Scrum Thoughts #4
a collection of recent missives from the corporate badlands
Another collection of short LinkedIn posts, these ones all written in March 2025. The first five are from the #WhatIsScrum series, and the sixth an homage to my friend and colleague, Lee Devin. I present the six posts here in chronological order, oldest first.
What is Scrum? #1
Scrum is a set of empirically proven work practices based on some core human values and principles that are known to create open, trusting, creative environments. Scrum is not a process. It is barely a framework. It is often implemented as a process, and this frequently causes pain. We do the What, and even the How, without knowing the Why. [original post]
What is Scrum? #2
Scrum is intuition; it is not knowledge. Scrum is the practice of unlearning bad habits picked up on, for example, MBA programs and from previous corporate experience, but perhaps even more damaging—and more persistent—picked up from school as early as elementary level, where collaboration is called cheating and creative thinking is considered threatening. Scrum confronts the status quo—i.e. the way of doing things deeply embedded in our psyches, as much as we'd like to deny that.
Scrum subverts the order: workers lead and managers serve.
It is no wonder so many find it difficult to adopt, and make all kinds of excuses why it does not, and cannot work. But here's the thing. They are right. Scrum does not work. People work. It's just that many work better within the container of Scrum. Scrum holds us. It is nothing more than a framework, a set of boundaries that allow the worker to excel. But to get there we need to start by shedding what we think we know, and embrace not-knowing.
Don't adopt Scrum to work faster, or make more stuff—that's you complying to the status quo. Similarly, don't reject Scrum because it doesn't promise those things. Adopt Scrum because you believe it will improve the humanity and engagement of your workplace. Anything else will be a bonus. [original post]
What is Scrum? #3
Scrum is a file, a rasp; it is finger nails dragging down a blackboard. Scrum goes against the grain for most IT companies, where a phased approach coupled with a high degree of micro-management, and an insistence on defined process and extensive documentation have been the norm for over forty years. Many companies rely on fear and money as the key motivators for their workers. This approach has shown short-term success but more and more companies are beginning to understand that it is not a good long term strategy. Nevertheless, the concept of changing to something as radical as Scrum hardens the hearts of many executives and leaders. For the complicated, logical, analytical mind, craving clever solutions, Scrum appears far too simple: it cannot be trusted. It grates. [original post]
What is Scrum? #4
Scrum is a way to create autonomy and engagement—almost overnight. It is really very simple. Here's a 5-step guide for managers and executives for starting a new Scrum process.
1. Start with a clear product goal—and a visionary guide (PO).
2. Invite team members who between them have the necessary skills to i) build the product and ii) improve their process..
3. Create a space for the team to do their work, free of annoying impediments.
4. Introduce the team to their stakeholders and users.
5. Get out of the way.
[original post]
What is Scrum #5
Scrum is Ikea. An Ikea store is a beautifully simple structure, designed to help people make informed decisions, based on their own personal goals. But telling me to go to Ikea because it's really great, when I have no clear reason to be there, will be futile. I'll wander around, get overwhelmed, and leave annoyed, probably saying Ikea is rubbish, and not wanting to return. That's probably how people feel when told to do Scrum with no idea why they should be doing it. A framework is not a solution: it is nothing more than a limiting, and thus enabling structure. New product development requires clear, well articulated intent, and Scrum requires the collective intelligence of the practitioners to make it useful. Of course, you could always go to Ikea and buy a bunch of pretty objects and gadgets that you'll never use. You could also build products that no one wants. [original post]
Lee Devin, artful maker
Lee Devin, co-author of the highly influential book "Artful Making", died exactly one year ago today. Having sadly lost touch with Lee around 2019, I only read of his demise a few months ago.
If I could pick just one person who has influenced my own work, it would be Lee Devin. Both through the written word and our interactions. Lee, and his co-author Robert Austin penned the two books (featured in the comments) that have guided me for my entire Agile journey.
I was fortunate enough to work with Lee in person, during 2007-2008, along with fellow Scrum educators Boris Gloger and Stacia Heimgartner Viscardi. I recall long afternoons in his beautiful Pennsylvania home, the four of us reinventing the world together :) I learned a lot from Lee about how to facilitate, artfully.
Lee was kind enough to write an endorsement for my own book back in 2013, and I've shared it here, as I treasure it as a gift from a very great man.
"Tobias has a really interesting mind: wide, deep, imaginative, and quirky. I value the quirky most because it's unpredictable. But in hindsight his jumps reveal themselves as the result of intelligence and rigor. What's more, he gets those jumps gracefully down on paper so that we can all participate"
If you work in the Agile space, and have never read Artful Making I highly recommend that you do. As well as being beautifully written and a joy to read, it describes better than any other book or paper I've read, just how we should develop new products.
Rest well, Lee Devin, knowing your work made our world a better place.
[original post | philadelphia inquirer obituary | people’s light obituary]
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