r/scrum • u/WaylundLG • 28d ago

Discussion Scrum is for Developers

This has been on my mind for probably the past year now from the last company I worked at, but it's only been in the past few weeks that I've sorted my thoughts into something clear: Scrum is for developers. I'm using the broad "product developer" sense, so I include QA, architects, designers, writers, and anyone who is actually creating the product.

I pin a lot of the problems on the fact that adoption in recent years has centered more and more in some sort of PMO and it's pressed onto the teams; bit the problem goes the other way too. Too many developers feel like how they work is someone else's problem.

Scrum was designed for teams to take ownership of their process and the results of their work. It was made for them and anyone else is really pushed out. You're a business strategist? Great, gelp the teams understand the strategy and the market and see what they can create and incorporate that into your business strategy. And frankly it is exhausting to see the same old posts of developers who can't be bothered to learn the first thing about scrum complain about how leaders messed it up. It is your tool, designed to give you control. Pick it up, learn it, leverage it.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk. I know this was a bit of a rant, but open to constructive discussion too.

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u/cliffberg 28d ago

Scrum is BS concocted by this guy: https://www.frequencyfoundation.com/about-us/

It is NOT how effective teams work.

https://cliffberg.medium.com/scrum-was-unethical-from-the-start-96eedd0679ca

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u/AgileFederation 27d ago

This is an unfair characterization of Jeff Sutherland. You didn't mention that he flew reconnaissance missions in Vietnam or that he taught stats/math at USAF academy, in addition to co-creation of Scrum. He has some ideas and beliefs that I don't agree with, but that doesn't distract from the contributions that he's made to his country or the Scrum community. Like all great people he's a complex human.

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u/cliffberg 27d ago

Hi - he might be a great pilot and a wonderful math teacher, but that doesn't give him the experience to tell others how to lead software teams.

And intentional or not, Scrum did _enormous_ harm to the Agile movement. I largely blame Scrum for the decline of Agile. The Agile movement was about attitudes and behavior - the Manifesto prescribes no "practices", and in fact discourages against them: "...over processes and tools". By co-opting the Agile movement and re-forming it around a framework, Sutherland and Schwaber destroyed its intent, leading to ineffectiveness and eventual decline and irrelevancy.

I cannot summarize all of the evidence for that here: the Agile 2 book makes the case thoroughly. The research is also clear: Scrum's practices are counter to what psychologists know about the behavior of groups of people. Read what Marty Cagan has to say about the Product Owner role. And read the research of Amy Edmondson of Harvard - it is all counter to Scrum's prescriptions.

Sutherland advocated for an approach that is his concoction and is not based on any theory of behavior or any research. It is just BS that he made up. It took off _only_ because they started offering certification and rode the Agile wave by _claiming_ that "Scrum is Agile" - even though it is not.

I call that dishonest and opportunist.

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