Scrum Guide 2020: Out with ‘Optimize’ and ‘Maximize’ — Welcome Product Goal!
Scrum Guide 2020 leans on reducing waste (lean) and focuses on the longer-term Product Goal. Read on to understand how it impacts your Scrum Teams.
Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber unveiled a shorter, simplified, rewritten Scrum Guide in November 2020. The first few minutes at the unveiling were full of anxiety as not everyone was able to dial into the virtual event. But soon, the technical issues were resolved and the world was able to access the highly anticipated event along with the founders of Scrum.
Scrum is still Scrum
The authors of the Scrum guide have made quite a few changes — the word count has gone down from 7000+ to just 4000+ but Scrum is still the same lightweight framework to solve complex problems and deliver value. Fundamentally Scrum remains the same. The key differences are highlighted here.
However, the above link on Scrumguides.org doesn’t mention that the earlier focus of optimizing value, creativity, productivity, efficiency, and maximizing value and transparency no longer find a prominent place in the 2020 version of the Scrum Guide. The focus of the Scrum team now shifts from optimizing and maximizing value to meeting the Product Goal.
In this article, the numbered, italic format is used for the quotes from the 2017 edition of the Scrum Guide and the blocked quote is used for the quotes from the 2020 Scrum Guide.
Optimize
The word ‘Optimize’ occurs eight times in the 2017 version and exactly once in the 2020 version. The 2017 Scrum Guide mentions “optimization” in the context of —
- Scrum Theory
- Scrum Team
- Product Owner
- Development Team
- Daily Scrum
- Sprint Review and
- Artifact Transparency
The following are the quotes from the 2017 version of the Scrum Guide. The phrases in the parenthesis are just to give context to the quotes.
- The team model in Scrum is designed to optimize flexibility, creativity, and productivity.
- Optimizing the value of the work the Development Team performs (Product Owner responsibility)
- The resulting synergy optimizes the Development Team’s overall efficiency and effectiveness. (The Development Team)
- This optimizes team collaboration and performance by inspecting the work since the last Daily Scrum and forecasting upcoming Sprint work. (Daily Scrum)
- The Daily Scrum optimizes the probability that the Development Team will meet the Sprint Goal.
- Based on that and any changes to the Product Backlog during the Sprint, attendees collaborate on the next things that could be done to optimize value. (Sprint Review)
- Decisions to optimize value and control risk are made based on the perceived state of the artifacts.
- Scrum employs an iterative, incremental approach to optimize predictability and control risk. (Scrum Theory)
The only occurrence of this word in the 2020 guide is —
Scrum employs an iterative, incremental approach to optimize predictability and to control risk. (Scrum Theory) — Scrum Guide 2020
Instead of focusing on optimizing flexibility, creativity, and productivity, the Scrum teams are now responsible for all product-related activities and are now “structured and empowered by the organization to manage their own work”. The Scrum Team is also accountable for creating a “valuable, useful Increment every Sprint”.
Similarly, the 2020 guide has explicitly omitted that the Product Owner is responsible for “optimizing the value of work”. Instead, the Product Owner is now responsible for “developing the Product Goal”. The definition of the Daily Scrum doesn’t mention that it “optimizes team collaboration and the probability of meeting the Sprint Goal”.
Maximize
Similarly, the word ‘Maximize’ occurs five times in the 2017 version of the Scrum Guide. It is used in the context of —
- Scrum Team
- Product Owner
- Scrum Master
- Scrum Artifacts
The following are the quotes from the 2017 version of the Scrum Guide. The phrases in the parenthesis are just to give context to the quotes where needed.
- Scrum Teams deliver products iteratively and incrementally, maximizing opportunities for feedback.
- The Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the value of the product resulting from work of the Development Team.
- Ensuring the Product Owner knows how to arrange the Product Backlog to maximize value; (Scrum Master)
- The Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the value of the product resulting from work of the Development Team. (retained in 2020)
- Artifacts defined by Scrum are specifically designed to maximize transparency of key information so that everybody has the same understanding of the artifact. (retained in 2020)
The 2020 version retains the essence of maximizing value for customers but the responsibilities of the Scrum Master has now evolved to “increasing the effectiveness” of the Scrum Team.
The Scrum Master is accountable for the Scrum Team’s effectiveness. They do this by enabling the Scrum Team to improve its practices, within the Scrum framework. — Scrum Guide 2020
The New Focus — Product Goal
It is clear that the explicit focus is no longer on optimizing and maximizing. The 2020 guide talks about a new, longer-term focus in the form of the Product Goal.
The following are the quotes from the 2020 version of the Scrum Guide.
The Scrum Team is a cohesive unit of professionals focused on one objective at a time, the Product Goal.
The Product Owner is accountable for developing and explicitly communicating the Product Goal.
The Scrum Master serves the Product Owner find techniques for effective Product Goal definition.
Sprints enable predictability by ensuring inspection and adaptation of progress toward a Product Goal.
…progress toward the Product Goal is discussed (in Sprint Review)
The Product Goal is the long-term objective for the Scrum Team.
My Interpretation of these Changes
For a product team to be successful in the long term, teams must focus on more than one factor. Optimization has its place, but just like in golf, both, the short and the long game matter equally. One can’t be a successful golfer by just focusing on one or the other. Although the new Scrum Guide doesn’t explicitly focus as much on optimization, it is still an important factor.
Considering the number of changes in this context, we can only assume that the authors had a solid reason to make them. We can also interpret that the introduction of “lean thinking” and “reduce waste and focus on the essentials” would essentially be the same as “optimizing” and “maximizing”. After all, reducing waste should lead to an optimized outcome.
Lean thinking reduces waste and focuses on the essentials. — Scrum Guide 2020
It is quite possible that the introduction of the Product Goal may be completely unrelated to the elimination of “optimization”. I do believe that the authors saw a reason to bring the focus on longer-term deliverables as opposed to just trying to optimize short term value. I do believe that there are Scrum practitioners out there who are so focused on the battle of optimization that they lose sight of the war (Product Goal). This is a welcome change to reiterate to not take the eyes off the longer-term goals. Optimize and Maximize, but do that in the context of your Product Goal.
Optimization can be either in your processes or your product/service (value to customer). Optimizing processes generally have a long term value, and hence teams should continuously strive to make them better. Optimizing your product/service can have a long term positive or negative impact. This is an area that teams should be cognisant, and focus on optimization that are good in the long term. Successfully reducing waste, focusing on the essentials Sprint after Sprint, and keeping the eyes on the prize, the Product Goal, is akin to the short and the long game of golf.
Don’t get distracted by debates over the versions of the Scrum Guides. Inspect your organization’s current use of Scrum, make the necessary adaptations, and improve your solutions for your customers. After all, Scrum is a vehicle, a means to the end, and not the end in itself. And lastly, if there is only one thing that you as a Scrum Master can do, make teams more proficient in living five Scrum Values of Commitment, Focus, Openness, Respect, and Courage. Product Goal, optimized value, and everything else will most likely take care of itself.
