Can Scrum be applied to non-technology projects?

I am talking about non-software projects too :-)

Ok, give me very specific example how you apply Scrum on Estimate part of the project

Ok, give me very specific example how you apply Scrum on Estimate part of the project

By using story points and other relative estimation techniques for example. Mike Cohn wrote a whole book on it. The issue is a product backlog would need to be created and everyone use the same estimation technique even if it's a non-tech project.

Very specific? A HR Manager wants to overhaul the training program within the organization. She has a bunch of training programs to offer, the departments and employees that need training, their priority for training, abd their indicative capacity over the next 6 months. She comes to you as the Agile or Scrum PM (assuming the project is authorized) to help break down the user stories and estimate the work. The time and budget is pretty much fixed, so after getting the requirements/user stories down, you create a release map, first couple of iteration details down, estimate the work using story points, begin the Sprints and track velocity to see if the high level estimates hold up.

Non-tech or rather non-software development related application for Scrum. Could be done in Agile and other frameworks also.

Do you have any examples (even hybrid) Lenka of applying Scrum to non-tech projects? It doesn't matter if it is hybrid, or only parts of the project are fully Scrum. The question wasn't about applying 100% Scrum 100% of the time :-)

I’m working on a non profit project. We don’t have daily meetings but weekly because we dedicate one working day per week to the project so more frequent meetings don’t make any sense. We have backlogs, use Agile management software, prioritize, we are capable of doing our project and we are self organizing ourselves. We don’t use story points because we minimize any unnecessary task in the project and we don’t really need estimating. We are looking for ways how to engage our customer. So yes, there are Scrum elements in this.

I’m working on a non profit project. We don’t have daily meetings but weekly because we dedicate one working day per week to the project so more frequent meetings don’t make any sense. We have backlogs, use Agile management software, prioritize, we are capable of doing our project and we are self organizing ourselves. We don’t use story points because we minimize any unnecessary task in the project and we don’t really need estimating. We are looking for ways how to engage our customer. So yes, there are Scrum elements in this.

I was just thinking about another example. My task was to define new strategy for a specific area. The product, strategy was not known upfront, there was a lot of learning and adaptation through its creation, we were having daily meetings in a small circle because the topic was very complex. Our product owner was president of the company who would fulfill the definition of product owner given by scrum. I was managing a backlog of thinks to do, mostly research topics.
I like scrum because it gives a sense. I always manage backlog on whatever I do. I always adapt the outcome because I simply can’t imagine going on with a stubborn idea that what was defined month ago must be delivered if we see that things changed and must be adapted. But would you still call it a scrum even if some elements are present and some not?
I personally prefer to be aware of various methods or frameworks and then I pick what make sense to me. I actually don’t like to feel that my decision making is somewhat limited by a request to follow certain methodology. In this sense Scrum can be really used everywhere. But methodology-wise is it still scrum? I don’t know. It’s a methodological question. But if you say that even partly applied scrum counts then there’s a plenty of examples how it was used on non software development projects.

That's a good example Lenka. Scrum does have roles, events, artifacts and rules that make it uniquely Scrum. I guess it would depend what was included and what was not that blurs the lines between Scrum and not Scrum. For example, some companies call the Scrum Master an Iteration Manager, a Sprint an Iteration. I would still call it Scrum because it doesn't alter the delivery of the framework. Other companies work with larger teams than Scrum would prescribe. I would still call it Scrum for the same reason. But when you get into things such as the absence of cross-functional self-organizing teams, or decisions over what work gets included into the sprint/iteration only made by the people actually doing the work, or cutting out the Retrospective altogether, this is when it ceases to be Scrum in my view because these are critical components that make it Scrum.