Once, I criticized Scrum:

Critique#

Agile is a simple concept — the Manifesto sums it up well. Scrum? Scrum describes a process. Yes, it also talks about values, pillars, goals, etc., but what people take away from Scrum and trainings is mostly the process and constraints. That there must be an iteration, these meetings must happen at set times, the Product Owner can do this, the Scrum Master does that.

Trainings and certifications make us focus on trivial things, because we get caught up in questions like “who can cancel a sprint?”, “when is the backlog refined?”, or “can the PO attend the Daily?”

We treat Scrum as a goal in itself. We waste time and energy on questions like:

  • Should we re-estimate unfinished items from the sprint?
  • How can we improve our burndown chart?
  • How do we set this up in Jira to comply with Scrum?

We implement Scrum where it doesn’t fit, and we hurt people in the process. We call something Scrum that isn’t, creating the association that Scrum equals endless meetings, micromanagement, and constant pressure to deliver.

If you left only the values and goals of Scrum (sprints), but removed the sprints, backlogs, “ceremonies,” responsibilities, and certifications, you’d end up with a pretty nice agile framework. ;)

And just to be clear — I’m not saying Scrum is harmful. I’m not. A well-implemented Scrum won’t get in the way of work.