFLA - Federal University of Lavras

DCC - Department of Computer Science
P.O. Box 3037 - Campus da UFLA 37200-000 - Lavras (MG)- Brazil
1
(mariana)@bsi.ufla.br
2
(bermejo,juliana)@dcc.ufla.br

Abstract. This paper reports a case study of an exploratory nature and qualitative, about the adoption of
the methodology of agile software development Scrum in a research lab and software development for
the forestry sector. The purpose of this research is to assess the impact that the adoption of Scrum brings
to the organization, using as a method of qualitative analysis, the framework of management review and
strategic positioning SWOT. The result is displayed in a matrix, called SWOT matrix, which considers
the strengths and weaknesses of adopting Scrum, as well as opportunities to be exploited in the software
market and the threats faced.

Keywords: Scrum, SWOT, methodology, agile, software development.

1 Introduction scribes the analysis methodology. The section 3 presents

The development of a software is a complex pro-
cess [12] and this context, the a agile software devel-
opment have an important role, as highlighted in the
studies of Dybå and Dingsøyr [5], Mann and Maurer
[9],Ericksson et al. [6],Abrahamsson et al. [2],Williams
and Cockburn [22].
Its importance is related to the fact of holding a
paradigm, a simple and more objective conceptualiza-
tion than the traditional approach, focus on less docu-
mentation, quick response to requirements changes, an
active customer collaboration. [3].
One of those agile software development method-
ologies in particular, the Scrum, becoming popular am-
ong companies in the latest years for complying with
two factors: client satisfaction and delivery quickness
in relation to traditional methodologies [9].
The big motivation of the study is the insufficiency
of detailed reviews of the capacities and limitations that
might be used as a basis to identify improvement areas
on the agile methodologies [17] and mainly, a detailed
review of the capacities and limitations of the Scrum.
This paper is organized as follow: the section 2 de-
a research of the Scrum methodology and the section
4, a research about SWOT analysis. The section 5 de-
scribes the case study developed at the organization in
study, henceforth referred as laboratory. The section
6 presents and discusses the results of the study, sum-
marizing the future proposals to the conception of the
research.
2 Methodology
This study is exploratory, with a qualitative approach.
The means for data attainment was the use of inter-
view with the IT members of the research laboratory.
To reach the results the strategical analysis tool SWOT
was used.
The objective of applying SWOT in this study is to
be able to understand the impact that the Scrum method-
ology’s adherence brings to the organization and, from
the analysis, define which cultural aspects of the orga-
nization under study, which produces softwares for the
Forestry Engineering, can be changed when applying
the Scrum, bringing a better avail and learning on soft-
ware development using such technology.
66 Santos, M. de A. et al.
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3 Scrum
This section will be presented the basics definitions
of Scrum methodology and how the concepts and your
practices are structured.
3.1 Basic Concepts
Scrum is an agile methodology also defined as inter-
active and incremental framework of software projects
development. At first, it was idealized as a model of
project management in automobilist and consumer prod-
uct industries [20].
The name Scrum derives from a strategy used at
rugby to resume the game, with similar characteristics
to the proposed development.
In 1993, the methodology was conceived and imple-
mented by Jeff Sutherland, John Scumniotales and Jeff
McKenna, being formally defined and documented in
1995 by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland [15], [16].
According to Schwaber and Beedle [15], Scrum aims
at managing and controlling software development pro-
cesses, focusing on people and being indicated for en-
vironments with frequent requirements changes.
According to Beedle et al. [4], the entire opera-
tion of the Scrum is structured in cycles, called Sprints,
which are work iterations that last form two to four
weeks. The methodology also establishes a set of prac-
tices and rules that must be followed by the team, on
their respective roles, so that the project may succeed.
3.2 Structure
Schwaber and Beedle [15], [16] define that Scrum
has three roles: Product Owner, Scrum Master and the
Team.
The Product Owner: represents the customer in the
project. It defines functionalities according to mar-
ket values, plans and creates a priorities list know
as Product Backlog.
The Scrum Master: Work like a moderator of the de-
velopment team’s interests and the customer’s in-
terests. It’s responsibility is to keep the team func-
tional and productive, solving any kind of impedi-
ment between the Team and ensure that the process
is into adequate course, including the ceremony’s
openings.
The Team: which is the team responsible for the pro-
ject’s development. Its composition is multidisci-
plinary and has a group with five to nine members.
Any function is delegated to it inside the Sprint as
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INFOCOMP – Special Edition, p. 65–71, jul. 2010
long as it meets the deadline. The team must show
ongoing project results to the Product Owner dur-
ing formalities.
The methodology Scrum has practices also called Scrum
formalities.The four formalities are [16]: Daily Meet-
ing, Sprint Review and the Sprint Planning Meetings.
Daily Meeting: daily project meeting where the Team
share the impediments and progress of the project.
Sprint Review: balance reunion where the Team mem-
bers presents the results to the Product Owner in
the end of each Sprint.
Sprint Planning Meetings: reunion that defines what
the activities that must be covered during a Sprint.
Sprint Retrospective: The Team evaluates aspects su-
ch as team work during the Sprint and practices it
would be improved serving as incentive for future
practices.
The work inside the Sprint is monitored by the Burn-
down Chart, which is a chart that estimates the time
spent on the work development inside the Sprint. A
term that’s becoming common inside organizations that
adopt this methodology is Scrumbut.
According to Schwaber and Aguanno [14], Scrum-
but happens when the organization adopts Scrum, but
modifies it, without a seriously criteria. Those inappro-
priate customizations may be risky to the project.
Figure 1 shows the general method operation. At
first, the Product Owner and the customer define the
backlog. From it are determined which are the require-
ments that must be prioritized at the Sprint. During
the Sprints, the Daily Meetings are realized, daily en-
counters where the team shares among each other the
project’s course. By the end of the Sprint, the Scrum
Team delivers a functional increment of the project so
that the customer and the Product Owner together rede-
fine the requirements, a priori, according to their inter-
ests.
4 SWOT
Although some authors identify the origin and tech-
nical design in 60’s [8], Tarapanoff [21] (p. 209), af-
firms that SWOT was already used for over three thou-
sand years by the military strategist Sun Tzu, in the epi-
graph: "Focus on strengths, recognizing weaknesses,
seize opportunities and protect yourself against threats."
The term SWOT studies the environment and com-
petitiveness of an organization, based on the following
aspects [11]:
 The Impact of Scrum in Software Development: A Case Study using SWOT Analysis 67
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Figure 1: General vision of Scrum methodology [10]

