This paper contains 10 experiments that help you to create (painful) transparency, to inspect together with your Scrum team, and to make adaptations accordingly. Five experiments are from our book Zombie Scrum Survival Guide and five are brand new. All 10 experiments are also published on our Medium publication. But we bundled them into this PDF for your convenience.
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How does this help your team?
As a Scrum Master, Agile Coach, Product Owner, or member of a Scrum team, you need all your creativity to overcome the many hard challenges that (Zombie) Scrum throws at you. Although it can be tempting to give up, we always remind people that the Scrum framework is like exercising. It can be uncomfortable and cause sore muscles, but it is worth it for a healthier lifestyle.
In a similar vein, the Scrum framework exists to reduce the risk of complex work. And getting there hurts, as most organizations are still pointlessly trying to avoid risk through detailed upfront planning, infrequent releases, and command-and-control hierarchies.
In order to overcome these challenges, you need a toolbox of skills, practices, and techniques to draw from. We've found it helpful in our own practice as Scrum Masters to have a toolbox of concrete "experiments" to create (painful) transparency, to inspect together with the team, and then improve the situation. Just like real recipes, they are specific enough to achieve something useful, and they can be tweaked to fit the context.
10 experiments
- Diagnose your team with the Scrum Team Survey
- Increase cross-functionality with a Skill Matrix
- Make the cost of low autonomy transparent with {ermission Tokens
- Map dependencies to find bottlenecks
- Use Compliment Postcards to create safety
- Reiterate the purpose of the product at the start of each Scrum event
- Start a book club to learn together
- Use Critical Incident Reviews to build antifragility
- Share an Impediment Newsletter throughout the organization
- Find actions that boost both integration and autonomy
What do you receive?
- A 30-page PDF with 10 experiments to deal with Zombie Scrum;
- A detailed description of the purpose, the steps, and our personal experiences;
- A full-color PDF richly illustrated by Thea Schukken;
- Additional resources to learn more about (Zombie) Scrum are included;
More inspiration
- Get our book the "Zombie Scrum Survival Guide";
- Order the Zombie Scrum First Aid Kit;
- Check out or on-going series of posts about Zombie Scrum;