Scrum is a format for organizing project activities of talented people, which is not a format. Zen thing. He was not planned like that. He turned out so himself.
What is the difficulty of working with talented people? They do not like frames, formats and nothing imposed at all. The imposed framework, formats, restrictions, processes, standards, etc., prevent them from creating new, previously unprecedented. At the same time, a business can live only in some format: terms, standards, tasks, plans, budgets, processes, volumes of work, quality levels, money, etc.
What are the bad formats? They average workers towards deterioration. They are generally designed to ensure the work of even the most stupid and stupid workers available. For smart and capable people, the formats, even the best of the formats, do not look far-fetched and delusional, but with a considerable amount of idiocy and hanging stones on the runner’s feet. And hanging stones still requires a new record. Preferably, the world.
In this regard, Scrum is interesting in that it has an external framework that suits the business and at the same time, within these frameworks, creative people, talents, have left enough space for joint activities and self-organization for themselves. There are two to four weeks, there is a list of tasks with priorities, there are business requirements for quality, there is a way to negotiate with the business to regulate the volume of tasks in the sprint - and then the team members themselves can organize their interaction as they see fit. There are external frameworks, but inside they can organize in the way that is convenient for these talented people.
If they want to, they will get a
rock wall method of conducting the task life cycle. A simple visual Kanban of some kind. If they want, they will lead YouTrack and organize as they agree. Another team might take Jira or RedMine. Yes, the Scrum master runs over there and the team can talk to him if he wants to - he will definitely recommend something right away or dig around, find and tell how people can. Well, or yourself. The business of free people. If only they fit into a two-week sprint with the volume of tasks that they themselves have taken.
Scrum appeared as a modification of XP, so without a deep understanding of XP and the ideas of Kent Beck, it is impossible to understand how what is described in the Scrum Guide can work. At the same time, over time, everything that is included in XP was thrown out of the requirements for Scrum. The fact of the matter is that XP is an excellent, high-performance hard-copy format. But tough. But the format. But established from the outside that the creative person causes internal rejection and rejection. Practice has shown that the imposition of XP - one of the most humane harsh processes in software development - interferes with the work of creative people only slightly less than the imposition of any other format for organizing activities. Team members themselves must come to him. Therefore, the current version of the Scrum Guide does not regulate the tools and internal organization of the development team: Scrum creates a
place for organizing activities, but completely transfers the organization to the team members.
Yes, yes, yes, exactly like that: attempts to somehow optimize the work of teams from the outside, somehow impute to them certain tools, even Scrum-like burning diagrams, pair programming, TDD and so on, without which it is difficult for the team to live in Scrum, yes the same YouTrack or Jira - all this destroys the independence of teams, all this destroys their freedom to organize creative space at their own convenience.
Especially strongly destroy teams of various kinds of managers. What do managers want? They want to manage. For the common good, they want to change something in the team, format or process and to improve the situation through change. It is through this that they recognize themselves as necessary and demonstrate their need to the leadership. At the same time, even Schwaber, with his penchant for a leadership style of management, was forced to introduce Scrum-masters (and himself in this role) not as a leader, and not even as a mentor, but as a coach. And not just like a coach, but a coach in the mildest form - an on-demand assistant, a leader in service. The team needs - the team addresses. And not so much for advice on what to do, but for a menu with a list of what is generally useful for any difficulty that arose. They learn from him the options for best practices and understand for themselves what is more convenient for them in their situation and with their experience - each individually. That is, the Scrum-master is introduced as a leader who does not lead - again a Zen design.
Scrum is a non-format format. Remember that. Otherwise, it does not work.