Project Management

Introducing Scrum Without Doing Scrum

Explore a flexible approach to introducing Scrum and enhance team learning and adaptation.

Maarten Dalmijn

May 03, 2022 • 9 min read

Intermediate

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Agile

Agile Frameworks

Empiricism

Learning and Development

Scrum

Summary

This resource challenges the notion that Scrum must be introduced all at once, advocating for a gradual approach that allows teams to learn and adapt to different elements of Scrum at their own pace. It emphasizes the importance of psychological safety and experienced guidance in implementing Scrum incrementally. The discussion highlights the value of experimentation, learning, and adaptation, encouraging teams to discover better ways of working. Dive in to understand how a flexible introduction to Scrum can lead to deeper understanding and stronger team buy-in.

Takeaways

Empirical learning allows teams to understand the value of Scrum components.
Experienced Scrum Masters play a key role in guiding teams through Scrum elements.
Gradual introduction of Scrum can enhance team learning and adaptation.
Psychological safety is vital for teams to experiment and learn from failures.
Trusting teams to discover and adapt Scrum practices leads to better outcomes.
Here are two polar opposite approaches you can follow to introduce Scrum:

You introduce Scrum fully from the start. Usually, the team will not completely grasp it and fail, especially because they are familiarizing themselves with too many new moving parts at once. Result: you’re not doing Scrum. But at least you’re trying!

You introduce Scrum gradually. The team will intentionally not be doing Scrum. With 2, the only thing you’re doing is intentionally setting the bar lower to make it easier to learn and understand the benefits of the different parts of Scrum by discovering what happens in their absence.
People practice Scrum by following its definition as exactly in the book but in reality, they often do not, even if they try hard.
Several Scrum practitioners claim that there’s only one approach for introducing Scrum: all or nothing. They say you have to start by explaining Scrum thoroughly, and then the team has to start doing everything that’s part of the framework.
There is no limitation as to why we should not introduce Scrum gradually. The Scrum guide does not rule out this option, it only says that when you do that, you’re not practicing Scrum until you adopt all the elements and rules of Scrum.