An Empirical Study on Scrum Deviations in Organizations with Software Development

Scrum is one of the most popular agile software development frameworks. As a guideline to help development teams to work effectively to achieve development goals, Scrum Guide is provided. In practice, many organizations do not strictly follow the Scrum Guide, causing Scrum deviations. The objective of this research is to gather Scrum deviations data and analyze the impact and factors that cause Scrum deviations in Scrum Teams. Via the interviews with the Scrum Teams from IT departments of different sizes and types of software development and in different organizations in Thailand, 19 Scrum deviations were identified. These deviations were then used in an online questionnaire to collect the impact of Scrum deviations on Scrum Teams. The results show that the deviations do not necessarily have a negative impact on the Scrum Teams and their organizations, as certain deviations are even beneficial. However, there is no statistical difference in the deviating behavior of the Scrum Teams from IT departments of different sizes and different types of software development. Also, the major cause of the deviating behavior is the Scrum Teams themselves, as the teams tend to adjust Scrum activities to better suit team practices.