Many other Scrum consultants insist that Scrum will work if you follow it exactly. They tend to deride teams having troubles with it declaring they just need more discipline. While there is some truth to this, (if you can actually follow the Scrum practices, you will get good results), doing so is sometimes akin to eating soup with a fork just because it can work. We believe that classic Scrum should be virtually always extended, even when Scrum works well, and needs to be extended in order to scale to the enterprise. This clinic will show you how to do both.
The suggestions here are how to improve your Scrum method. If you are interested in better agile methods at the enterprise level we recommend reading our book Lean-Agile Software Development: Achieving Enterprise Agility or seeing our Business-Management resources page.
We’ve organized the Scrum clinic into two main sections, each with their corresponding sub-sections. The first section is organized by where you are in your adoption of Scrum (including not having started). The second is a reference section.
Where are you in your Scrum adoption?
- For those interested in adopting Agile and are considering using Scrum as the method
- For those who are already using Scrum at the team level and want to improve their methods
- For those who are already using Scrum at the team level and want to scale it, or for those who have attempted to scale it and are having some challenges with that
Reference sections:
- A list of Scrum Anti-Patterns. Many of these are discussed elsewhere on the clinic site but are included here to be a more complete reference.
- A list of books to read about Scrum and other Lean-Agile methods as they relate to Scrum teams.
If you are considering starting with Scrum
Note: Even if you are already using Scrum successfully, a quick review of this section will likely prove to be helpful. This section contains articles on:
- An Overview of Lean-Agile Methods
- Where to Begin Your Transition to Lean-Agile
- How Successful Pilots Often Actually Hurt an Organization
- Using Lean-Agile to Provide the Real Value of ALM
- Demystifying Kanban
- Questions to Ask In Selecting a Trainer for Your CSM Training
If you are currently using Scrum at the team level
- Principles and Practices all Agile (including Scrum) Teams Should know and follow
- How to Vastly Improve Your Scrum Team in an Hour (a set of trim-tabs from above)
If you looking to Scale Scrum (or Are Having Challenges Having Already Attempted to)
Books for the Scrum Developer
- Lean-Agile Pocket Guide for Scrum Teams
- Lean-Agile Software Development. Here are two selected chapters:
- Agile Developer’s Guide to Lean Software Development. This chapter provides a quick overview of Lean-Thinking for those already familiar with Agile methods.
- Going Beyond Scrum. This chapter discusses much of how Scrum is often misinterpreted as well as providing a few shortcomings in the Scrum thought process. The intention is to give those new to Scrum a basis for extending it as needed.
- Lean-Agile Acceptance Test-Driven Development
- Managing the Design Factory
Various Blogs About Success and Failure in Scrum
There are many canned answers about why Scrum works or doesn’t. We don’t believe in the canned answers and investigate them in these blogs:- The 5 whys of Lean as an answer to the But of Scrum
- Challenging Why (not if) Scrum Fails
- Questioning Large Scrum Failure Rates
- Rethinking the Practices of Scrum or What Would Christopher Alexander Say?
- Challenging Why (not if) Scrum Works
We’ve set up a page on our Lean-Agile Wiki for you to leave comments or ask us to discuss additional topics.
