Scrum vs Agile: what's the difference?

Agile is a mindset. Scrum is a framework. That is the whole answer, but the confusion between them costs teams months of painful adoption, so it is worth spelling out.

Agile: the mindset

In February 2001, seventeen software developers met in Utah and wrote the Agile Manifesto: four values and twelve principles. It does not tell you how to run a meeting. It says things like 'Individuals and interactions over processes and tools' and 'Working software over comprehensive documentation'.

Scrum: one framework that implements it

Scrum came before Agile (the first Scrum papers date to the mid-1990s), but it turned out to be one of the cleanest ways to actually deliver software Agilely. Scrum gives you three accountabilities, five events, and three artifacts. It is opinionated where Agile is not.

Other Agile frameworks

• Kanban: flow-based, no fixed iterations, work in progress limits.
• Extreme Programming (XP): engineering practices like pair programming and TDD.
• SAFe, LeSS, Nexus: attempts to scale Agile to hundreds of people.

How to know which you need

If your team ships in fixed iterations with a product-focused backlog, use Scrum. If your team has a steady stream of unrelated work items, Kanban is a better fit. Agile is neither. It is the mindset that both frameworks are trying to serve.