Uncle Bob posted a message in which he points out some of Scrum’s shortcomings. It’s a well-put and thoughtful critique of the places where Scrum falls down or is silent.
Scrum carries an anti-management undercurrent that is counter-productive. Scrum over-emphasizes the role of the team as self-managing. Self-organizing and self-managing teams are a good thing. But there is a limit to how much a team can self-X. Teams still need to be managed by someone who is responsible to the business. Scrum does not describe this with enough balance.
Reading this list, you’ll probably realize two things.
- Your team isn’t really doing Scrum
- Your team has figured out practical ways to work around these shortcomings or skip them entirely.
In the end, this is a critique of strict Scrum, and really not of Agile itself. It kind of reinforces how nebulous the space still is.
Scrum / Agile’s inherit shortcomings? Uncle Bob Martin’s 7 theses via @markneedham
