Usually in New Zealand “scrum” means rugby, as played by the world-class All Blacks. But it’s becoming known as a certification increasingly important to Kiwi tech firms.

New Zealand IT consulting firm Clarus is recruiting new staff to cope with what consultancy officials say is “the unprecedented demand” from New Zealand manufacturers and other companies for assistance with Agile adoption and Scrum certification.

Trimble (News - Alert), Allied Telesis Labs NZ, Zeacom, Serato, Commtest and other Kiwi companies are adopting Scrum in hopes of improving project delivery and predictability, and “to increase team collaboration,” according to Clarus officials.

“Agile (News - Alert) product development approaches such as Scrum are being credited for increasing the likelihood of project success with delivery on time and to budget, and for mitigating delays and crisis points that can lead to project failure,” says Edwin Dando, managing director of Clarus.

A year ago, Dando said, companies were cutting back to survive the recession. Now, “they are taking the longer term view, fixing internal processes, introducing lean initiatives and investing in technologies to lay the infrastructure for future growth.

Agile has officially overtaken the traditional “waterfall” approach in software development circles, Clarus officials say, adding that with over 84 percent of Agile teams adopting Scrum, “it is quickly becoming the world standard.”

Clarus has been offering the courses in New Zealand since 2006. Last year Clarus lead the project to move the Christchurch City Council data center in one of the largest IT outsourcing projects ever in the South Island: 250 servers and 2800 users.

“We base our entire business on traditional ‘good bastard’ Kiwi values such as doing the right thing, integrity and honesty,” Clarus officials have said elsewhere. “We have earned a reputation to being trusted advisors to our clients and offering them genuine advised based on what is best for them -- not on what best increases our bottom line. We are passionate about NZ leading the way in sustainable hi-tech business. We have developed strong carbon management programs and are major supporters of technology educations and community support.”