Don’t treat Scrum as the fixer of everything

Scrum is by far the most popular framework these days. In fact, the 15th Annual State of Agile shows that 66% of respondees use this particular framework.

What this survey does not show, is what my experience does show: the implicit expectation that frameworks will solve your issues. I hate having to break it to you: they don’t.

It starts with a burning platform

The most recurring reason for familiarity with Scrum that I’ve seen is that someone saw it on LinkedIn or heard some nice buzzwords that appealed to management, and all of the sudden the entire organization is all-in.

The thing with that is that such an approach lacks its ‘why’. Why are we going to change? What is the added benefit? Ideally, you start to focus on the issues you and your organization are facing. Three easy questions to ask in that context:

• Is there an issue that we’re facing?
• What are the potential consequences of that issue?
• What options do we have to mitigate that?

Or to quote the popular Liberating Structure:

• What?
• So what?
• Now what?