Many of the specific arguments you'll hear against Scrum are predictable and common across many organizations. Others, of course, will be unique to your organization.
You can often anticipate the arguments you'll hear by thinking through the challenges presented by your organization, domain, technologies, products, culture, and people. In doing so, you'll find that many of the objections (both the universal and the specific ones) can be categorized as either waterfallacies or agile phobias. A waterfallacy is a mistaken belief or idea about agile or Scrum created from working too long on waterfall projects. Examples include
• Scrum teams don't plan, so we're unable to make commitments to customers.
• Scrum requires everyone to be a generalist.
• Our team is spread around the world. Self-organization clashes with some cultures, so we can't be agile.
• Our team is spread around the world, and Scrum requires face-to-face communication.
• Scrum ignores architecture, which would be disastrous for the type of system we build.
• Scrum is OK for simple websites, but our system is too complicated.
An agile phobia is a strong fear or dislike of agile practices, usually due to the uncertainty of change. Some of the agile phobias you are likely to encounter include the following:
• I'm afraid I'll have nothing to do.
• I'm afraid I'll be fired if the decisions we make don't work out.
• I'm afraid of conflict and of trying to reach consensus.
• I'm afraid people will see how little I really do.
• It's so much easier and safer when someone tells me exactly what to do.
• It's so much easier and safer when I can tell people exactly what to do.
Although a waterfallacy can often be countered with rational arguments, anecdotes, and evidence, an agile phobia is usually much more personal and emotional. Sometimes people just need to know that their objections have been heard.
Throughout this book I have tried to preempt as many waterfallacies and agile phobias as possible. Many chapters include "Objection" sidebars, which provide my advice on how to address common questions and misunderstandings about Scrum.
Source of Information : Pearson - Succeeding with Agile Software Development Using Scrum 2010
You can often anticipate the arguments you'll hear by thinking through the challenges presented by your organization, domain, technologies, products, culture, and people. In doing so, you'll find that many of the objections (both the universal and the specific ones) can be categorized as either waterfallacies or agile phobias. A waterfallacy is a mistaken belief or idea about agile or Scrum created from working too long on waterfall projects. Examples include
• Scrum teams don't plan, so we're unable to make commitments to customers.
• Scrum requires everyone to be a generalist.
• Our team is spread around the world. Self-organization clashes with some cultures, so we can't be agile.
• Our team is spread around the world, and Scrum requires face-to-face communication.
• Scrum ignores architecture, which would be disastrous for the type of system we build.
• Scrum is OK for simple websites, but our system is too complicated.
An agile phobia is a strong fear or dislike of agile practices, usually due to the uncertainty of change. Some of the agile phobias you are likely to encounter include the following:
• I'm afraid I'll have nothing to do.
• I'm afraid I'll be fired if the decisions we make don't work out.
• I'm afraid of conflict and of trying to reach consensus.
• I'm afraid people will see how little I really do.
• It's so much easier and safer when someone tells me exactly what to do.
• It's so much easier and safer when I can tell people exactly what to do.
Although a waterfallacy can often be countered with rational arguments, anecdotes, and evidence, an agile phobia is usually much more personal and emotional. Sometimes people just need to know that their objections have been heard.
Throughout this book I have tried to preempt as many waterfallacies and agile phobias as possible. Many chapters include "Objection" sidebars, which provide my advice on how to address common questions and misunderstandings about Scrum.
Source of Information : Pearson - Succeeding with Agile Software Development Using Scrum 2010
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