AgileTHIS

At the last Scrum Gathering in Stockholm there was alot of attention towards Ken Schwabers session on “Its not Scrum if…” http://www.scrumalliance.org/resource_download/441 and Jeff Sutherlands “Scrumbutt Test – the Nokia Test” http://jeffsutherland.com/scrum/scrumbutttest.pdf . So what is Scrumbutts, and how do I react, if my company is identified as a Scrumbutt organisation?

Scrumbutt is a word for the organisations saying or at least thinking that they are using Scrum, but the fact is that they are only using parts of the method. It is when a user of Scrum is saying: “YES! We use SCRUM, BUT we have these deviations in our method…” Scrumbutts can be identified through the Nokia Test first developed in 2005 by… yes you guessed it! NOKIA – and then it was refined over the years until last year where it finally had a scoring system added by Jeff Sutherland. It consists of 8 questions regarding Scrum, Team, ProductOwner and ScrumMaster – the higher score you get, the less Scrumbutt you are – very simple.

So back to Stockholm – Most of the participants I talked with at the gathering was very focused on this matter – “How did I score on the test?”, “What can we do to get a higher score in my organisation?”, ”It’s working for my organisation but we are still doing Scrumbutt!” And the response back to the audience was still the same from the Scrum Alliance: If you have any deviations in your method, then youre not using Scrum but Scrumbutt! And it didnt really sound right…

…so this was were my bicyle chain fell off – YES! Scrum is working – most of us who has been using Scrum consistently knows that – most of the people attending the gatherings knows that – but still many of us feel that we need to take Scrum to the next level now, because why is it that the audience is continously being pushed towards new changes in their method, if it’s already working for them? IF IT AINT BROKE THEN DONT FIX IT!!!´

Ok, fair enough if we dont call it Scrum then – I can live with that – what I cant live with, is the fact that people has to swallow the whole elephant in one piece! I have been introducing Scrum in 5 organisations now – and yes I believe that each and every one of the teams scored rediciously low on the Nokia Test – but they approved over time – they transformed themself into fullblown Scrumteams over time – we just have to face the fact that we are dealing with humans with many different (professionel-) backgrounds and transformations takes time!

Im not sure the Nokia Test will be the final test to prove yourself against Scrum – it certainly has its errors, but still its the best solution around, and it will provide you with a direction of were you should put an effort into.

So to conclude on the above: YES WE CAN make it happen – Scrum will succeed eventually – and in the process of transforming your organisation just use the parts of the method that are working for you. Go slow – dont force people into something that might force them out – let people discover the benefits of going agile themself.

WE ALL NEED TO BE MORE PRAGMATIC IN OUR DAILY LIFE!!!

I hope you enjoyed reading!

/Chris.