| They sure do! I have quite some experience working in Waterfall orgs. Starting around 2012, I noticed Scrum becoming the default. But, not much changed, just the ceremonies are called differently! At many orgs, Scrum is just a thin veneer over top-down planning. It gives the developers an illusion of freedom while being in practice yet another instrument of control. Not that there is anything wrong about wanting to control your org's processes! Could we just be more honest about it? For example, the daily standups are advertised as a tool for team synchronization. More often than not, it's status reporting with the PO/SM intently listening and probing. A well-gelled team will obviously sync itself on the go without any need for this ceremony. The worst offender is often the retro. I've been to way many retros that were completely led by the manager (PO, SM). But even if the manager is out of the room, what's the point? A tightly knit team won't need a biweekly retro. It solves its problems as they arise. I would prescribe retros when the team is freshly formed and abolish them as soon as it gels. Then, let's meet offsite once in a while, hang, shoot the shit, and discuss the big picture. I think that overall Scrum has brought some benefits and some agility to sw development at big orgs and maybe it's only there where it still provides some value. I'd be interested to learn whether startups of today use it at all? |