Scrum & its (Team) Effectiveness

Scrum & its (Team) Effectiveness

Why? It is the only question that came to my mind, while having served the telecom industry for over half a decade by then, 2016 already. Being positioned as the GM working for project operations, seeing the generally prevailing dissatisfaction among managers, was easy to feel and assess. These leaders of tomorrow were changing jobs or their positions internally.
Although the smartness and skilled brilliance among these managers was simply nothing out of the ordinary for anyone to see in this organization. Thus, with few like minded executives, we analyzed the SOPs & processes - there came that close answer to this WHY.
The Project Management Approach The Project Management Approach, starting from its point of initiation, had the sense of authority that has always worked “downwards”. With less consideration to assess the skills, the willingness of managers & team leaders for an assigned task, the manager is expected to work up to the mark.
Yet when the work is undone, or if tasks are completed post-time-frame, these managers are reprimanded. Sometimes, to the extent of hearing some insulting words from their superiors. This ideology of project management, which is similar to that of waterfall framework, has never let the talented pool of HR come forward, resulting in poor retention across companies. ? This was never an idea that anyone was in favor of. In the highly competitive era of today, the “Stick and Carrot” approach entertained by the project management ideology, is neither effective for the organizations operating in Telecom Industry nor for the ones in Software Development Industry.
Although it has worked for companies one way or the other, it has not been able to get the best or optimized output from its human capital. In fact, it has adversely effected the retention process, which is a great challenge for organizations worldwide.
Scrum - The Light Framework When I came to know of Scrum Framework, I googled it to and some information about it. Not being sure if the framework would be effective initially, specially with the lightness that it demonstrated - across its dynamics. Yet, I was sure of one thing; if it could be embraced, the businesses would significantly benefit from their workforce and the talent that they acquire.
The curiosity got the best of me and I finally decided to take up the framework to master it. Finally, I joined the USIT Business Solutions for my career advancement and was thoroughly taught of what Scrum, under the Agile umbrella, was all about.
Now, being a Scrum Master for quite sometime, I am delighted that I had this opportunity to take a career shift, which has not only acted as an “enhancement” in my career but has also given me the professional satisfaction by offering my teams a chance to fully display their potential & creativity - without imposing anything, like job stake threats.
Scrum - The Effectiveness The effectiveness of Scrum is quite evident with the dynamics it provides as a guideline. It nurtures the talent of the team members while providing them with the sense of responsibility.

Effectiveness - The Factors
1. Servant Leader As a Scrum Master, the phrase that inspired me the most is “Servant-Leader”. It gives a leader the understanding that he has to serve his team by supporting them in the work that they have acquired to do - and never act out as an “Authoritarian” who assigns and reprimands his teams subordinates and co-workers. When I started to work as a Scrum Master, there was serenity and peace among the Scrum team members, which came from work environment. This was all due to the effectiveness that is embedded in the Scrum Framework itself.
2. One Team - The Unity Scrum Team comprises of a Product Owner, Scrum Master & the Development Team. The most fluent part of the Scrum framework is the sense of unity as one team, where the Scrum Master works with the Development team and the Product Owner. And the development team works with the Product Owner & vice versa. There is openness in the internal communication of the team.
This work-love-triangle gives the Scrum framework the effectiveness through open & frequent communication among the Scrum Team members - supporting progress, unlike any other framework before.
Importantly, Scrum does not even recognize any positions within the development team and counts the team - responsible as a whole, instead of any apparent individual roles.
3. Change - The real Reality They say, ‘change is the only constant in life’. So true - Scrum totally agrees with it and thoroughly demonstrates openness that is needed to embrace change. With the clients, competition and technology changing at the speed of light, change is to be embraced by the organizations evidently. Scrum is highly effective when its comes to accepting change from the customers & clients - which makes it easier to achieve client satisfaction at most, if not all times. Moreover, Scrum, accepting the ‘changes in requirements’ even at a very late stage of the development, is the essence of Scrum. This is possible as the Scrum Framework provides the increment deliverable product at the end of each sprint and there is plenty of cushion to add changed requirements to the backlog, which can be workable a part of the sprint right next (Product Owner approval required).
4. The Resource Retention- The Scrum Framework is based on an empirical process. It allows the teams to do much through their own willingness. As the team is collectively accountable for user stories, tasks & features, it brings a positive reflection on the collective team performance. This encourages the support, cooperation and assistance among the team members, making the stay of each team member - a prolonged one than otherwise.
Moreover, this also makes each member of the Scrum team, specially the development team, feel as important as the other, resulting in higher job satisfaction and motivation at the workplace. Subsequently, resulting in higher retention ratio of the key resources - a result not so well enjoyed in most previous frameworks.
5. Volunteering @ work Volunteering - was a term on heard for non-pro?t organizations alone. Now with Scrum Framework, its no longer the same. Scrum gives its team members the leverage to volunteer and pick the tasks from the ones that are to be assigned to them as a team, collectively.
In the Sprint Planning meeting, the team members voluntarily come forward and pick work for themselves and deliver it by completing them to be a part of the increment delivered by the team overall. This sense of volunteerism is a significant part of the Scrum framework, helping the performance of the teams working under umbrella of Agile .
Conclusion: In the conclusion, I would like to say that the work delivered by Scrum framework is by far more effective than any other framework that the world has seen so far. Considering the right balance of framework, it can prove to be incredibly effective for companies from diversified backgrounds.
The Scrum ceremonies have given it the competitive edge to deliver valuables to businesses to a great extent; through the sense of continuous improvement within the teams and operating processes. The retention of key resources is critically important for achieving cross functional and independent teams. It gives the teams the leverage needed to optimize the working methodology and truly making sky as the limit.
By Nabeel