The Golden Nugget of Scrum Advice I’ve Ever Received
Today, I am bringing to the table a reflective question that hovers persistently in the Scrum sphere, which is,  “What’s the best Scrum advice you’ve ever received?” ✨
It’s a piece of advice we often stumble upon in various forms and tones on social media platforms.
However, it seems to be getting lost amidst the clamour and, although in varying degrees of “upsettedness over Scrum frameworks and methodologies.
Breaking Free from Dogma of ‘Doing Scrum Right’
I’ve noticed numerous movements out there and also, there has been a substantial movement advocating moving away from the dogmas that seemed to plague the Scrum world. Â
These dogmas often stipulate rigid guidelines, like standing up during meetings, sticking religiously to user stories, or maintaining a strict 15-minute window for daily scrums. Â These might sound familiar - “If you aren’t doing ‘X’, then you aren’t doing Scrum!”
Honestly, this rigid approach contradicts the very essence of Agile and Scrum, which are grounded on flexibility and adaptability.
And frankly, these are notions that have never been synonymous with the authentic spirit of Agile or Scrum. 🎯
Being Pragmatic over Dogmatic
The fundamental advice that resonates with me and many experts in the field is steering clear of dogmatism and embracing a pragmatic approach.
Yes, as educators, you’re imparting knowledge. Therefore, it is crucial to present the Scrum framework in its defined form to lay a strong foundation. 🎯
However, the true magic happens when teams adapt the principles to their unique organisational contexts, deriving value and fostering innovation without adhering to every little rule in the book.
Navigating the Scrum Guide: A Tale of Flexibility and Adaptation
The Scrum guide indeed presents a structure, but it doesn’t offer solutions to all the problems.  That’s where your ingenuity comes in.  You must craft strategies aligning with your organisational objectives and team dynamics.  The true magic lies in developing strategies that align seamlessly with your unique organisational contexts 🌱
Remember, the actual frameworks and tools are simply that - tools.
These tools and frameworks are just facilitators. Â The real power lies in fostering meaningful interactions and adaptive strategies.
It’s about utilising these tools effectively, modifying them when they don’t serve your purpose, and relinquishing them when they turn detrimental.
The Recipe Analogy: Crafting Your Unique Agile Recipe
The power of flexibility and iterative processes in Scrum are powerful tools. I always liken this approach to following a recipe.  Initially, you might follow the recipe to the letter, but as you get acquainted with the process, you start tweaking elements to suit your taste better.  🌱
Similarly, Agile is about adopting a method, understanding its core, and then adapting it to suit your organisational ecosystem better.
It’s a journey of continuous improvement, where you embrace what works and discard what doesn’t, constantly iterating and adapting to foster an environment that nurtures agility and innovation.
This flexibility, adaptability, and reliance on empirical processes encapsulate the true power of Agile.
It encourages us to create our recipe for success, one that resonates with our unique tastes and organisational contexts.
Ready to Harness the Agile Power? Â Join Us!
Are you ready to navigate these adaptive and iterative processes? I invite you to join my Agile and Scrum courses.  🚀
Together, we can embark on a journey to redefine the contours of professionalism and agility in the industry.
The question is, what’s the best Scrum advice I’ve ever received? I think it’s the same advice we actually see all the time, although on social media, in varying degrees of upsettedness with Scrum and frameworks and stuff. You’ll see there’s a lot of movements out there to move away from a dogma that I feel like didn’t really exist, except in crappy people anyway, right? This dogma that, oh, you’re not doing Scrum unless you’re standing up, or you’re not doing Scrum unless you’re doing user stories, or if you don’t do exactly 15 minutes for your daily Scrum and it must be in person, then you’re not doing Scrum. All of that stuff I think has always been [___]. It’s not really Scrum, it’s not really Agile, it’s not really in keeping with that story.
People kind of latch on to that idea of, in the footnotes of Scrum, of the Scrum Guide, it does say that Scrum, as defined in here, is immutable, and implementing part of it is fine, right? But it’s not Scrum if you only implement part of it, and people latch onto that. So I think the main advice is not to be dogmatic, to be pragmatic. I feel like you need to be dogmatic in education, right? Because you’re telling somebody how something works. This thing is defined this way; here is how it works. Does it matter that they use it differently when they actually go and use it in their company? No. Are they getting value? Yes. Then we’re cool, right? Are they doing all of it? No. Are they still getting value? Yes. Then it’s great.
You don’t need to be following every little thing. To me, that’s successful, and it’s actually something that I think the Scrum Guide struggles with because people complain when it tells you it’s too structured and detailed, and then they complain when it doesn’t tell you how to solve your problems, right? Oh, the Scrum Guide’s not enough. Of course, it’s not enough; nothing’s enough. You need to come up with the strategies, and that, I think, is that core piece of advice that I see, consistent advice that I see from almost everybody who knows what they’re talking about on the internet. Whether it’s Scrum, Agile, Lean, Cap, it doesn’t matter what it is, the advice is almost always the same.
The actual framework, the actual tools that you use are just tools; they don’t matter. People and interactions over processes and tools. Processes and tools are valuable; use them when they’re effective for you, adapt them when they’re not, ditch them when they’re bad, right? That’s it. That’s the only advice you need to be more Agile.
But I would also caveat that. I’m going to caveat that because how do you know something doesn’t work for you if you haven’t done it, right? There’s also that idea that sometimes, especially when we’re learning, right? And that could be learning I’m in a classroom or learning I’m trying to figure out how this thing works, is perhaps you want to do it the way it says on the box and then go, “I tried it this, and this stuff doesn’t work. We need to adapt this; we need to adapt that,” just like a recipe.
And that’s what I try and where the way I try and phrase it. You know, a recipe book is not there for you to just follow verbatim because you will find that after you’ve made the recipe verbatim once, right? You follow the instructions, you’ll find it’s not quite to your taste. Maybe you like a little bit more salt, or you like a little bit more paprika, or you like to put something else in it that is yours. So you take that recipe and you adapt it and make it yours and create your own recipe for what it is that you’re doing.
And that is the power of Agile. That’s the power of flexibility, of adaptive, iterative, incremental, and empirical processes. Use what works, ditch what doesn’t, look at the data, see what’s going on. Thanks for watching the video. If you enjoyed it, please like, follow, and subscribe. I always reply to comments, and if you want to have a chat about this or anything else Agile, Scrum, or DevOps, then please book a coffee with me through Naked Agility.
