Scrum: A Framework for Opportunistic Discovery
“Scrum.org Helping People and Teams solve Complex problems” – Scrum.org
The Complexity of Product Development
Product development is rarely straightforward. Many projects face delays, cost overruns, or unexpected challenges. Have you ever worked on a traditional sequential project that overran, exceeded its budget, or faced roadblocks? If so, you’re not alone.
Consider the various variables in product development related to technology, requirements, and people – including teammates, leadership, users, customers, and stakeholders. Take five minutes to list as many variables as possible.
Did you identify any of these?
We could probably continue identifying known variables all day. We haven’t even added changing customer behaviours, political, regulatory, legal, competition or other business variables to the list above.
- Is it possible for unknown variables to exist?
- Could unexpected events occur?
- Are some variables interrelated, forming connected systems that influence each other?
- Are some variables more unpredictable than others?
Product development is a complex activity with many unknowns. Traditional management approaches often struggle to address this complexity effectively. To navigate uncertainty, teams need a way to categorize and manage different types of problems. This is where decision-making models like the Cynefin Framework help.
The Cynefin Framework
The Cynefin Framework was developed to help leaders understand challenges and make contextual decisions. Our actions need to match reality through a process of sense-making.
In product development, our work can span from being very straightforward, or clear, to completely chaotic. Work may be in different domains at the same time or moving through them. The level of complexity of our work affects how we apporach and manage the work.
Complicated Domain: If I wanted to cross a large river to transport people and goods, there would be existing good practices that could guide us to achieve this. Humanity has solved this problem many times in various ways. By assembling experts, planning, and executing, we can achieve the vision. Using governing constraints like traditional program and project management, one-dimensional leadership (e.g., command and control), and metrics for control, such as time-based estimates, milestones, and scope.
In a sequential approach, the release of value is delayed until completion, postponing validation and feedback. This is acceptable for clear and complicated work where outcomes are known in advance.
Is the UK’s HS2 project in a complicated domain? Was it managed using appropriate leadership styles and planning methods?
Complex Domain: Operating in the unknown with unpredictability characterizes the complex domain. The vision is clear, but the path is uncertain, with variables that may change. Creating and executing a fixed plan here is impractical and may lead to failure or suboptimal results.
Consider endeavours like:
- Achieving nuclear fusion
- Competing in a digital & AI marketplace
- Travelling near the speed of light
- Developing new digital products and services
Complexity and risk are high, and long-term plans may become inaccurate and unmanageable.
Leadership in this domain requires:
- Customer and stakeholder collaboration
- Visionary thinking
- Servant leadership
- Imagination, intuition, and insight to enhance effectiveness, creativity, and innovation
Empiricism and Feedback Loops in Scrum
Since complex work cannot be fully planned upfront, teams need a way to navigate uncertainty. Scrum embraces this through empiricism, learning from experience and adapting based on feedback.
- Empiricism: Based on, concerned with, or verifiable by observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic.
- Feedback: Positive feedback amplifies system output, resulting in continuous learning and growth.
In a complex domain, pursuing the vision and product strategy through small experimental feedback loops that yield verifiable results fosters creativity, learning, and transparency via empiricism and feedback.
Scrum relies on this principle heavily, and the Scrum Master plays a vital role in fostering an empirical culture. To explore the accountability of a Scrum Master, read What is a Scrum Master?
The Right Tool for the Right Job: Scrum for the Complex Domain
To navigate these challenges, teams needs an approach that fosters adaptability and continuous learning, allowing them to experiment, probe, sense, and respond.
Scrum is a lightweight framework that helps people, teams, and organizations generate value through adaptive solutions for complex problems. It is simple and purposefully incomplete, designed to be tailored to fit the environment in which it is applied.
To explore Scrum’s core principles further, read: What is Scrum? Uncovering Its True Essence.
Every Sprint results in a useful, valuable increment.
- Useful: It works, is fully tested, and could be delivered to a customer.
- Valuable: It has potential value to the user or customer.
In Scrum, we don’t delay value release, as our product/service is in a working state at least once every Sprint. Releasing value to a customer is a choice. Releasing and validating our assumptions with users and customers helps us to maximise value. Each sprint offers the opportunity to collaborate with stakeholders and change direction if needed to maximise value while also providing stability and space to focus on creating valuable outcomes.
The Scrum Framework enables:
- Maximum value flow and minimal waste
- Rapid tactical and strategic decision-making
- Reduced decision-making latency
- Improved decision-making quality through cross-functional, self-managing teams focusing on valuable outcomes
Yes, you could design a Kanban system to manage complex work, but Scrum is pre-packaged to tackle complex problems and supports continuous improvement along the way.
Note that Scrum and Kanban aren’t mutually exclusive. Once teams fully embrace empiricism through Scrum, they can further enhance workflow efficiency and predictability by integrating Kanban practices. However, poor Kanban adoption can introduce inefficiencies instead of improvements. To learn more, explore 8 Red Flags Your Kanban Adoption is Incomplete.
Scrum is not just a process, it is a framework built to handle uncertainty and unpredictability. By leveraging empirical process control, teams can navigate complexity while continuously delivering maximum value.
Scrum is a powerful tool, but its effectiveness depends on understanding and applying it correctly.
If you’re ready to deepen your knowledge and apply these principles in practice, explore our Agile and Scrum training courses, including Product Ownership and Scrum Mastery.