You read the headline and are probably curious now what the ugly truth might be. I want to be straight forward with you and give you the answer right away. The truth is: You did not fail because the agile methodology does not work. You just did not know how to use it. That is it. Now, it is up to you to dismiss this ugly truth and join a group of people who blame agile methodology for their failure. Or you keep reading and try to understand that you are not using the wrong tool, but you are just not using it right.
Let me start by giving you an analogy for what I mean: Imagine, that your previous job was to hammer nails into a wall and you were pretty good at it. But now I give you a new task and want you to put a screw into the wall. In addition to that, I will even tell you, that you’re going to need a screwdriver for that. But, you never used a screwdriver before. So you’ll start hammering the screw to the wall with the screwdriver, because hammering is what you do best. Consequently, you’ll fail spectacularly completing this task and probably start blaming the screwdriver for it.
And as obvious and funny this situation might seem to you. I’ve seen people doing exactly that, blaming the methodology even though the usage was the problem. You do not want to be one of them, do you? So here is what I suggest you to do instead
How to make agile work well for you
First of all, make sure, that everyone who is involved in your agile project, has an appropriate level of knowledge around agile. Invest in proper trainings if necessary. Keep in mind, that people will use the tools wrong if you never train them on how to use them. Also, make sure that you really train everyone! So, it is not only your development team that needs training, but equally important every manager and stakeholder involved in this development.
Secondly, accept that every agile team, even experienced ones, need a Scrum Master and/or Agile Coach. A Scrum Master is not an optional Scrum Team member! I understand that sometimes in your department or company the pressure for cost efficiency might be incredibly high. Nevertheless, you should never cut costs by leaving your team alone without an appropriate Coach. If you were the manager of a soccer sports team, would you fire your Coach to become more cost efficient? You probably won’t, because you understand, that a soccer team needs a coach to unleash their full potential and remain competitive.
Likewise, a Scrum Master will not only enable your team to deliver value but also help you to unleash the full potential of your development team. Consequently, omitting the Scrum Master would backfire and lead to a mediocre performance. To the end, that you will never work with the high performing team you were dreaming of when you started your agile journey in the first place. So think twice.
With this in mind, if you have to cut costs, keep your Scrum Master and find other ways to become cost-efficient. Because you cannot afford wasting money on a dysfunctional Scrum Team. Sorry for the disillusion, but nobody ever said, that agile product development was cheap. Nevertheless, here is the good news: Your investment will pay off. One benefit will be the faster time-to-market of your product. Find out in this post what “speed” in agile really means.
Key Takeaways
- Never let teams work with agile methodology without training them first
- Train everyone. Developers and managers.
- Accept, that every agile team deserves a skilled Scrum Master / Agile Coach
- Do not try to be cheap with agile
