Working with Agile Scrum
A colleague recently asked me about agile development, and scrum, as he has never worked in a software development team, but he'd heard these terms and wondered what they mean. I've documented plenty of software over the years, but not recently, so I don't have direct experience of agile methodologies, either. Of course, some sites continue to use the older "waterfall" development process, so it pays to know a bit about that, too.
The conversation reminded me of a TechCommNZ conference at which one of our members, Rebecca Officer, presented a fascinating view of agile at her workplace. She focused particularly on the challenges and solutions for technical communicators.
It occurred to me that anyone looking for a job in an agile team without agile experience needs some familiarity with the jargon and concepts, and also with the role of the technical communicator in that milieu. While you could go straight to the source, http://agilemanifesto.org/, the site may cause distress for any bona fide information designer. So, instead I've listed some introductory articles below, and a link to Rebecca's recorded presentation:
- For a very clear explanation of agile vs waterfall, and extreme programming vs scrum, I recommend Serena Software's An Introduction to Agile Software Development, 2007 (PDF format).
- Of course there's always Wikipedia, too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_(software_dev...
- Rebecca Officer's presentation is available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkEe5w6Mp6M&list=...
- On TechWhirl, read Alyssa Fox: Agile and Tech Comm: Viewing Scrum from a Writer’s Eyes
- You can also apply to join the LinkedIn group for agile technical writers.