Really. Please remember this as you read this entry!

With some clients and projects, I get called in a little after Scrum has been adopted. Sometimes the team has gone through one or two iterations and Scrum does not seem to be working.

Or so it seems. To the Chickens. And the team usually is getting frustrated at all the change surrounding them.

Here is one of the symptoms to the problem.

In heavy waterfall environments (corporate cultures), a lot of the time people are still working in silo styles (mini-waterfalls) and then some have tried to form multiple Scrum teams when one does not even work to its potential.

The reasoning behind the formation of multiple Scrum Teams is because some work “requires specialists” that only a few people — or just one person — on the team can fill. And they are perceived as slowing things down (or opposite — this Scrum stuff getting in the way of moving forward).

Teams — or should I say management — looks to the type of people who do this as “heroes” that can always pull a project out of trouble.

OK… I may piss some people off here; however, a lot of the “heroes” I have met (and tried to work with) are not worth what you are paying them. They may be hiding behind a process or claim to be the only person who knows a critical piece of code. Ug. Usually that code is crap. But I digress… sorry.

People implementing Scrum this way do not get it.

In these situations, sometimes the teams start competing with each other and the blame games start. Competition for resources starts to occur. All of the sudden, Scrum starts looking like the old waterfall environment of
the past.

All within only a few iterations gone bad.

How can you avoid this?

Look around and see what is happening with your team.

Is there a “hero” on your team?

Are you that person (smile)?

Are you doing the “basics” of Scrum?

Really?

Make sure.

And.

Get it right with ONE team before breaking out to new teams.

If the Chickens want to interfere… tell them to back off.

Or have your ScrumMaster do that.

That is one of the roles that the ScrumMaster must play…. helping to shield the team.

Gotta run…

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