Scrum is one of the biggest process invention but it does not guarantee success. Even creators of Scrum accept that more than half of the Scrum implementation does not go well. Why is that? Scrum is critical but what is more critical than Scrum? Moving from waterfall model to Scrum is a welcoming change that makes people think in the right direction, however, this does not guarantee success.

If a person with ongoing back pain visits the doctor then doctor certainly suggests to do exercises or yoga to make body agile enough to get rid of pains. If that person is wise then he starts doing exercises and pain disappears. Exercises don't cure pain overnight. It requires a regular routine. Isn't it common to see pain appear again when exercises are stopped?

One of the dangerous interpretations of agile is that, as long as your sprinting then agile just happens, but this just isn’t true. Teams that just run and run without and end goal are pretty much destined, at some point, to slip on something nasty, and end up landing on something soft. The something hard would probably be a customer deadline and the something soft could very well be the team’s reputation.

Sprinting should always be about the destination. A friend and colleague once told me that if his wife gets lost when driving she has a tendency to just keep driving, in the hope that at some point she’ll find herself on the right road. When on a car journey this can lead to a large petrol bill and an unexpected call to a loved one from John O’Groats. When on an agile journey this can lead to unhappy customers and stakeholders who don’t know when, if ever, they’re going to take delivery of something useful, or even functional.

Everything is jogging along swimmingly in the real world, orders coming in thick and fast, the business is booming. World-wide recession, hah! In the development bullpen, velocity is faster than a speeding bullet, they're playing office boules most of the day. But hark! The sound of over five thousand orders plummeting down through the depths of the system sends shudders through the department. Time to down boules and fix the problem.  Suddenly the CEO's door opens and the dev manager is summoned. He knows what's coming but is a bit taken aback when he discovers its not the five thousand customers in limbo that has lit the coals he's being dragged over but the issue that is holding up the order belonging to the CEO's chihuahua-sitter. He points out the devs are working on a solution for the five thousand stuck orders but the CEO is not having any of it. "The order of priority is obvious!" booms the CEO.

Prioritising issues

Ever since I came across Agile methods some years back, I have become a die-hard fan of it. I wonder, why Agile is not been accepted as Industry standard for Software development, even after having many advantages over other methods.

The answer to this question according to me is reluctance to CHANGE. Agile requires difference kind of mind-set; it is a paradigm shift as compared to traditional managed projects. Traditional Managers do not want to change from the way they are working for years i.e. they do not want to come out of there comfort zone and explore new ways to success.

I have come across many people, who by name of ‘Short Release’ become uncomfortable with Agile. I do not have any statistics, but I think, unless Agile is enforced by Customer, there would be few people / project / company, who would advocate Agile.

-Vinayak Mehta

You go to a swimming class.