Saturday, January 7, 2012

Scrum’s no silver bullet. It’s the holster!

Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, the creators of Scrum, describe it as a lightweight framework designed to address complex problems in an adaptive manner, while creatively delivering products of the highest value. I like to say Scrum is common sense. They say that it is simple to understand, but extremely difficult to master. I say the “extremely difficult to master part” could point to a team or organization’s lack of common sense or their willingness to acknowledge weaknesses.

You’ve heard too often that Scrum is no magic bullet. Folks says that for the same reason they say Scrum is difficult to master. Scrum is a process framework designed to manage complex product development, but it can’t do the work for you. Think of this framework as a tool, better yet, a bicycle. Climb on a bicycle. You can ride across country, but the bicycle isn’t motorized. You still have to apply muscle to get you where you need to go. Climb on the bike backwards, and you’ll find it “extremely difficult to master”, but peddle properly, and you’ll find yourself moving forward.

The Scrumbuts out there would take the chain off the bicycle and tell everyone Scrum didn’t work for them.

Scrum works by exposing the deficiencies of your management and development practices so that you can improve. It is not a silver bullet because it is not a process or a technique for building products. Scrum is the holster for those bullets, a framework of rules and processes to manage the other tools and techniques you employ. Within this holster, you’ll organize your Scrum Teams and their associated roles, events, and components.
Each tool within your holster serves a specific purpose and is essential to your success with Scrum. If you discard one of these tools, you have Scrumbut. However, your holster is large and accommodating. You can add all of the additional bullets or tools you need. Used properly, your holster binds each together by monitoring and managing the relationships and interactions between them.

1 comment:

HL Arledge said...

Thanks, Venba. I really appreciate your saying so.