The scrum values and why they matter.
Hi,
I had a revelation this morning: I’m way too British: most, if not all, of these newsletters start with me talking about the weather. So I thought I’d continue in a similar vein.
It’s too hot.
I don’t mean Dubai heatwave hot, I mean middle England and 30 degrees when it was 12 degrees the other day.
A not-so-common question that comes up when coaching and training is about the values of a team. Why do I emphasise getting clear on what a team values? How to go about discovering? What to do with those values once you have them?
Being explicit about your team values helps in many ways: they help you respond in difficult situations, rather than react, they help you clear out clutter, they help you make decisions and so many more things.
In the 2020 Scrum Guide, the Scrum values made a reappearance, for which I’m grateful. This week I wanted to talk about those Scrum values and why they matter.
I hope you have a great Thursday.
One Insight I’ve Had
I fell in love with #agile from the moment I first experienced working in an #agile team as a programmer. It just made sense. It just worked.
I’ve spent so much time evolving over the past 2 decades, first as an #agilepractitioner and then as a #agilecoach and #coach, that it is hard for me to remember a time when I worked in an environment that didn’t embrace #agilevalues and #principles.
It is hard for me to grasp that there are still organisations that operate in the same way they did 70 years ago. Deeply controlling with a very firm hand on the control and command reigns. Places where speaking the truth, regardless of how valuable that may be, could get you fired.
Places where you learn to keep silent, do as you are told, and play the political game to survive.
When you work in an environment that lives and breathes #scrum values, it is incredibly hard to work in an environment that doesn’t believe in values or principles. It transforms you. It brings out the best in you. And you learn to work as a team.
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A creative, collaborative, high-performance team.
So, what are the #scrum values and why do they matter? How did a shift from deeply control and command #projectmanagement frameworks to #values and #principles create such a deep impact in the software development industry?
The scrum values are:
Courage
Why do they matter? That’s a great question. I created a short video walking you through my thinking around the 5 scrum values and why they matter but I would love to hear your thoughts. I would love to know how these values have transformed your life and why they matter to you.
One Quote
“Why is courage so important inside of a scrum product development team that is solving complex problems?
Because we are going to be asking the team to do things that they have never done before, in ways they have never worked before, and often with people they have never worked with before.
We are asking teams to step up to the plate, to try new things, to develop working hypotheses and run experiments, etc. and so we want them to have the courage to give it a go.
That is really important in a complex space because nobody has every solved the problem before, there simply isn’t a frame of reference to work from and so it’s all brand new, scary, and requires a great deal of courage to pursue.” – John McFadyen
Watch the full video:?What are the scrum values and why do they matter?
And a Question for You
Which of the scrum values most resonates with you and why?
Product Manager, Agile Consultant, Expert in development methods and creating effective teams
2 年Great article John! I think the Scrum Values are too often overlooked. For me, Focus resonates strongly because it helps encourage teams to limit work in progress (you can't focus on 20 stories at the same time) but also because Scrum Teams must always focus on value - drawing a connection from whatever they are doing to the Sprint and Product goals and ultimately to the product's higher level purpose. In his recent article, Joseph Pelrine wrote about Essence games and how they can help Scrum Teams understand their work better. He gives an example game called 'The Hot Seat'. A great way to play the Hot Seat game is for the Scrum Values to be round the outside and a different Scrum element (such as the Daily Scrum, the Increment or the Sprint Retrospective) to be in the Hot Seat. The team play the game to inspect and understand how the values relate to that specific part of Scrum. It sparks some excellent conversations and generates real insights for the team. I highly recommend it. https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/essence-games-joseph-pelrine/?trackingId=mnhBs6UpR1OsuAVvIPI6Dg%3D%3D