Are You Ready For Scrum? Do You Know Anything About Scrum Implementation And Issues Faced?

Why “C” level management prefers scrum framework

Scrum offers many advantages over traditional Waterfall methods. The development process is much quicker and more dynamic. There is more client interaction. It is much easier to control production processes and cut down upon non-productive or non-performing tasks and activities. The ROI can be drastically increased. The list of advantages may appear to be endless. These facts are known to many decision making and key management personnel across the world. Moreover, there is a general belief amongst many management level experts that if you employ scrum, you will benefit from a healthy business environment which is more receptive and open to changes, the productivity levels are substantially increased owing to improved collaboration between team members, management, and stakeholders, and perhaps the most important aspect why scrum is so popular – how can a business grow substantially without having to invest huge amounts of capital in infrastructure and human resources? 

Capital is always a constraint and a valuable form of resource for almost all businesses, and managements always seek ways and means to increase the productivity and profit levels while keeping the overheads low, and in control. It is a known and accepted fact. Scrum might just help you to do this, and much more, if you know and understand scrum, and implement it properly within your production process. This is why people have many expectations from scrum frameworks.

Reality about scrum implementation

What most experts fail to understand is there is always a string attached if you plan to make money without putting in all due efforts. In many ways, saving money is synonymous to earning it, and scrum helps you to save upon the working and production costs which can result into money saving and profits. 

First of all, it is not that easy to implement scrum. You need to be educated about scrum framework, and possess the required experience and skill levels to implement it successfully. In addition, transition from traditional methods to scrum is involved with its own particular issues. The business processes have to accommodate and adjust to scrum working. Certain departments have to change their basic method of working to support scrum implementation. Here are some of the issues you might face while incorporating scrum into your business.    

·      Acceptance by chief level officers

"C" level executives are more tuned to working with organizations following traditional Waterfall methods. They are used to, and can easily delegate their authority within traditional working models. They are responsible for delivering reliable and consistent outputs to the stakeholders, and to do this they have to set up, or build a certain "velocity" or pace at which business processes are required to function. The basic idea is to create optimum working conditions in which maximum productivity can be achieved out of the business processes.

Issue:

Scrum is all about collaboration and distribution of authority. The team works as a composite unit and delivers productivity. Even though the product owner holds many trumps, he or she can be challenged by the team members, and at times if necessary by the scrum master, regarding the productivity of the development process. Team members also have the right to question or even reject the user stories if they find it difficult to adhere to its development principles, or if development is not feasible.

The absolute authority of "C" level executives is often challenged by the team members, and they might be even forced to answer a few technical questions, which might not go very well with their egos or self esteem. If scrum is to be effectively implemented, they have to come to terms with the new method of working, and make some amendments in their thought processes and working patterns.

·      Human resources working and evaluation activities

Individuals opting for scrum need to be specially trained in the framework before they can effectively contribute towards the development activity. The HR is responsible for choosing the right candidate for a particular profile, and in case of traditional development methods, the candidate does not need any special training. Generally, qualifications and experience suffice while appointing a person for a particular position.

Issue:

With scrum, everything changes for the HR department. They are forced to create new career paths and roles for scrum-trained employees. Moreover, it may prove to be difficult for them to work out several increment and incentives related issues for the team members. How can employee efforts be monitored or calculated? Since scrum is all about teamwork, how do you determine the productivity of individual team members? Do you consider the overall productivity of the team? If so, which member has contributed more towards the development?

It is not easy to be objective while considering the overall picture. HR may have to work out special monitoring processes to determine how much a particular team member is worth to the organization, and how much he or she is contributing towards the business's growth.

·      Finance and budget considerations

It is much easy to determine the budget requirements and calculate the overhead costs in case of Waterfall models. The management is able to correctly identify and adjudge how many resources are required to carry out the production activity. It is also easy to allot budget for a particular business process. However, in case of scrum, development is possible only through teams, and the budget is to be directly allotted for the team's functioning. It may be difficult to find out the true worth of a team in terms of productivity and its contribution towards business growth and profit margins earned by the business.

Issue:

The management may feel uncomfortable and even insecure while allotting budget directly to the team. The management needs justification while allotting budgets, and the team may not be able to justify the expenditure each time it seeks financial resources. Moreover, the team is responsible as a whole, and the management may not be satisfied with the justifications provided by the team members. There is no "single" person who can be held responsible if development starts going haywire.

The management requires to thoroughly understand how scrum works, and also recognize the fact that even though scrum offers many benefits, one needs to adapt to its implementation - and this can be difficult in the initial stages. The basic problem is adjusting to a different mindset, which caters more to dynamic changing environments rather than traditional seemingly safe and secure, yet fallible working models.

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