Your Playbook Changes, So Should You
Remember when you were a kid, and some jerk put trick candles on the cake at one of your birthday parties? You blew, and blew, but the stupid candles refused to go out. After getting red-faced, light-headed, and exhausted from so much blowing, everyone laughed. What a bunch of jerks. But you learned something: the rules can change.
When it comes to Agile, I’m sure you’re familiar with the phrase, “embrace change.” It’s one of the fundamental ingredients in whatever flavor of Agile Kool-Aid you’re drinking. You can’t make it too far without someone throwing out some variation of the phrase. With that in mind, why do some folks forget that the rules can change? I’m talking about the playbook itself.
“Agile processes harness change…” — The Agile Manifesto
If you roll with Scrum, then you should be familiar with the Scrum Guide, the official playbook. It’s recommended reading for anyone wanting to learn how Scrum works, and the go-to playbook for Scrum Masters. Here’s the thing though: the guide is liquid; a constantly-evolving set of guidelines. Even so, I’ve come across multiple versions of static, copy-paste screen scrapes of the guide posted to company intranets, and used as reference material. Do people not realize, or have they forgotten that the guide gets updated?
Because the Scrum Guide regularly changes, folks can often tip their hands on how many years it’s been since they studied for their CSM/PSM, or how long ago they’ve read the guide by how they refer to certain practices. For instance, I’ve heard backlog management sessions called “grooming,” though the term was obliterated from the guide, and changed to “refinement” between 2011-2013.
Back in the day, people got way too literal about prioritization when it came to the backlog. So somewhere between 2010–2011, the powers that be removed the word “priority” in reference to the backlog altogether, replacing it with “ordered” to quell the ridiculousness. The whole priority nonsense rubbed me the wrong way so much that even I wrote about it.
Also, the term “commitment” tends to get thrown around like it’s a law of the highest order, never to be questioned. You know what’s coming, right? People got too literal, and too ridiculous, so “commitment” was replaced with “forecast” between 2010–2011.
Not convinced? See for yourself from the folks who maintain the dang thing.
goes into it in his post, “5 controversial topics that were removed from Scrum,” but are you seeing a pattern? The playbook we’ve all agreed to use as canon is a living document. It’s not carved in stone, but is being treated as such. If you don’t keep it in your rotation beyond studying for the CSM/PSM, are you unwittingly circulating outdated practices? Are you not practicing what you preach about change?When’s the last time you checked out the Scrum Guide?
