Scrum Teams That Don’t Verify Their Outcomes Are Basically Waterfall Teams

And they are set up for failure

Scrum Teams are accountable for creating value every Sprint. The Product Owner brings guidance and the Developers build Increments to increase the value of their product.

At first glance, this may look straight forward. The Product Owner orders the Product Backlog and the Developers work on items at the top of the list. But it is very easy to fall into the trap of delivering output only. This happens when teams don’t verify their assumptions.

In complex environments, unverified results of the work have a high risk of drifting you away from your goals.

There’s a lot to unpack. There are all kinds of situations where teams don’t come to the core of the matter. So let’s get right into it.

Do you believe in the crystal ball? — Image by Thomas B. from Pixabay

Gut feeling

The worst position for a Scrum Team to be is when they work on gut feeling. They order their Product Backlog without any guidance of a vision or a goal. They plan their work by taking items from the top of the backlog.

At the end of the Sprint, they demo their Increment to show their progress. They do not take into account that the Sprint…