Working Software Over Comprehensive Documentation

This is the second of the Scrum Values. Many of the processes and tools of traditional project management are made up of documentation: scope documents, charters, requirements documents, risk analysis and on and on. Each document had its own set of approvals and often took weeks to complete, leading to no productivity but a lot of signatures.

I do want to emphasize here that this is particular to software projects. When I worked in nuclear power plant construction, the documentation that was required was so intense that a document could tell you in detail about something as seemingly minor as a half-inch screw. There were documents that could tell you who manufactured it, who installed it, when it was installed and who inspected the installation. This made it easy to trace a defect if one arose. And while I still think that documentation of software is important for the same reason, doing without a lot of the formal documentation and approval processes of a waterfall project has certainly made development move faster. There is some documentation for Scrum for Your Life, but it’s brief and you won’t be waiting for anyone’s approval but your own.