Scrum: Why It Doesn’t Work
Perspectives From a Certified Scrum Master
--
About Me
I am a certified scrum master and I’ve been running a scrum team for the past 1 year. In addition, I also have 10 years of experience working on technical development in different setups. In one big organization, I used the traditional SDLC (or what agile advocates like to call “Waterfall”), in a small family-like setup, verbal requirements writtened down in notepads, and in my most recent organization, Scrum.
By now, most scrum practitioners should realise that Scrum works only in theory or have difficulties working even in a very very small set up.
Before writing this article, my PO asked me: “ Why write such an article that will potentially ruin your own career?”
Well, the truth is, the impact is not really so great on a personal front. I am not only a Scrum Master, this is just my current role in my current project. I have experience as a programmer, a database developer, a system analyst, a business analyst, a trader and a writer and I can transit into any anytime.
The reason why I had waited this long is so as to garner enough experience of running my scrum team, having spoken to enough agile coaches (3 to be exact) and having listened to stories shared with other scrum teams so that I can give an honest assessment of the framework (or some would say, mindset). It also means that I am padding others' experience onto my own. Now, one year into this role, coupled with another 9 as a techie (13 if you add 4 years for my undergrad in computer engineering), I believe I’ve seen enough.
And had enough of this nonsense.
My Motivation For Writing This
Firstly, let me make it clear my motivations for writing this: For the greater good: to discourage companies from trying to onboard this framework because it will be super costly in terms of:
- Time to get to finished product.
- Multiple reworks.
- Demoralized staff.
- An unhealthy relationship across the organization structure.
To Begin with: It’s not all bad
Well, I’ll certainly start out by writing about the good stuff first, because no matter how bad it is, there must be something positive, either as causes or effects.
