Scrum is a Checklist--Part III

Introduction

In our first two articles (linked here and here), we covered Atul Gawande’s The Checklist Manifesto and discussed one of the significant human reflexes we have against checklists. In this article, we will discuss how Scrum is a checklist and give a little treat (tool) at the end as a thank you for reading through this series.

Scrum — a Checklist?

Remember, work in today’s age is complex. We have increasing specialization, technology is advancing at the speed of light, and those who try to anticipate everything up-front get left behind, destroyed by their meticulous plans like Wile E. Coyote.

One thing Atul learned from his learning journey was how the construction industry handles all the unexpected problems that arise. They manage them with communication checks.

Communication Checks

Communication checks help teams navigate and respond to the plethora of unknowns that arise as you wade into complex work. They are like the huddle of a football team before executing a big play. They bring together all the cross-functional disciplines needed to ensure a few things:

1. We hear everyone’s perspective. Due to the increasing specialization in our world, communication checks allow us to hear from different experts as we tackle challenging problems together.

2. That we are smart together. Communication checks foster a sense of teamwork. They remind us that this problem or product we are trying to build is larger than all of us, and we need the collective intelligence of everyone on the team to work cohesively instead of in silos.

3. To agree and sign off. Once we discuss the issue, communication checks allow us to move forward in agreement, cohesively and aligned.

Scrum is a Series of Communication Checks

As I listened to Atul’s book, I could not help but think that Scrum is itself a series of communication checks designed to assist value delivery amidst all the complexity inherent in product development.

Think about the Scrum events and what their purpose is:

□ Sprint Planning: Bring the cross-functional Scrum Team together to discuss the next sprint.

□ Why is this next sprint valuable? What is our goal?

□ What can we reasonably complete this sprint?

□ Developers: How are we going to accomplish this work?

□ Daily Scrum: Bring together the developers in brief 15-minute meetings.

□ Discuss progress toward the sprint goal

□ Plan out the next day

□ Identify anything that inhibits our success

□ Sprint Review: Bring together the Scrum Team and key stakeholders.

□ Discuss the outcome of the past sprint

□ Demo Increment/Allow stakeholders to use it

□ Ask for specific feedback

□ Discuss what’s upcoming in Product Backlog

□ Adapt Product Backlog as needed

□ Sprint Retrospective: Bring together the Scrum Team to reflect and adapt.

□ What went well during the sprint?

□ What problems did we encounter? How did we solve/not solve those?

□ How can we be more effective in the next sprint?

□ Repeat.

All these Scrum Events are are communication checks. They are crafted to help Scrum Teams and their stakeholders navigate complexity by ensuring the cross-functional disciplines are talking to one another when they need to be. And those communication checks are what truly help organizations generate value in a complex world.

Treat

Thank you for taking the time to read through this series. I hope your thinking of Scrum and checklists has been enriched through these few articles. As a thank you, here is a checklist for checklists developed by Atul Gawande. How much more meta can you get?

[1]

Sources

[1] Bianco, Evan. “Checklists for Everyone.” Agile, Agile, 17 Apr. 2012, agilescientific.com/blog/2012/4/17/checklists-for-everyone.html.