Strengths: is the differentiation attained by the enter-
prise (controllable variable) which gives it an oper-
ational advantage at the managerial environment.
Weaknesses: it is the company’s inadequate situation
(controllable variable) which gives an operational
disadvantage at the managerial environment.
Opportunities: it’s the uncontrollable environmental
force acting over the company, which might favor
it’s strategic action, syne known and successfully
exploited as it lasts.
Threats: is the uncontrollable environmental force act-
ing over the company, which creates an obstacle to
its strategic action, but which can be avoided, syne
known timely.
The analysis result is disposed into a matrix called
SWOT Matrix. It cooperates in the analysis of a situ-
ation and the development of tactics and strategies, ac-
cording to an identified scenario.
5 Case Study
Aiming to collect relevant information concerning
the studied subject, an exploratory case study was perfor-
med in an organization at Lavras, Minas Gerais.
The research objective was to analyze the impact
that the adoption of the Scrum methodology brought
to the laboratory, through qualitative data obtained in
interviews with the IT team of the researched organiza-
tion.
The organization studied is a software research and
development laboratory of the forestry sector. Initially,
a cascade development methodology was adopted, whi-
ch is a classical approach, systematic and sequential,
that starts at the specification of the requirements by
the customer, planning of the project, modeling, devel-
opment and implantation of the software culminating
at its progressive maintenance [18], using as support
some project management notions from the PMBOK
[1], whi-ch is a reference guide containing a set of good
practices to be followed while managing projects.
The proposal of adopting the Scrum arose at the be-
ginning of 2009, period in which the laboratory sent
their functionaries to training, practice adopted annu-
ally. Presented to the methodology, the IT chief, ac-
companied by a functionary, made the official trainings
of the Scrum Alliance of Scrum Master and Product
Owner, respectively. After training the knowledge ac-
quired was passed town to the other laboratory mem-
bers through lectures. The client, which is a public
company, was also received Scrum training and capaci-
tation.
On the subject of method acceptance by the staff,

