Scrum for Executives: Demystifying the Impact of Scrum
September 29, 2014
Looking for a short and sweet explanation of Scrum? The fact is, you can really boil it down to three key ways it can help you and your company deliver transformative results.
When it comes to decoding what exactly Scrum means for your team, Scrum Inc. COO Alex Brown says there are three main value propositions that should frame the way every executive thinks about it.
First, Scrum is a business accelerator, empowering your people to do things faster and better. Second, it’s a built-in risk management system, encouraging employees to collect and act on feedback, data, and reality, rather than gut feeling or hypotheses. Finally, it also
In the video below, Brown explains how those benefits can improve output and help managers build better, happier, and more effective teams.
How You Should Think About Scrum: 3 Key Value Propositions
1) Scrum prioritizes highest value features
By performing work in smaller iterations and with customer needs explicitly in mind, Scrum helps teams focus on the highest value activities that are most likely to have the greatest impact on customers.
3) Scrum mitigates risk
Rather than basing your product, sales, or marketing strategy on a hypothesis, Scrum encourages you to test certain features, approaches, or tactics, and quickly act on feedback. Doing this allows you to determine if your hypothesis is rooted in reality or if you should consider going another direction. Either way, you reduce the risk of outright failure significantly, Brown says.
3) Scrum leads to happier, more productive teams
Because Scrum allows employees to control their own destiny and flow of work, it naturally improves staff retention and hiring. Ultimately, that will yield a healthier employee pool and allow your business to drive more efficient scale.