Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time

by Jeff Sutherland

I ran into Eelco about six months later and asked him how it had gone. “Great,” he said. “Six weeks to the day. Now my neighbor, that’s another story.”

Every morning he’d gather the carpenters, the electricians, the plumbers, or whoever else was needed for that week’s Sprint and go over what was done the day before, what they were going to get done today, and what was getting in their way.

But he said the main thing the Stand-ups did was remove dependencies.

On any construction project a lot of time is spent waiting for one part of the job to be done before the next can begin, and often these phases involve different skill sets—electrical

What the Daily Stand-up meeting did was get all these people into a room where they quickly figured out how the...

Six weeks later the project was completed.

The same workers were hired, but this time it took them three months.

The only difference was that the neighbor didn’t use Scrum.

The problems that Scrum forces to the surface weren’t discovered until too late.

Maybe you would rather be at work all day—me, I’d rather be surfing.

THE TAKEAWAY

Time Is Finite. Treat It That Way.

Demo or Die.

Throw Away Your Business Cards.

Everyone Knows Everything.

One Meeting a Day.

Waste Is a Crime

The heart of Scrum is rhythm.

For example, there are the negative rhythms of the addict and the depressed.

This is part of the human experience.

Throughout the business environment especially, we created an acute depersonalization that seems dictated by fate.

It accepts that we’re habit-driven creatures, seekers of rhythm, somewhat predictable, but also somewhat magical and capable of greatness.

In giving Scrum a daily and weekly rhythm, I guess what I was striving for was to offer people the chance to like the person they see in the mirror.

nothing but waste.

the waste that infects our work, the cancer that eats at our productivity, our organizations, our lives, and our society.

In a way it was exciting.

And fully half of the work I’d done over the past year was thrown away.

Fifty-percent waste.

Deep within ourselves, as we repeat the rhythm of our days, we know that’s true.

We should mourn the lives and potential we’re wasting.

“Waste is a crime against society more than a business loss.”

Ohno talked about three different types of waste.

Muri,

Mura,

Muda,

PDCA cycle,

Plan, Do, Check, Act.

Plan

M...

Do

M...

C...

M...

Act

Do One Thing at a Time

“busy-brag”

“must do nows”

Unfortunately, we can’t. And the more we think we can, the worse we actually are at it.

The research is very clear on this. People who drive while talking on cell phones—even the hands-free variety—get into more accidents than people who don’t.

“see”