TL; DR: Scrum’s Decline — Food for Agile Thought #446
Welcome to the 446th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,578 peers. This week, Todd Lankford addresses Scrum’s decline due to lack of trust, customer disconnection, team silos, and limited learning, while Sivan Hermon discusses Google’s success with Itamar Gilad’s GIST framework during COVID-19. Moreover, David Luke explains how aligning CapEx and OpEx with Agile models enhances efficiency, and the McKinsey Talks Operations podcast explores leveraging failure for innovation, emphasizing psychological safety and continuous learning. Also, our Lemon critiques Agile projects’ high failure rates, promoting the self-serving alternative methodology.
Next, John Cutler warns that treating product transformations as projects leads to failure by ignoring the present, team-led change, and continuous improvement. Teresa Torres advocates for product trios, emphasizing their collaborative benefits, and Itamar Medeiros discusses using the Jobs-to-be-Done framework for effective roadmap planning and Product Backlog refinement. Then, Andy Hughes outlines conditions for product managers’ success, stressing supportive environments, effective processes, and a conducive organizational culture.
Lastly, Dave Hora discusses the shift from research-led projects to continuous product-team-led discovery, integrating user research into product practices for better decision-making. Additionally, Ant Murphy clarifies that OKRs should not be mistaken for strategy, stressing the importance of vision and strategic alignment, and Nir Zicherman examines balancing productivity and alignment to foster innovation. Barry Overeem introduces a 90-minute Agile Team Effectiveness workshop. Finally, Jeff Foust highlights Starlink’s disruptive impact on the space industry.
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🏆 The Tip of the Week: Scrum’s Decline
(via Medium): Scrum Isn’t Dead but Its Mutation in the Wild Today Needs a Cure
Todd Lankford highlights the erosion of Scrum’s potential, attributing it to four main issues: lack of trust between management and teams, disconnection from customers, internal team silos, and insufficient space for learning. He advocates rebuilding trust, involving customers in defining “done,” fostering teamwork and prioritizing iterative learning to restore Scrum’s effectiveness.
🍋 Lemon of the Week
(via Engprax): 268% Higher Failure Rates for Agile Software Projects, Study Finds
A study claims Agile software projects fail 268% more often than non-Agile ones. Ironically, the proposed solution is a new methodology, Impact Engineering, which supposedly cuts failures and saves billions. Honi soit qui mal y pense.
➿ Agile & Scrum
(via Code Like A Girl): Unlocking Agility at Scale: A Googler’s Story
Sivan Hermon shares how adopting Itamar Gilad’s GIST framework and adapting to COVID-19 challenges enabled Google to reduce software delivery time from 12-18 months to under six months, accelerating innovation.
(via Agile Alliance): Success pattern: Aligning CapEx and OpEx to Agile models
David Luke highlights that aligning CapEx and OpEx with Agile models enhances flexibility, innovation, and efficiency. This streamlines funding processes and drives sustainable growth and competitive advantage in today’s dynamic market.
(via McKinsey & Company): When failure is an option: Fostering organizational innovation and learning
The dark side opens up: The McKinsey Talks Operations podcast discusses how embracing failure can drive innovation. Emphasizing capability centers, the discussion highlights the need for psychological safety, continuous learning, and aligning technological investments with organizational goals for successful transformation.
🎓 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Class w/ PSFS Certificate — June 25, 2024
The Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills (PSFS) training by Berlin Product People is a guaranteed one-day official Scrum.org class for advanced Scrum practitioners and agile coaches, including the industry-acknowledged PSFS certification. This PSFS training class is in English. This PSFS training class is in English.
Enjoy the benefits of a live virtual immersive class with like-minded agile peers from 09:00 – 17:30 CEST.
Learn more: 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Class w/ PSFS Certificate — June 25, 2024.
