Agile Coaches' Corner Do Scrum Well Before Scaling!
Welcome to the first episode of Agile Coaches’ Corner, by AgileThought — the podcast for practitioners and leaders seeking advice to refine the way they work and pave the path to better outcomes. Your host is Dan Neumann, agile coach and expert.
This episode, Dan is joined by his fellow coach and colleague, Sam Falco, to explore the importance of doing Scrum well before scaling. They answer key questions in regards to scaling Scrum, address dysfunctions in Scrum that can derail a scaling effort (and how to avoid them), the importance of integrating engineering practices and technical practices in Scrum teams, and the estimating route vs. the #NoEstimates movement. Sam also explains some key practices you should consider bringing in, in order to fully optimize your Scrum.
Key Takeaways
- All about scaling Scrum:
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- Why three or more teams is generally the threshold for scaling challenges
- The issues that arise when adopting Scrum from scratch and scaling way too fast
- Leadership needs to give their organization some time to adapt
- Dysfunctions in Scrum that can derail a scaling effort, and how to avoid them:
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- Scrum teams need to forecast what they can do in a Sprint to properly coordinate
- A skilled coach can help Scrum teams navigate
- Flexibility is key
- Leave some buffer room in following Sprints
- The importance of engineering practices for Scrum teams:
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- Make sure you are not just going through the motions of the various Sprint events
- Get your technical house in order and provide quality work every Sprint
Key Learnings:
- Do Scrum well before scaling
- Expect scaling to be a challenge at first
- Forecasting Sprints with predictability is valuable
- Get your technical house in order
- Use small batch size
- When forecasting Sprints leave a buffer
- A skilled coach can help navigate the scaling challenges
Mentioned in this Episode:
Agile Software Development Ecosystems, by Jim Highsmith
The Age of Agile: How Smart Companies Are Transforming the Way Work Gets Done,
Sam Falco’s Book Pick
Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman
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