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68 Santos, M. de A. et al.
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the IT chief, who has an Scrum Master certificate, said:
"it was very positive, but not hard to implant the Scrum.
There’s a lot of resistance, some people think that the
agile development is messy, but it isn’t. You have rules
to be followed daily to characterize the Scrum".
Another important topic that was brought up by the
IT chief was the difficulty of demanding the Scrum’s
daily duties from the staff and saw the need of "creat-
ing" Scrum Masters inside the organization, because he
travels very often, and this makes it harder to monitor
the team’s Scrum practices.
Still according to the IT chief, Scrum improved the
laboratory’s performance at project development. Not
only did they earn their customer’s trust, but they also
started receiving more proposals than the other compa-
nies that still use the cascade model.
Another Scrum aspects on the laboratory were appro-
ached through interviews with the team members of the
company’s projects. The members were divided into
two teams A and B, that worked on projects that will
be called project A, project B and project C. Still, it
must be clarified that the laboratory works with multi-
teams, in other words, the members are part of one or
more teams, working at one ore many projects. Team A
was char-ged with projects A and B, while team B was
charged with project C.
5.1 Project A
Project A was a software about inventory of indus-
trial waste. This project has a peculiarity. At the begin-
ning nothing specific such as a methodology was used,
but according to Scrum Master 1, Scrum was used by
the end of the project.
Scrum Master 1 related that on this project the team
didn’t use any kind of development methodology at first.
It was noticed that the project was 60 % complete but
not all promised requirements were met. This need of
organization met the return of the functionaries from the
official training.
Thus, the project was concluded with a Scrum adap-
tation to the laboratory’s models, because the team had
not been trained yet. At this implantation phase, accord-
ing to the project’s Product Owner, the Sprints were not
successful, always surpassing the estimated time for the
tasks.
A relevant point to discuss about this project, is that
from the changes mentioned before the laboratory be-
gan to adopt the Scrum as a software development and
project management methodology, some projects fol-
lowing recommendations, other with a few adaptations.
Even adapted, the Scrum showed an improvement
at the software production process and the team insists
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INFOCOMP – Special Edition, p. 65–71, jul. 2010
that they won’t let the many adaptations turn the Scrum
to a Scrumbut.
5.2 Project B
Project B, about Greenhouse effect gases, was plan-
ned and implemented using the Scrum. The Sprints be-
gan to suffer variations on estimated task completion
times. These variations can be explained by the team’s
lack of experience, since project B was one of the first
Scrum projects.
The problems faced were related to this first contact
of the team with the methodology and their difficulty
of leaving old concepts. The Scrum Master 1 related
the difficulty of covering many roles inside the Scrum
and that eve possessing well-defined schedules to alter
functions, it ends up affecting productivity.
Despite the problems faced, benefits were observed.
The Scrum results, which is the software, the final prod-
uct, is faster and this guarantees a better transparency
towards the client. The Scrum improves communica-
tion between team members, making the work routine
better organized and more aware of deadlines, obliga-
tions and customer expectations.
Developing in parts and then modifying them is mu-
ch more practical and efficient than developing a com-
plete system and trying to fit alterations into the final
product. The Scrum caused a significant improvement
at the laboratory’s performance.
5.3 Project C
Project C is a water amount controlling system. The
project’s Scrum Master, identified as Scrum Master 2,
doesn’t have any Scrum certification.
He commented that while planning the Sprints there
was a lot of problems concerning communication, whi-
ch gradually affected the requirements fulfilling esti-
mates. But later on the team managed to reach the goals
as they began to understand how the Scrum worked.
The Scrum Master 2 related that the adoption of the
Scrum by the laboratory was interesting, because the
organization began with just a few people on IT, which
strengthened their organizational culture on the devel-
opment processes.
Many great projects that the laboratory developed
are legacy projects, are considered flagships and must
have continuity. The question is, once that there’s a
need of providing services related to these software, the
activities regarding the Scrum cease completely.
Despite these problems, the Scrum Master 2 related
a personal opinion that the Scrum is flexible, which
eases it’s adequacy to the method of work, since he
 The Impact of Scrum in Software Development: A Case Study using SWOT Analysis 69
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Table 1: SWOT Matrix with the results of the case

