What if Scrum had no rules?
Peter Stevens@peterstev
DC Scrum User GroupJuly 20, 2014
Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Which best describes the attitude towards Scrum in your company?
Follow the rules!
Live Inspect and Adapt!
I believe agreements are stronger than rules
Let’s explore great projects together
1. Tell & listen to stories of great projects 2. Identify those projects most worthy emulation3. Identify the patterns in those projects
Could we agree to do something similar?
What are the characteristics of these great projects?
• How would you describe the purpose of the project?
• How many people were involved?
• What skills did they have?
• How often did they produce something that worked?
• What were the characteristics of the leadership?
• How did people work together?
• How would you describe the motivation of the people involved?
• What factors enabled the motivation?
• What was the relationship to the beneficiaries of your work (customers)?
What are the attributes of these successful projects?
Technical • Short feedback loops• Running systems early• Clear Acceptance Criteria /
Tests• Good tools and equipment• Risks handled early• Early and regular
integration• Thorough Test Suite• Automated Test Suite
Management• Clear Vision & goals• Clear priorities• Clear decisions• Clear responsibilities• Management Support for the
Teams, People & Project• Focus• Close cooperation with the
customer• Motivated, Activated &
Empowered Team Members
How would you recognizea good change?
result of an agreement to be better
inspect & adapt more often
Vote!
• Agreements are more powerful than rules! • Vote to elevate the status of agreements in
the Scrum Guide
• http://tinyurl.com/ScrumAgreements
SP1
SP2
SR
DSDS
Day 1
Daily Scrum
Day 2
Day n…
Sprint
VisionBacklogRefinement
What if, we considered Scrum as a series of opportunities to ask powerful questions?
Work
Work
Work
Retro
Increment
Done
(CC BY SA) Peter Stevens
SP1
SP2
SR
DSDS
What is the best possible step
forward?
How can we accomplish these steps?
How? What help do we need? What’s slowing us down?
What have we accomplished orlearned? Day 1
Daily Scrum
Day 2
Day n…
Sprint A container to limit ourselves to setting
reasonable medium-term goals. What can we reasonably expect to accomplish by the end of the sprint?
Vision
How will our efforts make the world a better place? Who needs our product? Why? Why should we build it?
BacklogRefinement
What could we do to get us closer to our vision? What small steps could take us nearer to our goal ?
What if, we considered Scrum as a series of opportunities to ask powerful questions?
Work
Work
Work
Retro
Increment
DoneHow do we know a step was successful? How do we ensurethe quality of our work? Howdo we know that what wasdone in the last sprint is still done in this sprint?
How can we work more effectively?
(CC BY SA) Peter Stevens
“Let’s make this project your best project!”
• Peter Stevens– scrum-breakfast.com– saat-network.ch