“Scrum is just an excuse to miss deadlines”
Are you serious? — Episode 48
Every once in a while we have a stakeholder at the Sprint Review who is shocked when we report that we did not complete a certain item. Because we -apparently- promised!
When we explain that we bumped into issues that we did not foresee he sees this as a just a bail out. As a way to avoid responsibility in the world of grown-ups. I once heard a stakeholder say: “I expect the same professionalism as with a contractor building a house”!
This only shows that the person stating this expected a linear progression (indeed like building a house). Many business environments aren’t linear, but many situations are still being managed as if they were. These people wish to lean on a plan that rarely changes.
The Cynefin framework can help you to raise awareness on the topic.
Cynefin
Cynefin is a framework that was created by Dave Snowden. It helps you to find the right approach for decision making in four different domains.
Obvious
Within the Obvious domain the environment is stable and the cause and effect relationship is clear to everyone. The best way to act is “sense-categorise-respond”. You inspect the situation, categorise the type and then respond based on the best practices. There’s one correct answer to a certain situation.
Complicated
Within a Complicated domain you typically have several good answers to a certain situation. Here the way to act is “sense-analyse-respond”. You first need to assess the situation and the right answer can be found after analysis.
Many people believe that their domain is Complicated. This explains why some stakeholders of Scrum Teams don’t accept that planned items couldn’t be finished accordingly. They believe that when a Scrum Team did assess a Product Backlog Item that a straightforward response should follow after analysis.
Building a house may fall in the Complicated domain, most Scrum Teams don’t.
Complex
The Complex domain is where it might be impossible to find the one perfect solution. You might also not be able to find a relationship between cause and effect. Here the best way to proceed is to “probe-sense-respond”. You try something/experiment, then you assess the result and you respond to the situation.
Snowden acknowledges that many business situations fall into this Complex domain.
Scrum thrives in complex environments:
“Scrum is a framework for developing, delivering, and sustaining complex products.” — Scrum Guide 2017
Scrum is founded on empiricism which is about “transparency — inspection — adaptation”. This connects with “probe-sense-respond”. You need transparency to be able to probe/sense (inspect) and then to respond (adapt).
Chaotic
Within the Chaotic domain cause and effect are unclear. Action is the only way forward. The aim is to turn the Chaotic into the Complex (“act”-”sense”-”respond”). Act to create order, sense where there’s stability, respond to turn chaos into complexity.
Scrum is an answer to complexity
Many people believe — or hope — that their world is Obvious or Complicated only. This is a mismatch with the reality: most business environments are within the Complex domain of Cynefin. This makes it difficult to plan far ahead because you learn along the way.
Scrum acknowledges this as it is based on empiricism. Hence Scrum has Sprints that are no longer than a month. Planning further into the future than a Sprint doesn’t make any sense in complex environments.
Thanks to Scrum Rebel, Gunnar R. Fischer, Maarten Dalmijn for the valuable input.
My twitter profile is https://twitter.com/WJAgeling
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