Nearly yearly, on or round April 1, Mountain Goat Software program releases a brand new mock product for the agile business. This yr, we’re introducing the Scrum Police.
On the brand new, official Scrum Police web site you may report crimes towards Scrumanity, view a log of current convictions, and even confess your individual crimes earlier than you might be turned in by your teammates.
Be part of the Enjoyable at ScrumPolice.com
The crimes vary from really foolish to a bit bit detrimental to your workforce’s well-being. Listed here are just some examples of some that gained’t actually land you or your workforce in jail, however I wouldn’t essentially suggest:
It’s enjoyable, it’s humorous, nevertheless it’s additionally surprisingly true.
Agile Is About Suggestions, Not Guidelines
The concept for Scrum Police got here from the truth that increasingly folks appear to need to codify agile right into a set of strict guidelines: “It’s essential to do that” or “In case you do not do that or all of that then you definitely’re not doing it proper.”
Right here’s my recommendation: Make suggestions not guidelines. There are only a few hard-and-fast guidelines to being agile:
Past that, it is far more about suggestions. And there are many issues we have realized within the a number of a long time now that agile processes have been round, even in casual kinds.
For instance, I like to recommend groups use consumer tales as their strategy to necessities. I like to recommend groups use story factors for estimating. I like to recommend that the workforce decide a day apart from Mondays for beginning their iterations. I like to recommend the Szechuan Hen at Spice China.
However none of these items is required for fulfillment with agile. Every could assist a workforce be higher, and I’ve causes I like to recommend every. However these items should not required.
There Is No One True Option to Be Agile–Or Is There?
It doesn’t matter what the Scrum Police say, there isn’t a excellent path to agility that works for each workforce, each time.
Like many issues in life, a number of approaches can work.
For instance, there are two equally handy routes from my home to the airport. The quickest is to take a toll street that passes a couple of mile from the home and goes on to the airport. However that prices $8. The opposite route takes about 10 minutes longer, however saves me these eight {dollars}. Typically I take the primary route. Different instances, I’ll take the second.
There’s nobody excellent method for me to get to the airport. Equally, there’s nobody excellent method for a workforce to be agile. For this reason agile is finest outlined by its rules moderately than particular practices.
Regardless of this, there are individuals who suppose agile will be was a set of thou-must-do-it-this-way guidelines. Some folks inform me each workforce advantages from timeboxed iterations (sprints). Others insist that two-week sprints are at all times the most effective. A preferred ebook on Scrum insists that the day by day scrum should be performed left to proper beginning with the particular person to the left of the ScrumMaster.
They don’t. They aren’t. And it shouldn’t.
Scrum is intentionally incomplete. Certain, some group of gurus may get collectively and determine as soon as and for all what dash size is finest. They may determine that every one sprints ought to begin on Tuesdays, and that groups should do pair programming on precisely 70 to 80 p.c of all code they write. However these are selections finest made by the workforce.
And similar to me en path to the airport, some groups will select a method, and others will select one other. And that’s the way it needs to be.
So, maybe there’s one true option to do agile—the way in which that works finest for every workforce.
And for many who don’t agree, there’s at all times the Scrum Police.
