The world is changing at a very high speed, organizations are increasingly trying to meet market needs and differentiate themselves in a competitive landscape. For this, projects and more projects are executed in order to achieve the sole objective of meeting the needs of the market and/or people. And Scrum can help you.

 

Scrum: the art of doubling up in half the time.

In the mid-1990s, Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber created the Scrum method, with the objective of solving common problems in organizations, ensuring a focus on what really generates results.

In order to explain the benefits of Scrum, its application for greater productivity, Jeff wrote a book called “Scrum: The Art of Doing Double the Job in Half of time”.

In this book, he tells how he used Scrum in his personal experiences to clarify problems and act on them, in order to help people and companies to plan better, to focus on the customer and on continuous improvement.

 

How did the term agile method come about?

The term agile method came up with the Agile Manifesto, created in 2001. This small document was known for its 4 values:

• Individuals and interaction between them more than processes and tools;
• Software at work more than comprehensive documentation;
• Client collaboration more than contract negotiation;
• Responding to changes is more than following a plan.

 

All agile methods from Scrum and XP (the best known) are based on these 4 values.

The main goal of agile methods is to satisfy the customer through small, recurring deliveries of value, through short, continuous development cycles.

 

How to apply the agile methodology?

To implement agile methods in companies, it is very likely that a change in organizational culture will be necessary.

This methodology uses the principles of constant adaptation. They also aim to eliminate and reduce waste and inefficiencies caused by communication noise, bureaucracy and technical obstacles.

The agile methodology works in companies that work with a high level of collaboration, where members contribute to the development of projects/products through small teams. Let’s take a look at some changes that are often needed to make companies more agile:

• The company’s objective must be to please the customer and deliver the best product for the established demand, with total efficiency.</ read>
• The work should be done in self-organizing teams, where management takes place in order to enable employees to contribute as much as possible.
• The work must be coordinated by agile methodologies based on iterative cycles and customer and stakeholder feedback.
• Transparency and continuous improvement need to be predominant values.
• The decision-making in the company must occur predominantly horizontally.

 

Why aren’t people producing?

Now that we are familiar with Scrum and know a little bit of principles for implementing agile methods, let’s better understand about common mistakes in applying agile methodologies, especially Scrum. The big challenge here is for people to understand that it is not simply by changing names, roles and meetings that results will happen. A deeper understanding of Agility and its true application is needed.

 

Mistake #1: Thinking that doing a daily scrum does with that you are agile

Daily Scrum is a vital part of Scrum, but just doing it for the sake of it doesn’t help at all.

The goal of the Daily Scrum is for developers to review and plan their progress toward the Sprint Goal. It is also a forum to allow you to identify potential issues and deal with them quickly or later.

It is designed to be a short meeting, to resolve issues and ensure (at a minimum) an ongoing level of communication and team planning as the Sprint progresses.</ span>

 

Mistake #2: Thinking a Scrum Master is a Project Manager

The Scrum Master has the role of supporting the implementation of Scrum in their work practices.

Some people assume that a Scrum Master is the same as a project manager, but the Scrum Master is probably a new role, perhaps never seen by some, so it is flawed to do. any kind of parallels.

In the practice of acting as an SM, it is common to act as a teacher, facilitator, coach and mentor. Technically, he doesn’t manage the team. The Scrum Master provides guidance and advice to Scrum Team members, especially on issues related to the rules of execution framework and role fulfillment.

 

Mistake #3: Making Scrum Team Too Big

Ideally, a Scrum Team should be a small dedicated unit working closely together and self-organizing. For this to happen efficiently, it cannot be too big. The maximum size should not exceed 10 people, ideally around 8 members.

Jeff Bezos makes a joke of this theme by saying that the ideal size for a team is a number of people that can be fed by two pizzas. It’s up to you to determine the hunger level and therefore the size of the pizza. 🙂

 

Error #4: Pin Product Backlog

Product Backlogs are what we call live artifacts. This means that they are being created and changed all the time, during the creation of the product and execution of the Sprints.

Some people who came from the traditional paradigm, well known for the waterfall model, have some difficulty in understanding this concept. They associate the Product Backlog with the closed scope of a project and that is completely incorrect!

The Backlog’s premise is to be flexible, that is, with the learning acquired at each Sprint, the team (in the person of the Product Owner) will adapt the Product Backlog so that it be more and more adherent to what the customer needs.

 

Error #5: Not having the patience to follow the process

It is necessary to understand that in Agility there is no one-size-fits-all solution and there is no ready-made recipe for how it should work. and others not.

Each team and company should seek to follow its own learning path. A basic principle that closes all our theoretical conceptual is continuous improvement. A team cannot say that it is agile if it does the same things, in the same way, for a long time.

Once applying the first tools, some teams don’t have the patience to correct mistakes, learn, train people better, and allow the principles of improvement to take effect.

 

Completion

Finally, it is hoped that a true understanding of agile principles will suffice for teams to generally reap the benefits that Agility aims to deliver. As the days go by, agile teams must grow in this understanding (which is new to many) by finding, testing and validating better ways to work. This promotes team productivity growth and maximizes value delivery.