3 Elements for Successful Scrum

Out of 100 companies practicing Scrum only 42 are successful. That means 58 are struggling with Scrum. Those are the numbers of the Standish Group for 2018. How come?

That means 42% of the organizations are practicing Scrum the right way.

Experienced Scrum practitioners know what I'm talking about. I'm not telling anything new but newbies, beginners and business operations who are not yet familiar with Scrum might like to continue reading. ??

Scrum is the most widely used Agile framework. And doing Scrum the right way will make teams successful. Being successful in the Scrum context means: delivering the right customer value faster than they did before. 

The right way actually means the right way for the customer. Not just the right way for us (scrum masters, agile coaches, leaders, agilists) but it's totally customer centric.

"The Right Way means,

the Right Way for the Customer"

1. The Rule book

Doing Scrum the right way means respecting the rule book which is The Scrum Guide. 

Scrum is a lightweight delivery framework. Easy to understand but difficult to master.

"Scrum (n): A framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value. - Scrum Guide p.3

It's a framework because you can use various processes and techniques to practice it. So much freedom can make it very difficult to be successful!

"Specific tactics for using the Scrum framework vary and are described elsewhere." - Scrum Guide p. 3

2. A Playbook

That brings us to a playbook. Besides respecting the rule book we need to practice Scrum the right way. It’s about finding plays (like in basketball, soccer, American football, F1) and making business processes Lean to increase the performance and productivity of your team. 

Dr. Jeff Sutherland explored for instance patterns that he described with James O. Coplien in their book "A scrum book: the Spirit of the Game". Those patterns have proven their value through the years and are based on past experiences respecting the empiricism in Scrum. 

There are over 100 patterns. The ones most used by the co-creator of Scrum, Dr. Jeff Sutherland are:

To plan a Sprint (= iteration) the right way:

• Stable teams;
• Yesterday’s weather (average workload of your last 3 Sprints)
• Interrupt buffer (for unforeseen work)

To finish the work in the Sprint:

• Swarming (work together to deliver an outcome like the F1 pitstop, for example):

• Good Housekeeping (fix bugs immediately)
• Finish early will accelerate faster

To become high performing:

• Scrumming the Scrum (Kaizen or Continuous Improvement)
• Work Happiness

You can find the details of these plays on https://sites.google.com/a/scrumplop.org/published-patterns/home

3. A Team Spirit or agile mindset

Just as in team sports we have the rules of the game (the rule book), we have our tactics (a playbook) and now, we still need a team spirit. The mentality to work for each other, to go the extra mile for each other, to have each other’s back, to count on each other. That will create trust and loyalty for your team. Loyalty will make people want to play for you and your team. And win! That’s the agile mindset that we also need to practice. Practice, Practice, Practice! The shuhari way.

Don’t forget we need the team spirit to win, to win games, to win championships. So, we need an agile mindset to deliver "the right customer value successfully and faster". Faster than before to outcompete our opponents in this VUCA world.

"The rule book doesn't explain us how to develop the plays nor the team spirit"

The rule book is only a start to implement Scrum. To be successful with Scrum the entire organization (from scrum masters, product owners, delivery teams, agile coaches, managers, HR, leadership to all supporting departments) needs to integrate this team spirit into their company culture.

If you don’t want to win then stick to however you’re playing. But don’t expect to win the championship. 

Same for scrumming the right way. If you don’t scrum the right way then don’t expect Scrum to be a miracle worker for your team nor your organization. 

"If you don't want to win,

stick to your old way"

My conclusion

The rule book, The Scrum Guide is clear for everybody. 

The main differences in practicing Scrum in the organizations are the playbook and the team spirit. 

Developing your own plays and developing your own team spirit can be confusing and overwhelming for many apprentices or outsiders.

Dr. Jeff Sutherland based Scrum on Lean principles from Toyota Production Systems (TPS) for his playbook.

I use different facilitation techniques to develop an agile mindset like LEGO? SERIOUS PLAY?, Management 3.0 practices. Other techniques are Liberating Structures or Sociocratie 3.0. All techniques are good as long as they all have the same goal: to develop an agile mindset to win. 

So, don’t be confused. Just follow the rule book, practice the plays over and over again, and develop your own agile mindset. 

That's practicing Scrum the right way. Using it as a lightweight delivery framework with Lean plays and an agile mindset. Successful Scrum will leave an everlasting impact on your organization that will deliver the right customer value in half the time. And that's True Scrum (this is my marketing slogan ?? ).

So, let’s stop bad Scrum, let’s stop Scrum in name. TOGETHER! 

Let’s True Scrum the World! (My marketing slogan again ?? )

About Agile atelier : Marc teaches professionals the rule book, he teaches Dr. Jeff Sutherland's playbook based on Lean principles and his own practices for an agile mindset. 

If you like to learn more about how a scrum master or product owner can practice True Scrum, how leadership can empower True Scrum and how to scale it, check out the schedule of my upcoming courses on www.agileatelier.com or PM me.