Scrum is like communism, it doesn’t work. Myth 1.

Published on 24 October 2023

Written by Martin Hinshelwood

3 minute read

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Demystifying Scrum: Beyond Meetings to Meaningful Events 🚀

Hey there, Agile enthusiasts! Today, I’m tackling a pervasive myth that’s been haunting the corridors of Scrum practice: the belief that Scrum equals endless talking and not enough doing. It’s a misconception that can turn teams away from the true essence and benefits of Scrum. Let’s dive into why Scrum’s so-called “ceremonies” are much more than just meetings, and how each event is designed to foster empiricism and action. 🌟

The Ceremony Misconception: A Tale of Unproductive Gatherings 🎭

Often, I encounter teams bogged down by the notion that Scrum’s structured events are mere formalities—ceremonies devoid of tangible outcomes. This misconception stems from outdated terminology and a fundamental misunderstanding of Scrum’s purpose. Let me set the record straight: Scrum’s events are not ceremonies; they’re meaningful engagements designed to spark inspection, adaptation, and meaningful progress. 🛠️

Events, Not Ceremonies: The Heartbeat of Empiricism 💓

Scrum deliberately labels its structured engagements as events—not ceremonies or meetings—to underscore their dynamic, outcome-oriented nature. Each event is crafted to serve empiricism, the core of Scrum’s philosophy, by facilitating inspection and enabling necessary adaptations. If you’re not adapting, you’re missing the point.

Sprint Planning: The Launchpad 🚀

Take Sprint Planning, for example. It’s not just a meeting; it’s where the team aligns on the Sprint Goal, selects backlog items, and sketches out a starter plan. The outcome? A clear direction for the Sprint, ensuring everyone knows what’s being tackled and why.

Breaking Down the Daily Scrum: A Catalyst for Daily Progress 🕒

And what about the often-misunderstood Daily Scrum? Far from being a time-consuming status update, it’s a concise 15-minute pow-wow where the team plans the next 24 hours based on the current state of the Sprint Backlog. It’s about maintaining transparency, inspecting progress, and adapting the plan in real-time to stay on course towards the Sprint Goal.

Engaging Stakeholders: The Sprint Review Invitation 💌

How do we ensure stakeholders show up engaged and ready to provide valuable feedback during the Sprint Review? By giving them something they care about to discuss. The Sprint Goal isn’t just a target; it’s an invitation to a dialogue—a chance to inspect the increment and adapt based on stakeholder insights.

Empowering Teams: From Silence to Empiricism 🚣

Silence can be deadly in the realm of Scrum. It’s not about filling the air with noise but ensuring that every voice contributes to the team’s understanding and direction. Each Scrum event is an opportunity to break the silence, to share insights, challenges, and adjustments needed to keep the Sprint, and ultimately the project, aligned with the business goals and customer needs.

Conclusion: Scrum Events as Catalysts for Action 🌈

The essence of Scrum lies in its ability to turn routine engagements into meaningful events that drive action, learning, and improvement. By shifting our perspective from seeing these as mere meetings to recognizing them as crucial steps in serving empiricism, we unlock the true potential of Scrum.

Remember, the goal of implementing Scrum isn’t to fill your calendar with meetings but to create a rhythm of inspection, adaptation, and progress that moves your team closer to its goals with every cycle.

If you’ve enjoyed this demystification of Scrum events and are eager to dive deeper into Agile, Scrum, or DevOps, don’t hesitate to reach out. Let’s continue the conversation over a coffee chat and explore how we can bring the true spirit of empiricism to life in your teams.

There’s a myth in Scrum that you spend more time talking than doing. I see this quite a lot. People talking, usually people are using old school terminology. When you hear them talking about that, you hear them talking about ceremonies, right, rather than events. One of the main reasons why Scrum doesn’t call the activities ceremonies is because it’s ceremonies. We get together and nothing happens. It’s a ceremony; it’s something we do that’s perhaps the same every time, and there’s no actual outcome to a ceremony apart from maybe people have some jollies and they feel good.

The reason Scrum calls them events and also not meetings is something’s supposed to happen there. Every single one of the Scrum events serves empiricism; that’s their purpose, right? You’re going to inspect something and adapt something. If you’re not adapting, there’s no point in being there. There’s no point in having it; there’s no point in doing it. Their purpose is to adapt.

So, for example, at your Sprint planning, you’re inspecting your product backlog and your product goal, and you’re adapting your Sprint backlog and your Sprint goal. That emerges through that conversation, right? But at the end of your Sprint planning, you should have a Sprint goal. You should have selected backlog items. What do the developers think best serves working towards the product goal? You should have some kind of a starter plan to complete them. If those three things don’t exist at the end of Sprint planning, there was no point in having it. That’s what it’s there for, so that we understand what it is we’re going to take into the next Sprint, so that we can communicate that perhaps with other people. What’s our goal for this Sprint? What are we trying to achieve?

How do you get the stakeholders to actually turn up for the Sprint review? Well, you have to give them something that they’re interested in coming and providing feedback on. That’s your Sprint goal, right? And that’s just one of the events in Scrum. Every single daily Scrum, it’s only 15 minutes. How does that add up to a boatload of meetings? At most, 15 minutes per day where the team gets together and plans the next 24 hours. That’s its purpose. You’re inspecting your existing Sprint backlog, and you’re adapting that Sprint backlog based on what you learned in the last 24 hours. You might have learned some stuff from actually working on the product, what can and cannot be done. You might have gained more information and insight from other stakeholders and collaborating with the business and doing analysis on what it is you’re going to work on. That means that something that you’ve got in the Sprint needs to be taken out because it’s no longer viable, or something else needs to be brought in because it becomes part of that story of what it is you’re trying to achieve that Sprint.

That’s your daily Scrum, right? It’s not an elaborate status event; it’s not a time that you’re wasting. It’s where you’re maintaining the transparency that is required to be able to inspect and adapt. You’re serving empiricism, and all of the Scrum events serve empiricism.

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.

Scrum Product Development Transparency Empirical Process Control Daily Scrum Transparency and Accountability Scrum Team People and Process Team Collaboration Team Performance Software Developers

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