Using Scrum in Distributed Agile Development: A Multiple Case Study

Distributed agile development (DAD) has received increasing interest both in industry and academia as global software development (GSD) is becoming mainstream. However, agile methods and in particular agile practices have been designed for collocated software development, and are thus not directly applicable to DAD. In this paper, we present findings from a multiple case study on agile practices in two small and one mid-sized distributed Scrum project. Based on an interview study of 19 project team members, we describe how Scrum practices, such as daily scrums, backlogs, and sprints were successfully adopted to distributed development. We also describe supporting GSD practices employed, such as frequent visits and multiple communication modes that the projects used Finally, we depict the challenges and benefits the case projects reported, as well as lessons learned from applying Scrum in distributed settings.