Secret of delivering projects.
We expect Scrum framework to provide answers, describe how to handle our situations and recommendations for solving them. Certainly Scrum fails to answer such question and situations because as a framework Scrum will provide only the structure that is required to inspect and adapt.
Expecting Scrum to answer all the questions indicates that we have not understood Scrum as framework. For every framework we will need tools and technique, and strategy to get the best benefits.
Scrum is like chess game rules. The player will not will just having the rules and followed it, it’s the strategy that makes them win, the player need to understand the situation and make their strategy to win always. Not having a strategy means not game to play.
Infact thinking scrum will make teams work better is not true, there is a deeper secret that’s not well spoken about. There are 3 aspects in successfully delivering the projects.
- Framework
- Tools & Techniques
- Strategy
Framework, Scrum is an empirical process that helps them to understand when and what to inspect and adapt in product development. A framework never states any tools & techniques or strategies, in fact that’s the beauty and simplicity of the any framework.
Scrum is an adaptable framework that gives basic structure for inspecting & adapting.
Framework focuses on
- Roles & responsibilities
- Rules & guidelines
- Flow in which the product needs to be developed
- Flexible to use in any area of work, interoperability
- Simplified generic “best practice”
Eg: Scrum, XP, Waterfall, Kanban and so on…
Tools & techniques are the one that makes the teams and system effective and efficient at their work.
These are independent of any framework. There are no recommendations on which tool to use and technique by scrum. Hence “User Story”, “Estimations in Story Points”, “Task boards”, “Graphs” so on.. are not part of scrum, they are tools & techniques.
Choose tools and techniques that are best suited for your ecosystem resulting in effectiveness and efficiency. There are lot of T/T but not everything is E/E at all situations.
Benefits of any tool & technique (not limited to)
- Reduces the time
- Ease of working
- Better quality
- Reduce redundancy
- Improve communication
- Better forecast
Eg: Rally, Jira, Post Its, Excel sheets and so on…
Strategy, a plan of action to achieve the goal is the most essential part of being successful. While there are reasons for everything that is done in the teams and organisation, the strategy that is created knowing the framework, tools & techniques used will yield better results.
Strategies are actions and plans, these are independent of any framework. Scrum doesn’t answer how to handle different situations. Strategies take care of such situations, Strategies should be inline with the frameworks and tools. Have a strategy for maximizing value. What to do when, how to minimize risk, how to handle situations without loosing focus and value.
The winning teams & organisations have Strategies that uses the best tools & techniques suitable for the framework and maximize the returns.
Strategies should (not limited to)
- Focus on long term and short term goals
- Maximize ROI
- Handle situations with effectiveness
- Take effective and efficient decisions
- Quick and adaptable
- Trust-able and if possible tried and tested.
Secret of delivering projects = Adaptable Framework + E/E Tools & Techniques + Winning Strategies.