SYMPTOMS OF SCRUM ADOPTION FAILURE

Anand Kumar KeshavanSoftware Product Development

Specialist

Scrum Master or Project Manager?

Scrum Master stopped being an individual contributor Scrum Master assigns and tracks tasks of development

team

Scrum Master is NOT a Project Manger Authority over the Scrum process vs. Team members Ensuring team members are not blocked vs.. Checking up to see

whether they are screwing up!

Role is: to ensure that Scrum meetings are conducted efficiently-

within 15 minutes to make sure that issues/impediments raised during meeting

are resolved offline. Work with Product Owner to ensure readiness of Product

Backlog for next Sprint. Ensuring that team members do not over or under commit.

Scrum Meetings

Do not happen at the same time everyday Do not happen everyday– weekly

meetings or meetings every alternate day. Last more than 15 minutes Discussions tend to deviate from the core-

what I was working on yesterday, What I will do today and any possible impediments. For example, extensive analysis of the way a feature should be implemented, arguments on architectural issues…

Burn down chart

Team members do not update their tasks on a daily basis

Scrum master updates it for team members!!

Burn down chart remains “flat” for most part of the sprint and drops suddenly towards the end.

Team Behaviour

Works overtime- 12-14 hours a day or more- especially during the last week of a sprint.

Members do not participate in sprint planning meetings, sprint demos or sprint retrospectives

As a whole does not complete the items planned in a sprint on a regular basis. Strong indication that the Scrum Master or another stakeholder is forcing the team to take up more than it can chew.

Team members do not strongly insist on including refactoring items in sprints- points to increasing technical debt and/or team fatigue.

The Process

Odd sprint lengths- weekly sprints or 4 monthly sprint--

Product owner, Executive management attends daily stand-ups Strong indication of scope been changed during sprints Undermining the role of the scrum master.

Product being released after every sprint Short sprint planning meetings- indicating that

Product Owner/ Scrum master are allocating backlog items to team members

No sprint demo Short or irregular retrospective meetings

Other Oddities

Executive management uses Sprint data for appraisals of team members

Collection and analysis of stupid metrics like tasks committed vs.. delivered for individuals and team

Strong aversion to rework by team members- indicates a culture of “getting it right the first time”- antithesis to agile principle.

External monitoring of the Scrum process, minutes of stand-up meetings, daily status reports, audits of artifacts, approval trails etc.- strong indication that an organization is not culturally ready for Agile adoption.

Summary

“Scrum is: Light weight Simple to understandBut difficult to master!!” ( Scrum Guide)( Sort of like Chess or Programming)