| Unfortunately, what teams do religiously is the process, contrary to the manifesto. So they put a Scrum Master pin on someone, they do Sprints and burndowns. They cargo cult. I did my first CSM course with Ken Schwaber. I did another recently with someone else. The recent course was all process. Ken's course was mostly "why". Jeff Sutherland said there are three things that must be true for a team to be a Scrum team: 1. It must be self-governing. 2. The team members must be on the team 100% 3. The team members must stay for the duration. With the exception of start-ups, I've seen maybe one team which met these criteria. But they all had sprints. And of course, they were all held to their commitment. Scrum is now a tool for management to death march people. Think of all these metrics that management measures scrum teams on. Can you imagine any of these teams turning around and saying, "We're going to measure how many of your bullshit wishlist items meet the definition of an actionable story when presented in sprint planning, and how many hours are wasted?" Of course not. Management can't abide a team that meets rule 1. "I'm a manager! I must manage! What is my job if my teams are self managing?!" Scrum, as Ken Schwaber describes it, is a fantastic way to develop product. Unfortunately, if you are in an organization that would truly let you do Scrum, then you probably don't need it. You are already qualified, experienced and empowered. If its a hundred twenty-year-olds being told to "do scrum", it probably ain't Scrum. |
Clear responsibilities, accountability and personal autonomy are so much, so much, better arrangement then self governing team.