Scrum in practice in infrastructure projects

Project management is a growing subject and is defined by an expanding body of professional associations, standards, methodologies and tools seeking to reduce failure. Traditionally, the project management process does not distinguish between different types of projects. More recently, however, the need for a tailored management method is acknowledged. In this paper we compare conventional project management processes and Scrum (as a tool of Agile project management) in theory and practice, in order to understand the differences, to investigate whether Scrum is applicable in the construction industry for infrastructure projects and to investigate practitioners’ experiences. Qualitative research was performed by means of conducting interviews in multiple case studies. The findings show that although Scrum is new in this industry, it contributes to project success. It should, however, be tailored and optimized to fit to the characteristics and fulfill the requirements of the specific projects, which requires additional research.