A case of failure

Recently, a new project team to develop a new feature, and decided to try Scrum, very honored to be invited to join, as ScrumMaster. In the beginning everything seems to be going well, we held a kick-off meeting a project, product manager responsible for the clear expectations of results, and further determine the responsibilities of the PO. Made me feel good, because of this project full-time designers and product testers in foreign countries, in order to ensure quality, we all agree that local development team (composed by developers, not testers) not only pay attention to the code development, but also to undertake testing tasks. Foreign testers as PO's assistant, helping the results acceptance testing, and product designers PO help refine demand for products Backlog. Moreover, a preliminary product Backlog has been established, containing features desired for delivery, although not a standard user story format, but should still be OK to. Everything seems, is going smoothly, I did not expect to perform to Sprint the third time, this function is responsible for foreign product manager suddenly going PO, there I opened a conference call with the proposed project needs to be published in mid-November a version, so that some users can try to use, give feedback, which in itself is not the problem, the real problem is that after the meeting, issued a message suddenly decided to stop planning meeting, daily meetings, review meetings and so on, that is, to stop all Scrum-related practices, as ScrumMaster, from my perspective, this is to announce the failure of Scrum try!

So, I spent some time to reflect on this project, why it failed?

Scrum factors that affect the implementation of the project

Favorable factors

Unfavorable factors

Initially it was supported by senior management The team was involved in Scrum projects, Scrum experience Team of four people, very rich technical experience Research has been done before for a long time, the team is relatively full understanding of the function

Except one had Scrum project experience, everyone else did not participate in appropriate training, and after the project began, there is no time to arrange a preliminary introduction (very failure) The team most people do not understand how to use Scrum, but were asked to Scrum PO in another city, and very busy, not enough time to maintain product Backlog, and team communication Communication and product designers far away in another country, is not conducive to the needs of the specific details of

Cause of failure

• Motive is unclear
  for how to use Scrum, Scrum practice hope to help solve any problems, or what is expected of Scrum is, did not want to make clear that this will lead to time when difficulties in the course of the project, cast doubt on the initial decision ;
• Responsibilities unknown
  for Sprint's goal, the Product Backlog in priority setting, in addition to PO, foreign product designers will be adjusted, and PO did not fully communicate, lead to unclear objectives, unclear requirements, leading to communication great confusion;
• Lack of training
  team members to the beginning of time there is no schedule to receive basic training on agile and Scrum, so for agile values, Scrum practices are not clear, so the project implementation process, often will produce a number of agile practices understanding and conflicting emotions;
• DONE ill-defined
  because the target is not clear, leading the team to DONE standards is not always clear, so plan meetings always inefficient, often cause a lot of controversy;
• Excessive intervention
  due to the enormous pressure of the market, senior management began to implement Scrum for problems that do not really understand why, do not have enough patience, simply attributed to too many meetings, inefficient, and shift in addition to all of the conference, ending the practice of Scrum, like the ostrich in danger, will head buried in the sand, it seems that there would be no risk of unseen, in fact, the real problem is the factors that lead to inefficient meetings and communication rather than the meeting itself;

Lessons learned

1. Before any decision to implement Scrum team, be sure to think clearly, "Why Implement Scrum?", To help us really understand our needs where we Scrum for the implementation of a clear set of goals, this time to help the team in implementation process of continuous review and adjustment to overcome the difficulties, but also to help the team to keep patience and confidence;
2. Before starting the implementation, we must provide for the team and related personnel about Agile and Scrum basic training, to understand the values ​​of agile, quick to understand the driving force behind the practice, only understand "why do" in order to really achieve agile practices effect;
3. Finding the right people to do the PO, not only this person is very clear for business or needs, but this person needs to have sufficient time and team work together to help the team understand the needs, setting goals, and the need for agile requirements management has enough To understanding;
4. To have a clear definition of DONE standard from the beginning, and let everyone, including teams, PO and other relevant personnel have a clear understanding;

Reproduced in: https: //www.cnblogs.com/RelaxTintin/archive/2010/10/26/1861661.html