SWOT Matrix Internal Environment
Strengths Weaknesses
External Opportunities
Environment Customer Satisfaction Lack of process maturity

Quickness Capactating in CMMI or

to processes MPS-BR

Improved the communicationsCapacitation of functionaries with remar-

Developers have greater kable social capabilities, at

control of their tasks the official Scrum Master and
Product Owner trainings

The projectâs progresses

are more visible to
clients
Threats Scrum was an attempt of
the organizations of lea- The organization still
ving an informal and less has old practices addic-
mature methodology. tions, supported by the
strong organizational
culture

Excessive use of Scrumbut

If the competitors adopt

an agile methodology and
already have a maturity
of the process, they might
conquer the market.

doesn’t like software engineering and it’s concepts,main-
ly in relation to documentation, which in other method-
ologies is usually extensive.
The IT chief and the Product Owner 2 considered
the possibility of adopting another methodology or a
processes model like the CMMI, together with Scrum.
The objective is to better organize the processes, bring-
ing a bigger strength to the laboratory and a more con-
sistent documentation.
6 Results and Discussion
From the interviews it was possible to indentify some
points to be analyzed. Organizing factors into a SWOT
Matrix, the following results are present in Table 1.
The expected results from this study were an evalu-
ation of the impact of adopting the Scrum, being it posi-
tive or negative. Considering the analysis of the SWOT
Matrix, it is possible to notice that the adoption brought
benefits (strengths) to the research laboratory:
* Transparency of the project’s activities towards the
client;
* Greater quickness in its processes;
* Improvement of the team member’s communications;
* Productivity rise.
Therefore, the laboratory fails at internal perspec-
tives, by using excessively the Scrumbut, not the Scrum
in its essence. Schwaber [13] affirms that the Scrum
exposes the dysfunctions of the product and of the de-
velopment practices so that they can be corrected. The
laboratory’s positioning is the opposite.
Larman [7] states that due to the characteristics of
the Scrum’s emphasis on values and practices for man-
aging a project, the methodology can easily be com-
bined or complemented other methods.But first, the or-
ganization must achieve a maturity in their processes so
that these adaptations aren’t longer a risk to the success
of a software project.
This way, it’s possible to conclude that the impact
generated by the adoption of the Scrum was positive
due to the factors of people management, productivity
and dynamics of the activities. Still, the immaturity and
inefficiency of its planning and development processes
suggest difficulty reaching excellence and strength of
processes at the laboratory, threatening the quality of
the final product.
It is possible to evaluate as a negative impact the
use of Scrumbut, practice derived from a strong organi-
zational culture where the laboratory imposes its values
over the Scrum practices and some of them are not pro-
ductive. The flexibility in adopting the Scrum must be
coherent and have limits.
According to Strode et al. [19], adoption of agile

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70 Santos, M. de A. et al.
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methodology techniques produces changes in organiza-
tional culture.
Based in a significant statistic correlation performed
in the research by Strode’s et al., the use of agile method-
ologies combined with a specific factors of organization
culture, brings a great social iteration, collaboration and
values in the team work like flexibility and learning.
Adopting a reference model of quality as CMMI or
the MPS-BR together with the Scrum can be a viable
opportunity for reaching maturity and efficiency in the
organization’s processes. But this analysis can be made
in future studies.
7 Conclusion
The results obtained from the case study and the
SWOT analysis consist with the initial proposal of the
research, by showing the evaluation of the positive and
negatives impacts of adopting the Scrum as software de-
velopment methodology of the studied laboratory.
In summary, the present case study contributes to
the Software engineering area identifying the impact of
the adoption of the Scrum methodology in the devel-
opment of software products and the benefits attained
by the organization, if the methodology is correctly ap-
plied.
However, in order to the research and the results of
this case study prove the perception of value of the use
of the Scrum methodology, it is proposed the elabora-
tion of a deeper analysis, using a combination of qual-
itative and quantitative methods, applied to a sampling
of national and international organizations that use the
Scrum as their software products development method-
ology.
Applying the proposed analysis, the future studies
will should also evaluate other aspects, besides the ag-
ile culture developed by adopting the agile methodol-
ogy Scrum.
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