Scrum Projects are a different ball game !

From the definition

A #project is defined as a #temporary endeavor or organization by the world's most popular Project Management bodies. A Project brings together a #customer who has a need or business objective to be met and one or more #suppliers who are having skills, capabilities and people to work and produce the expected outputs. Due to legal and other aspects, both the Customer and one or more suppliers will get into a #contract - to have clarity on what is required, when it is required etc. to avoid later disputes.

A Project is awarded through a contract that will have an end date

Typical approach to traditional Project Management

The Project Contract and resulting SoW typically will have an expected list of deliverables (i.e. outputs) within mutually agreed duration and cost.

In this approach, the critical element to complete the project on time and within the cost is keeping the Scope i.e. requirements as #fixed as possible. While this approach has its own merits on Projects where very very less Scope changes are expected, it doesn't work well when the Scope is a #variable .

Scrum requires Product Mindset

For Scrum Projects where the Scope of the Project evolves as more and more is discovered, start with a #Product #mindset .

Few key practices in developing a Product Mindset

The following are few key practices that can help us to cultivate Product mindset:

1. Focusing on the Customer
2. Delivering #Business #Value
3. Continuous #Innovation
4. Shorter time to Market
5. Frequent #feedbacks
6. #relentless Delivery
7. Actively managing the Requirements with focus on flexibility
8. Value driven metrics over vanity metrics

Scrum's inbuilt mechanisms supporting the Product Mindset

Let us explore few inbuilt mechanisms/elements of Scrum that can help us to nurture Product Mindset:

1. Product Owner #accountability - maximizing value helps the PO to focus on Customer and what is more valuable for the customer
2. Short #sprints - faster and frequent feedback cycles helping the Scrum Team to validate whether they are building the right thing
3. #inspect and #adapt - helping the Scrum Team to change their course with frequent inspections that give more insights on what is happening
4. #transparency - by ensuing that everyone is having a common understanding, Scrum Teams help Product Sponsors and Stakeholders to get a Realtime view
5. 5 Scrum Values - each one of these promoting the Scrum Team to explore alternate options courageously and openly, focusing on delivering value and honoring their commitments while respecting the individuals and interactions

End note

Waterfall or traditional approach may work even after few hundred years if the Project Scope can be fixed with very less changes expected. For complex projects, #flexibility is the preferred approach over rigidity.