The Scrum Alliance has announced a new CSP Process.  That is, a new process for becoming a Certified Scrum Professional.  See here.

This is mostly good. We recommend it.

And some discussion.

First, the main changes are:
(a) 3 years of experience (not well defined by S.A. – sorry)
(b) 60 SEUs (same as the PDU concept) (also not as well defined as I would like – again, sorry)
(c) no test

(Note: As you, and I and others ask questions, I think the Scrum Alliance will define these things more carefully. Please ask them questions.)

Second. I am not a big advocate of certifications. I am after far bigger results for you, for your Team, for your customers than that.  Huge results.

And I have never been convinced that any certification can ‘prove’ that someone will get results. But, other things equal, more explicit and tacit knowledge is good. And more experience is usually good. And these Scrum Alliance courses that lead to certifications tend to provide good information. Information that can make you more effective.

So, what is our biggest impediment, in the Scrum community?  Well, there are many things that one could point out, but this is what I think.

Too many people are doing Scrum or ‘scrum’ (as they define it), and getting results that are not as impressive as I would like. So, the frequency of ‘subpar’ results. (Subpar is still usually at least 20%, which is a great return on investment. But far less than we ought to be getting.)

I would like to see Teams regularly, almost universally, getting 100%, 200%, 500% and more improvement.  And I think all of them can (compared to their own baseline). (Yes, there will always be a few dysfunctional teams. And people who should never be in a team.)

I think the 400%+ level of improvement is quite uncommon.  I will guess in the neighborhood of 15-30%.  Why?

Many reasons:
- the firm’s culture
- lack of aggressiveness in removing impediments
- too many doing ‘scrum’ or Scrum-Butt
- a forgetting of what Scrum is
- many other factors

I think the CSP approach can help with this. The PDU approach is only one method to address this problem. (And, given human nature and life, we will never get 100% of the people getting 400%+ with Scrum.) But I do think the PDU approach can help.

Why?
- Because people need to get fired up again
- Because people forgot the first Scrum course (research shows that people forget over 80% very quickly; it is just how the brain works)
- The core concepts of Scrum are quite foreign, or at least counter, to what most of your work environment is telling you. So, while you may absorb some basics at first, you cannot absorb the fine points. The real art of it.
- Scrum starts to ‘wash off’ (if you get the metaphor)

So, the PDUs do two things.
- They remind and enrich your brain, your muscle memory, on what Scrum really is
- They give you extra things to add to Scrum (adding things is essential to successfully using Scrum)

To me, whether you get a CSP is not very important. But, if you are using Scrum, you must continue to learn to get better.  And you must endeavor to take it (Scrum, innovation, productivity, fun) to the next level with your Team.

In the US, where I am, we speak of the spirit of Christmas. And while some people are a bit cynical about it, we think we actually see it sometimes.  It is meaningful.  And people do know what you are talking about.

In a roughly similar way, the spirit of Scrum is also real.

Some people think, it seems, that Scrum is mainly a set of practices.  And that is true, as far as it goes.

But the values and principles behind Scrum are probably more important.  This is related to how we coaches and trainers talk about how a person or a team or a company ‘gets it’.  When we say that, we mean more a real understanding of the values and principles.  Of the spirit of Scrum.

So, today I want to focus on three words: love, comraderie, and adventure. I think all 3 of these feelings are key to successful Scrum.

By love, I mean the real but hard and tough affection and respect for people.  A willingness to accept both the good and bad about their full humanity.  A kind of love for the people in your team. (Not the ‘I love you, man’ of that famous commercial.)  And a kind of love for the customers.  That, for example, the Team deeply wants their lives to be better.

By comraderie, I mean the feeling that, as Shakespeare put it, we are a happy band of brothers in war.  (Yes, the ladies are not excluded, of course, and might, in general, prefer a metaphor not so like war.  …a different metaphor for a different day.)  I mean helping each other, working together. And I mean a willingness to be honest with each other (‘I just can’t figure this dang thing out.’)

By adventure I mean the willingness to charge into the unknown of innovation. To try new things (a way of fixing an impediment).  To fail, and learn from it.  And, ultimately, a passion to overcome all the hard realities of life, and still get to the goal successfully.  In all the dimensions of success that are important.  Including treating all teammates as comrades and respecting what the customers really want and need. (For example, not sacrificing quality in a way seen as stupid by the customer.)

Wipe your glasses again, and see and feel the spirit of Scrum. It is in those 3 words; it is more than any 3 words.  It will make you and your team better.

Scrum is a bare framework. It is very simple.

Scrum is not trying to be a full methodology.

Lots of people are doing Scrum-Butt.  “We do Scrum, but…”  And then they say…

…we don’t have a product owner.
…we change the length of the sprint often
…we don’t have a Scrum Master
…we don’t do a _daily_ scrum
etc.

I strongly urge you to try all of Scrum.  No Scrum-Butt.

Because I think more success will result. For you, for your team, and for your customers.

A simple definition of the bare framework can be found in the Scrum Guide or in this list.

If, because of impediments, you are doing Scrum-Butt now, this is ok.  Let me just ask two things. Try to fix the impediments.  And tell yourselves and tell others….”well, we are trying to do all of the bare framework of Scrum, but so far we are doing Scrum-Butt…”

Thanks. And I think that will help you and others.

The more I think about Scrum, the more it becomes a Gestalt…a whole thing.  And it becomes somewhat misleading to talk about its parts.

One must do all of Scrum.  It you only take part of the medicine…well, you will not get the real benefit.

Still, we must talk about Scrum one word at a time. And, for reference and other purposes, we can simplify this into a lost.  A list as a basis for discussion.  One hopes these discussions lead to a better life for you, your Team and your customers.

Scrum was ‘co-created’ by Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber.  Their definition of it, the core definition anyway, is in the Scrum Guide.

I have produced several versions of a two-page list of things that define Scrum. The link goes to my latest version (V5).

This list is based mainly in the Scrum Guide, and also discussions with Jeff Sutherland and much reading and experiences.

The first thing to note is how simple the basic framework of Scrum is.

Secondly, you will note my bias, which is that the ideas behind Scrum are at least as important as the explicit Roles, Meetings and Artifacts of Scrum.

The items in brackets [ ] are things that are not in the Scrum Guide. I believe all of  them are ‘supported’ by Jeff Sutherland if not others.  So I do not feel I am adding unfairly to Scrum. But they are not all required to be doing ‘the bare framework of Scrum’.