One of the most compelling benefits of scrum is the ability to release working software faster than traditional methods. This is due in part to the fact that it encourages close collaboration between teams and stakeholders as well as an ongoing improvement culture within the development environment. However, a range of other aspects contribute scrum benefits to the higher effectiveness of Scrum projects too, including the ability to release frequently and the emphasis on short quick time-boxed sprints that focus on the top customer requirements.
Sprints permit regular product inspections. This allows customers and stakeholders to observe the progress of the software and determine whether it can meet their evolving requirements earlier and faster in the process than would be feasible using a waterfall project. TurboTax is a great example of this: instead of attempting to create software for every state and federal income tax return at once, it focused on creating software for a specific state or a few states each sprint, which allowed them to launch their product faster and generate ROI much faster than they would have with a traditional project.
Scrum also provides daily insight into the progress of a project, which top executives and other stakeholders can easily access using tools such as Workamajig. This transparency can help prevent costly mistakes, by providing an overview of the project’s current status and what must be done to keep it on track.