Can product owners and developers lead successful Scrum transformations?
Businesses transform when they realize that the current ways of working can no longer address the fast-changing market dynamics and rising user expectations.
Scrum transformations to succeed must empower people and reorganize the structures for optimal communications and value delivery.
The empowered people then evolve an approach that helps them to leverage the short windows of opportunities or respond quickly to a threat in today’s fast-moving markets.
One key characteristic of Scrum teams is their deliberate approach to failure as a learning opportunity, resulting in an environment where teams feel safe sharing their fears and admitting failures.
The other characteristic is the collaborative nature with a high level of cooperation among the team members (& among teams) and their responsibilities shared.
Crudely put, the programmers understand that they are not paid a salary just to code, and the tester understands that their compensation is not just to log defects. Instead, the programmers and testers know they must work together as a team to deliver a usable valuable outcome.
To achieve this desired state of agility, the Scrum teams must overcome a pyramid of impediments –
- During the initial days, the impediments are around the Scrum mechanics — how it works, its applicability in specific contexts, etc.
- There is also the challenge of forging a team out of a group of specialists.
- When the teams start working reasonably well, achieving engineering excellence and technology issues need focus.
- Once the high-performing teams have evolved that can truly deliver ‘Done’ increments, the next challenge is to provide a conducive ecosystem for the teams to thrive — The adjacent and general processes must be optimized, including organizational structures and policies like budgeting, career path, etc.
Do understand that when faced with impediments, there is always pressure mounting on the teams to revert to the older ways, and it takes a courageous leader with conviction to hold ground and lead them through the crisis.
In a nutshell, transformations succeed when the teams (& organizations) evolve a new culture resulting from changing their -
- Ways of thinking
- Ways of working and
- Ways of measuring
It takes a leader who understands the urgency, with a vision and strategy, and with credibility and expertise to make informed and quick decisions to lead a transformation successfully.
Is the product owner accountable for maximizing the return on investment, the best person to lead the change?
Are developers who are focused and committed to creating an aspect of usable increment the best role to lead the change?
They probably could, but my money is on the change agent, the Scrum master, with a deliberate focus on transformation.
