I regularly meet organizations that are excited about their upcoming agile transformation. In the face of that positive atmosphere, it’s hard to point out that adopting agile and scrum has hidden costs. In the past, I’ve always mentioned two sobering statistics. I’ve just added a third.
Transparency; The First Casualty of a Scrum Transition
The three pillars of empricism are: Transparency, Inspection and Adaptation. Without transparency, your inspection is rendered worthless and any adaptations based on that inspection are flawed. This is basic and obvious. Everyone can understand it. Yet many scrum adoptions suffer because of it.
Why do we make such an obvious and fundamental mistake? Here’s one perspective, and one solution.
[Read more…] about Transparency; The First Casualty of a Scrum Transition
Book Review – User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product
Underpinning scrum is the need for a product backlog. There are many ways to create a product backlog and one of my favourites is User story mapping. Now, there’s a book dedicated to just this technique. Is it worth your time and money?
[Read more…] about Book Review – User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product
Is a Scrum Product Owner Role Really Necessary?
The Scrum Guide says that a scrum team consists of three roles: product owner, development team and scrum master. My work as a scrum trainer and coach has revealed that some organisations don’t use product owners at all. So, are they really necessary?
[Read more…] about Is a Scrum Product Owner Role Really Necessary?
What Does Scrum Mean?
What is the meaning of scrum? (Sounds like a variation on a Monty Python film). What does scrum mean? Is it an acronym?
In brief, the software development term ‘scrum’ is a lightweight framework for developing, delivering, and sustaining complex products.
Let’s look at that in a little more detail.
Here are the facts.