ptg34576569 Zombie Scrum Survival Guide ptg34576569 9780136523260_web.indb 1 06/10/20 12:17 pm The Professional Scrum Series by Visit informit.com/scrumorg for a complete list of available publications. ptg34576569 The Professional Scrum Series from Pearson Addison-Wesley and Scrum.org consists of a series of books that focus on helping individuals and organizations apply Scrum and agile leadership to improve the outcomes of customers and organizations. Approaching the challenge from different perspectives, each book provides deep insights into overcoming the obstacles that both teams and organizations face as they seek to reap the benefits of agility. All Scrum.org proceeds from the series go to Year Up, an organization whose mission is to close the Opportunity Divide by providing urban young adults with the skills, experience, and support to empower them to reach their potential through professional careers and education. Make sure to connect with us! informit.com/socialconnect ScrumOrg_Series_page_7x9_125.indd 1 8/12/2019 8:31:13 AM 9780136523260_web.indb 2 06/10/20 12:17 pm Zombie Scrum Survival Guide A Journey to Recovery Christiaan Verwijs ptg34576569 Johannes Schartau Barry Overeem Boston • Columbus • New York • San Francisco • Amsterdam • Cape Town Dubai • London • Madrid • Milan • Munich • Paris • Montreal • Toronto • Delhi • Mexico City São Paulo • Sydney • Hong Kong • Seoul • Singapore • Taipei • Tokyo 9780136523260_web.indb 3 06/10/20 12:17 pm Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and the publisher was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital letters or in all capitals. 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ISBN-13: 978-0-13-652326-0 ISBN-10: 0-13-652326-9 ScoutAutomatedPrintCode Zombie Scrum Survival Guide is dedicated to all the nameless victims and unsung heroes in the ongoing struggle against Zombie Scrum. We are here to support you. ptg34576569 A01_Verwijs_FM_pi-p.indd 5 06/10/20 3:55 pm This page intentionally left blank ptg34576569 C o nte nt s Foreword by Dave West xiii Foreword by Henri Lipmanowicz xvii Acknowledgments xix ptg34576569 About the Authors xxi Chapter 1 Getting Started 1 Purpose of This Book 4 Do You Need This Book? 5 How This Book Is Organized 6 No Time to Lose: Off You Go! 8 Chapter 2 First Aid Kit 11 Part I (Zombie) Scrum 13 Chapter 3 A Primer on Zombie Scrum 15 The State of Scrum 17 Zombie Scrum 18 Sy mptom 1: Zombie Scrum Teams Don’t Know the Needs of Their Stakeholders 19 Symptom 2: Zombie Scrum Teams Don’t Ship Fast 20 Symptom 3: Zombie Scrum Teams Don’t Improve (Continuously) 21 vii 9780136523260_web.indb 7 06/10/20 12:17 pm Contents Sy mptom 4: Zombie Scrum Teams Don’t Self-Organize to Overcome Impediments 23 It’s All Connected 24 Isn’t This Just Cargo Cult Scrum or Dark Scrum? 24 Is There Hope for Zombie Scrum? 24 Experiment: Diagnose Your Team Together 25 Steps 27 Our Findings 28 Now What? 29 Chapter 4 The Purpose of Scrum 31 It’s All about Complex Adaptive Problems 32 Problems 33 Complex, Adaptive Problems 34 Complexity, Uncertainty, and Risk 35 Empiricism and Process Control Theory 36 Empiricism and the Scrum Framework 37 What the Scrum Framework Makes Possible 38 Scrum: An Evolving Set of Minimal Boundaries to Work Empirically 39 ptg34576569 Zombie Scrum and the Efficiency Mindset 40 What about Simple Problems? 42 Now What? 44 Part II Build What Stakeholders Need 45 Chapter 5 Symptoms and Causes 47 Why Bother Involving Stakeholders? 49 Who Are the Stakeholders, Actually? 50 Validating Assumptions about Value 51 Why Are We Not Involving Stakeholders? 52 We Don’t Really Understand the Purpose of Our Product 52 We Make Assumptions about What Stakeholders Need 55 We Create Distance between Developers and Stakeholders 56 We See Business and IT As Separate Things 59 We Don’t Allow Product Owners to Actually Own the Product 61 We Measure Output over Value 63 viii 9780136523260_web.indb 8 06/10/20 12:17 pm Contents We Believe That Developers Should Only Write Code 64 We Have Stakeholders Who Don’t Want to Be Involved 66 Healthy Scrum 68 Who Should Get to Know the Stakeholders? 68 When to Involve Stakeholders 69 Now What? 71 Chapter 6 Experiments 73 Experiments: Getting to Know Your Stakeholders 74 Start a Stakeholder Treasure Hunt 74 Create Transparency with the Stakeholder Distance Metric 76 Give the Stakeholder a Desk Close to the Scrum Team 78 Decorate the Team Room with the Product Purpose 80 Experiments: Involving Stakeholders in Product Development 81 Invite Stakeholders to a “Feedback Party” 81 Go on a User Safari 84 Guerrilla Testing 86 Experiments: Keeping Your Focus on What Is Valuable 88 ptg34576569 Limit the Maximum Length of Your Product Backlog 88 Map Your Product Backlog on an Ecocycle 90 Express Desired Outcomes, Not Work to Be Done 94 Now What? 96 Part III Ship It Fast 97 Chapter 7 Symptoms and Causes 99 The Benefits of Shipping Fast 102 Complexity in Your Environment 102 Complexity in Your Product 104 The Bottom Line: Not Shipping Fast Is a Sign of Zombie Scrum 105 Why Are We Not Shipping Fast Enough? 105 We Don’t Understand How Shipping Fast Reduces Risk 106 We Are Impeded by Plan-Driven Governance 108 We Don’t Understand the Competitive Advantage of Shipping Fast 110 We Don’t Remove Impediments to Shipping Fast 113 We Work on Very Large Items during a Sprint 114 ix 9780136523260_web.indb 9 06/10/20 12:17 pm