When people ask me the best way for their team to transition to Scrum, I tell them that there isn’t an easy answer, because every organization is unique. Keeping that in mind, here are some general steps to consider if implementing Scrum is on your horizon.
Is Scrum the right fit for your business problem?
First, you should honestly evaluate whether Scrum is the right fit for your business problem. Scrum is the most popular agile framework today, but agile isn’t the right fit for every business problem – it’s simply one of many tools in the toolkit.
Agile frameworks (including Scrum) perform best in complex environments where more is unknown than known, and creativity rules the day to determine the best path forward. That’s why Scrum is so popular for software applications and why its use is growing in contexts such as human resources and marketing. The Scrum framework excels when there are many variables at play.
Ralph Stacey at the University of Hertfordshire designed the Stacey matrix to describe when agile is a good fit. The matrix uses four categories to define business problems: simple, complicated, complex, and chaotic.
Agile frameworks - including Scrum - work best in business situations that are complex, where more is unknown than known.
When should you use Scrum? Agile frameworks, including Scrum, will not add value in simple environments where you can write work instructions for exactly how to deliver your product. Use your judgment and the advice of an experienced practitioner to evaluate the right approach for your context.
Define your Product(s)
Before establishing a Scrum Team (or teams) to deliver value, you must understand your product. Once you’ve determined that Scrum is a good fit for your business problem, the next step is defining your product. Many teams transition without defining the product boundaries that the Scrum Team will create, resulting in a team not being optimized to deliver value.
Defining your product starts with describing your customer. Who are they, and what do they want/need? What value are you delivering to them, and how is your organization rewarded? Once you answer these questions, you are on your way to better understanding the definition of your organization’s product.
Identify Resources
Once you understand what product you are striving to deliver, it’s time to determine the skillsets you need on your team to deliver that product. For example, if your product is a website, you might need team members with experience building functionality, designing user experiences, building database tables, content writing and more. These team members might operate as silos right now, but product teams should contain all the skills needed to deliver a valuable Done product increment.
