Agile and Scrum are not synonyms

I am very sure that many professionals use these 2 terms very interchangeably. Any agile transformation, particularly starting at team level starts with a discussion on training team on Scrum, hire/have a scrum master and product owner, and keep rolling.

Sounds familiar. I can bet on this. Being an Scrum Master, Lead Scrum Master, Agile Coach and Consultant at different points of time in my career, i did had my own handshake with this understanding of many teams and organizations.

Why So ??. There are multiple reasons. First, Scrum is very widely used Agile Framework, so it comes as default thing in mind when we talk about working in Agile. Another reason is process standardization mindset which majority of organizations have. We want an Agile organization, so let's starts doing Agile, which eventually means a pilot project('s) are picked to implement, and Scrum being over used comes as default option. After that everybody is running on same track.

Scrum is one of Agile execution frameworks, not the only framework. Like in many other things, among the options available everything has it's own fitment, and no methodology fits into every situation. But being obsessed with standardization, we fall into trap of the same, and then start fitting work into the framework and many a times it's force fit, which leads into disaster. Focus becomes on getting the productivity numbers right, manipulation of data and so on... I am very sure most of the people will align with what I am saying and thought "I have also experienced this".

What happens post this experience, we start blaming the framework, competency of people working on project, hire professionals to fix it. What will they fix, when problem lies somewhere else. Professionals will help to make some corrections, start tracking way too many things, which might lead to some better result, but majorly it will show better numbers, and not really fix the inherent problem

On outset Scrum is a light weight prescriptive Agile framework which works on principle that you plan in small iterations (Sprints of 1-4 weeks, 2 weeks is most used duration) at start of sprint in Sprint planning and commit to the same, and team focusses on the same. So Scrum is a "batch pull" . Does you work flow fits into the batch pull ?? Answer will be yes, may be, may be not. That's where problem lies many of the times, with incorrect choice of execution framework.

Doing Agile doesn't mean doing Scrum only. Minimal things required in executing in Agile are i) Visualization ii) Daily Sync iii) Cadence based retrospection(Concept of Minimal Viable Agility). There is no mention of doing everything in Cadence here.

"Next time when you come across a similar situation, it needs a thought, on how to start, and what to use, rather then following trend and being obsessed with standardization".

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