Scrum, The Unflattering Mirror

Here’s what Ken Schwaber wanted you to learn years ago:

• Scrum is intended to highlight every deficiency and impediment the enterprise has so the enterprise can fix them.
• When an enterprise modifies or only partially implements Scrum, it is usually hiding or obscuring one or more dysfunctionalities that restrict its competence in product development and management.
• The gap between current practices and target practices is a measure of incompetence and competitive risk.
• Change is difficult, fraught with conflict, and may take many years of sustained effort. Turnover of staff and management can be expected.

Ken Schwaber counseled us not to sell Scrum as a silver bullet. To my recollection Ken did not use words like “hyperproductivity.” That was someone else.

But there’s a tiny market for difficult change and a huge market for prescriptions and placebos. So here we are.

Some of us are still interested in the honest work that the Scrum movement once embodied. Join us at https://fansofless.com.