Getting Back to the Original Scrum

The New Scrum Game

Ken Schwaber & Jeff Sutherland created the Scrum Agile Framework based on The New New Product Development Game (TNNPDG) & empirical process control.

In the 20+ years since Scrum’s ascension, other useful methods – Flow, Theory of Constraints, Kanban and Lean Management have come to the forefront. In addition, while Scrum was designed for single product teams, Scrum is now being used in product teams that must collaborate with others as well as in IT organizations. In addition, empirical process control, a major tenet of Scrum, is not consistent with the systems-thinking or learning methods of Flow, Lean and ToC.

The “New Scrum Game” is the result of taking insights from TNNPDG and the aforementioned methods and creating a team-level framework that can be used for teams at any scale and both for product and IT. By going back to the source and incorporating new thinking (Flow, Lean) while discarding outdated thinking (empirical process control) a better Scrum is created.

This “New Scrum Game” already exists in the combination of Disciplined Agile Delivery and FLEX’s Team-Agility. It’s not a variation of Ken and Jeff’s Scrum, it’s simply a modern version of the Scrum Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka (authors of TNNPDG) had in mind.

Why empirical process control is insufficient to do Scrum well

This post continues my series on Getting Back to the Original Scrum.

Scrum is founded on empirical process control theory, or empiricism. Empirical process control means to try something, see what happens and adjust your actions based on this feedback.

There is no model (theory) underneath these practices. That is, you don’t make predictions based on an underlying theory you just see what happens (inspect) and then adapt to this feedback. This is why Scrum requires performing a Sprint to be able to see your impediments.

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How Scrum’s core is useful and incorporates the essence of Agile

This post continues my series on Getting Back to the Original Scrum.

Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland captured several key concepts of what The New New Product Development Game (TNNPDG) suggested how product development teams should work. I believe these core roles, practices, events and rules are the core reason that Scrum works. These include:

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This post begins my series on Getting Back to the Original Scrum.

I understand why people think I don’t like Scrum. I have been struggling with this myself. I have used Scrum for almost 2 decades with great results. But I teach it differently and base it on a different model than the Scrum Guide.

I’ve been realizing what I love about Scrum comes from The New New Product Development Game and what I don’t comes from its redefinition.

Continue reading “Getting back to the original Scrum”