Two Separate Conversations: Scrum and Discovery

Two articles this week. So if you don't want to read about scrum, scroll down and read about what good Discovery looks like!

Why Scrum Doesn't Work

Last week I wrote a little bit (probably not enough) about SAFe. This week it’s Scrum’s turn on stage.?I came across two articles about Scrum that are not very flattering:

• Why Scrum never works
• The Scrum fallacy

My comments today are not intended to be “beat up on Scrum” comments, but they might just be. Like last week, I want to bring some personal perspective to things.

I remember years ago suggesting that Scrum was harmful. In those days, it was heresy to suggest such a thing and I was routinely drummed out of wherever I happened to be when I started such a discussion. Now we have more time behind us, and it turns out things are not so rosy after all.

Scrum can make you slow

I have observed Scrum turn software development organizations from highly tuned, creative, high-performing teams into slow, plodding-along, just-get-things-done teams. A lot (not all) of the reasons for this are because of the way they implement Scrum.

Scrum can make you numb

Scrum can take the minds of great developers out of the equation. Tickets from product management are created, reviewed, selected, and worked on in two-week sprints. Product management spends a significant portion of its time writing the tickets! At some point, the process is the process, and “thou shalt never deviate from the process” becomes a mantra.

Scrum can turn engineers into robots

The danger behind Scrum is that developers can become like short-order cooks – stay in the kitchen, wait until a ticket is posted, work on it, don’t suggest a better meal or deviate from what was ordered or from the standard recipe, finish it, and go on to the next.

Scrum can cause you to miss greatness

Instead of things that can be answered in a short, 10-minute session with the software engineer and the product manager, Scrum can cause things to end up being logged and described in Jira stories going back and forth over days before then going into Scrum planning meetings. Joint coding sessions, where the engineer and the product manager just work together, with a great outcome being completely finished off in one hour, are typically not allowed because something that might be created is not completely documented in Jira.?As Henrik St?hl writes, “Oh Waterfall, my old friend, is that you?”

Scrum can disengage engineers

The great ideas of developers can be frowned upon when using Scrum. Developers will wait for things to work on. Product managers will wait to see what was built and, if disappointed, started the cycle over again by modifying the stories.

Scrum can destroy culture

Worst of all, the culture can quickly shift from one where developers take pride in their work and ownership of the codebase to one where coding becomes almost a mindless job.

What should you do?

In the end, what matters is how you implement things and how you adjust and change your choices over time. If you are using Scrum today, even if it is working for you, don't force yourself to remain there. Always keep an eye out for things to do differently or better, and always keep your ear close to the ground to sense where things might not be going so well or where culture might be headed in the wrong direction.

Conclusion

So yeah, I can relate completely to what Henrik St?hl ( Henrik St?hl ) wrote in The Scrum Fallacy. I quote his excellent conclusion here:

“

Is Scrum ever good?

Yes. Despite everything I’ve covered in this walkthrough, I believe Scrum has a place in the agile world. But in my experience, that space is very limited — and it should be kept limited.

Scrum can be a good way to introduce agile values and principles to a junior team. Once the juniors have reached a certain state of understanding, Scrum must be abandoned as quickly as possible because it effectively puts a ceiling on a team’s potential agile growth.

The culprit is conformity. It’s easy for people to get stuck in the comfort Scrum brings; it’s?almost?agile, but not fully, and therefore less intimidating. You can still see the shape of waterfall but pretend it’s not there. And you can fool yourself that you’re evolving while trapped in a framework that impedes actual agile growth.

”

My observation exactly.

And now for a word on this week's Innovation Talks podcast episode...

What Successful Discovery Looks Like in Today’s Product and Innovation Teams

I had a pleasant conversation with Charlie Widdows , one of the Acclaim Ideas product experts at Sopheon, on the Innovation Talks podcast. Charlie brings a wealth of experience in ideation to his current role and firmly believes that impactful ideas have the power to change the world. This was not a product discussion about Acclaim Ideas, but a discussion about Discovery and what it means for modern product and innovation teams.

In this episode, we dive into the topic of discovery in the context of corporate innovation and new product development. Charlie defines discovery and shares what he believes its results should be. We discuss how discovery can be applied on different levels in an organization and how to use it to create innovative products.

Charlie reveals the two main obstacles standing in the way of successful discovery within a company and outlines how to nurture a company culture to make every team member, regardless of their position in the company, feel their input is valued. We also address the difficulty of introducing new ideas and processes into a business and how the fear of failure prevents some people from taking risks.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in innovation and new product development who wants to do more than gather ideas. Learn the difference between ideation and discovery in innovation, learn how to manage ideas and identify the best responsible parties, and find out the benefits of discovery for change and transformation teams.

We also discuss the role of AI in the innovation and ideation processes and what leaders can learn from data from other industries.

Check out the Innovation Talks podcast, and let us know your thoughts in the comments. Remember to subscribe and share with your network!

Apple Podcasts | TuneIn | GooglePlay | Stitcher | Spotify | iHeart

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Lastly, a nice fun fact about Charlie: he gives back to the community by serving as a business mentor at Black Valley. He helps increase equity in tech by fostering an environment where talents from a black ethnic background can thrive. Seeing people giving back to the community and helping others reach their potential is always inspiring.

If you're interested in learning more about how to harness the full potential of your ideas to generate better and more profitable products, check out Acclaim Ideas, the innovative new product from Sopheon that Charlie helped launch in 2022.

You can find the episode wherever you get your podcasts.

Apple Podcasts | TuneIn | GooglePlay | Stitcher | Spotify | iHeart

?It is also hosted here on the Sopheon website. ?