Stable Scrum Teams limited us to create value — Enter Fluid Scrum Teams

Fluid Scrum teams self-organize to manage complexity

Scrum is a fascinating framework. It exists to create valuable products in a complex environment. It does so by providing structure with distinct accountabilities within a Scrum Team, with artifacts and with events. This all happens in Sprints that are of a fixed length.

I like Scrum, but it tends to be used in a different way than intended. To explain what I mean, I will start with a quote from the Scrum Guide:

In complex environments, what will happen is unknown. — Scrum Guide 2020

This is an important statement. In complex environments, you have assumptions that you need to verify. Then, you can take the next step. Scrum helps to manage complexity.

But many people also use Scrum with the aim to reduce complexity. Examples of this are efforts to optimize the flow of work and the predictability of the team. For this to work, teams need to be as stable as can be. Ideally, the team has no changes in their composition for a longer time. Another important prerequisite for this is that the way of working has an impact on the overall complexity. By improving the way of working, the product environment becomes less complex.

Do you recognize this? Many teams will. Does it work for you? That’s great! And you are not alone. Stable teams are…