Customer Voice: “Great experience – “You reap what you saw.” What I really liked about it was the constant usage of facilitation techniques & Liberating Structures to engage all participants & harness the collective knowledge while reaching the goal of the exercises during the workshop. Therefore, my experience was great because I could really leave with some insights from the whole group that I could apply in my daily work starting from the next day. “You reap what you saw” and in this case, it was the collective intelligence of everyone in the training class.” (Source.)
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🎯 Product
: Why Your Product Transformation Will Fail
John Cutler argues that product transformations fail if treated as projects, devaluing the present, ignoring team-led change, copying frameworks, neglecting architecture, and losing sight of continuous improvement and customer focus.
: Product Trios: What They Are, Why They Matter, and How to Get Started
Teresa Torres explains that product trios are cross-functional teams that decide and build together, highlighting their benefits, roles, and collaboration methods, emphasizing small, balanced teams for effective, rapid decision-making.
(via Medium): Crafting Customer-Centric Roadmaps: A Jobs-to-be-Done Approach to Roadmap Planning and Better Backlog Grooming
Itamar Medeiros explores how the Jobs-to-be-Done framework can transform roadmap planning and Product Backlog refinement, ensuring user needs drive every decision, fostering alignment, and enhancing product development efficiency.
(via Mind The Product): How to enable product managers to be successful
Andy Hughes outlines essential conditions for product managers’ success, emphasizing the need for supportive environments, effective processes, appropriate tools, clear initiatives, and a conducive organizational culture.
📯 Rookie Mistakes Scrum Masters Make
Are you struggling with imposter syndrome as a new Scrum Master? Avoid five common rookie mistakes Scrum Masters make. Instead, discover how to set clear Sprint Goals, build trust, balance metrics, and empower your team to make independent decisions.
Don’t let early missteps define your journey. Learn from these mistakes and transform them into stepping stones towards mastery. By understanding and addressing these pitfalls, you’ll gain confidence, enhance your leadership skills, and truly embody the principles of Scrum.
This article provides actionable insights and practical exercises to help you grow from a beginner into an effective and respected Scrum Master.
Learn more: Rookie Mistakes Scrum Masters Make.
🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring
: Unbundling User Research
Dave Hora explores the shift from research-led projects to continuous product-team-led discovery, emphasizing integrating user research activities into product practices for effective and efficient decision-making.
: OKRs ≠ Strategy
Ant Murphy emphasizes that OKRs should not be mistaken for strategy. He highlights the need for clear vision, strategic context, and alignment to ensure OKRs are effective and meaningful for teams.
(via The Liberators): Explore The Agile Team Effectiveness Model With Your Team
Barry Overeem offers a 90-minute workshop introducing your team to the Agile Team Effectiveness model. The workshop emphasizes collaboration and practical steps for continuous improvement.
: Productivity Versus Alignment
Nir Zicherman explores the trade-off between productivity and alignment in companies, emphasizing the need to consciously balance communication channels to foster innovation without overwhelming organizational efficiency.
🎶 Encore
(via The Space Review): Starlink’s disruption of the space industry
Jeff Foust describes Starlink’s significant impact on the space industry, highlighting its rapid growth, satellite and launch technology innovation, and influence on competitors and geopolitical dynamics.
📅 Scrum Training & Event Schedule
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📺 Join 5,000-plus Agile Peers on Youtube
Now available on the Age-of-Product Youtube channel to improve learning, for example, about avoiding Scrum’s Decline:
- Hands-on Agile 61: Toyota Kata Coaching for Agile Teams & Transformations with Fortune Buchholtz.
- Hands-on Agile 59: Tackling Fake Agility with Johanna Rothman.
- Hands-on Agile 57: Humble Planning with Maarten Dalmijn.
- Hands-on Agile 54: Overcoming Common Product Backlog Management Traps with David Pereira.
- Hands-on Agile 53: An Agile Coaches Guide to Storytelling with Bob Galen.
- Hands-on Agile EXTRA: How Elon Musk Would Run YOUR Business with Joe Justice.
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Help your team to learn about avoiding Scrum’s Decline by pointing them to the free Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide: