Scrum Alliance Membership Survey Shows Growing Scrum Adoption and Project Success

LAFAYETTE, Colo., August 13, 2007 — The Scrum Alliance, Inc., a not-for-profit organization focused on the worldwide successful adoption of Scrum, announces the results of a member survey conducted in July 2007.

Scrum Alliance members were asked about their companies’ satisfaction with the Scrum process. Seventy-five percent of those who responded report that Scrum is meeting or exceeding their organizations’ needs. Forty-five percent of respondents report their organizations are either very pleased with Scrum or believe it exceeds their organizations’ expectations. Nearly 90 percent (87%) of respondents report personal satisfaction with Scrum.

Within organizations that employ Certified ScrumMasters (CSMs), 53 percent report that 50-100 percent of their total development work is accomplished using the Scrum process. Seventy-eight percent of those surveyed report that utilization of Scrum within their organizations is expanding. Scrum is also increasingly used for maintenance work, with 47 percent reporting that they currently use Scrum for maintenance, and an additional 27 percent reporting a plan to use Scrum for maintenance work in the near future.

Scrum is growing within companies. More than 80 percent (83%) of respondents report that Scrum has been implemented within their company within the last two years. More than 75 percent of respondents report that Scrum has expanded to the group, division, and company-wide levels.

“Scrum Alliance members represent the world’s largest community of Scrum Users, so our survey results can be viewed as both significant and authoritative regarding the current state-of-the-industry use of Scrum,” said Kenneth S. Rubin, Managing Director Scrum Alliance, Inc.

“This data demonstrates that organizations are experiencing measurable success with Scrum and worldwide use of Scrum is growing both within companies currently using Scrum as well as spreading to new companies. Agile and Scrum are now rightly perceived as highly effective alternatives to traditional practices for managing software product development.”

More than 14,500 ScrumMasters have been certified since the program began in 2003, when 88 CSMs were trained. In the first six months of 2007, the number of new CSMs trained was 4,681.

Respondents report a 92.5 percent satisfaction rate with the Scrum certification training they received. More than 80 percent (82.5%) of respondents would definitely recommend Scrum certification to others; only 4 percent of those surveyed indicate they could not recommend Scrum certification at all. In addition, nearly 40 percent (38.6%) of Scrum Alliance members plan to seek further certification within the next two years.

“We are very pleased with the industry acceptance of our Scrum certification programs,” said Rubin.  “The year-after-year increase in the number of software professionals seeking Scrum Alliance certifications and our members’ desire to progress from entry level certifications to increasingly more rigorous certifications attest to the value that they and others perceive from the pursuit and achievement of these certifications.”

Other key survey findings:

  • Almost 90  percent of respondents (89.7%) report that Scrum training contributed to their project success.
  • More than 90 percent (92.5%) of respondents report their Scrum training exceeded their expectation or that they were very pleased or satisfied with their training.
  • Nearly 40 percent (37.6%) of respondents believe that Scrum Alliance certification provides career opportunities.
  • Almost 80 percent (77.1%) of CSMs had more than 7 years’ development experience prior to ScrumMaster certification. Nearly 60 percent of respondents have pursued graduate studies, earned their master’s degrees, completed post-graduate work, or have earned their doctorate.

Download the full results. 

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About the Scrum Alliance, Inc.

The Scrum Alliance was formed in 2006 with a mission to promote increased awareness and understanding of Scrum, provide resources to individuals and organizations using Scrum, and support the iterative improvement of the software development profession. There are more than 14,000 worldwide Scrum Alliance certified individuals, representing all aspects of the software development profession. To learn more about the Scrum Alliance, visit www.scrumalliance.org.

About the Scrum Alliance Member Survey

The Scrum Alliance member survey was announced to members by email July 16, 2007, with a link to an online survey instrument, which remained posted for ten days. More than 13,000 Scrum Alliance members (13,123) received the email notice. A link to the survey was also available to members who logged into the Scrum Alliance website. Responses to the survey totaled 1,174, resulting in an 11.2 percent response rate.

Contact:

Cathy Hut, Marketing Director, Scrum Alliance, Inc., chut@scrumalliance.org, +1.720.240.8890

posted by Rebecca T. Traeger (13 Aug 07)