Agile Groups Want Suggestions, Not Extra Guidelines

Nearly yearly, on or round April 1, Mountain Goat Software program releases a brand new mock product for the agile trade. This 12 months, we’re introducing the Scrum Police.

On the brand new, official Scrum Police website you may report crimes towards Scrumanity, view a log of latest convictions, and even confess your individual crimes earlier than you might be turned in by your teammates.

Be a part of the Enjoyable at ScrumPolice.com

The crimes vary from really foolish to somewhat bit detrimental to your crew’s well-being. Listed below are only a few examples of some that received’t actually land you or your crew in jail, however I wouldn’t essentially suggest:

It’s enjoyable, it’s humorous, however it’s additionally unusually true.

Agile Is About Suggestions, Not Guidelines

The thought for Scrum Police got here from the truth that increasingly individuals appear to wish to codify agile right into a set of strict guidelines: “You should do that” or “In case you do not do that or all of that you then’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 many years now that agile processes have been round, even in casual varieties.

For instance, I like to recommend groups use consumer tales as their method to necessities. I like to recommend groups use story factors for estimating. I like to recommend that the crew choose a day aside from Mondays for beginning their iterations. I like to recommend the Szechuan Rooster at Spice China.

However none of these items is required for fulfillment with agile. Every might assist a crew be higher, and I’ve causes I like to recommend every. However these items will not be required.

There Is No One True Technique to Be Agile–Or Is There?

It doesn’t matter what the Scrum Police say, there is no such thing as a excellent path to agility that works for each crew, 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 highway that passes a few 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 approach for me to get to the airport. Equally, there’s nobody excellent approach for a crew to be agile. Because of this agile is finest outlined by its rules slightly than particular practices.

Regardless of this, there are individuals who suppose agile might be become a set of thou-must-do-it-this-way guidelines. Some individuals inform me each crew advantages from timeboxed iterations (sprints). Others insist that two-week sprints are all the time one of the best. A preferred e-book 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. Positive, some group of gurus might get collectively and resolve as soon as and for all what dash size is finest. They may resolve that every one sprints ought to begin on Tuesdays, and that groups should do pair programming on precisely 70 to 80 % of all code they write. However these are selections finest made by the crew.

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 must be.

So, maybe there may be one true solution to do agile—the way in which that works finest for every crew.

And for many who don’t agree, there’s all the time the Scrum Police.