Big Question: Where will the improvement come from?
We might have heard about the massive improvement in productivity that scrum is supposed to give us. We can hear people like Jeff Sutherland talk about a tenfold increase in productivity. The initial question we need to ask ourselves is:
• Will the developers write code ten times the current speed? Most definitely not. The scrum methodology will reduce some of the unnecessary time spent in the team and boost morale to increase efficiency, but not more than maybe a 10 - 50% increase. (Depending on from where we start with the team) • Will the quality of what they produce tenfold the productivity? Hardly. By increasing the quality, the long term productivity will go up, but most of the time, this will not account for the increase. E.g. we always face the possibility that the high quality software we develop will be discontinued or replaced anyway.
Instead, the major benefit from the scrum methodology comes from the improved capacity to do the right things. It is the combination of these factors that bring the tenfold increase: • Always doing the most important thing. • Bring value earlier to market. • Reduce the work which never gets live. • Reduce time which is NOT spent bringing value. We will look more into how we can use these key aspects when prioritizing the work as a product owner. To start off, there are a few things we need to address. There are three concepts we need to differentiate here to make this very clear. These are:
• Efficient “Performing or functioning in the best possible manner with the least waste of time and effort; having and using requisite knowledge and skill.”
Efficient is only related to the process itself. A fast runner is efficient, regardless if he is running towards the goal or not.
• Effective “Adequate to accomplish a purpose; producing the intended or expected result.”
We can only be effective in relation to a goal, purpose. If a developer efficiently solves a problem that there already existed a solution for, it is not effective at all.
• Productive “Bringing about readily or abundantly”
Productive is an absolute measure. How much value do we actually produce? For anyone interested in producing tangible equations as a base for the business, we can say that they actually relate to each other like: Effectiveness = Efficiency x goal focus Productivity = efficiency x value
For everyone however it is important to understand how these relate to each other as they sometimes are used intermixed. It is however important that we know that we talk about. When we talk about a tenfold improvement in scrum we talk about: • Increasing the efficiency by highlighting the tasks and progress and removing impediments for the work. • Increasing the goal focus by increased communication and understanding. • Increasing the produced value by prioritization and coordination.
Ok, this is all good, but this does not remove another fact: Scrum will not remove all problems in an organisaton.
1. Fact: Scrum is not a project methodology 2. Fact: Scrum is not a development issue 3. Big Question: Where will the improvement come from? 4. Fact: Scrum does not remove all problems in an organization. 5. Myth: The Scrum Master is key 6. Myth: Scrum is more important than common sense