The Scrum Process for Independent Programmers

Abstract

A software process is an attempt to impose structure on the software development process. The primary goal of a software process is to arrive at a repeatable, predictable process that will raise the productivity of software developers and enhance the quality of their work. Over the past few decades, many such processes have been described and implemented ranging from the traditional Waterfall model to the more recent ones that are collectively grouped as Agile Processes. Agile Processes, in particular, have received considerable attention as they are light-weight, people-centric and relatively easy to understand and implement. However, almost all agile processes are geared towards development projects involving teams of programmers working together and ignore the needs of a programmer working alone. This study describes an attempt to apply the tenets of the Scrum process in situations where the software development is performed by a single programmer. It was found that agile principles, as adhered to by Scrum, can be applied to projects with just one programmer, resulting in better forecasts of the work involved, regular releases of working, verifiable software as well as improvements in quality of the code.