13 October 2024

Scrum framework : 4 dimensions for Scrum Mastery

  • See the original post here : https://www.agilesocks.com/4-dimensions-scrum-mastery/

Scrum Mastery (4 dimensions)

  • Team Identity,
  • Team Process,
  • Product Value,
  • and the Organization.

Journey to Mastery

  • Ken Schwaber quote : “Scrum takes two days to learn and a lifetime to master.”

And your journey to Mastery

  • Questions :
    • So how do you begin that journey towards Scrum mastery ?
    • If you’re already on that journey, how do you keep making forward progress ?
  • Lesson Learned :
    • When I first embarked on my own journey towards Scrum mastery, I was eager to learn.
    • I attended Scrum training courses, I went to and eventually spoke at agile conferences and meet ups, I read books and blogs.
    • There are many resources available (some good, some great, and unfortunately some misleading).

KISS

  • KISS is “Keep It Simple, Stupid, Smiling and Sexy”.
  • Lessons Learned
    • KISS
      • What I have learned over the years is to keep it simple.
    • Agile Mindset
      • I rely on an agile mindset to guide me.
    • Business Agility
      • And I focus that agile mindset on 4 key areas that impact the effectiveness of Scrum and enable the benefits of Business Agility.

1-Team Identity

  • Scrum does not solve your problems.
    • Only People do.
    • What Scrum will do is help make your problems painfully transparent so that people can come up with the creative solutions.
  • Scrum Teams
    • You must have an appreciation for teams and the individuals within those teams.
    • You must give those teams the knowledge, skills, and tools to productively work together.
  • Scrum Team Development
    • A team starts as a collection of individuals.  
      • Together they form an entirely new living and breathing organism.  
    • This new organism forms an identity over time.
      • As new questions and challenges emerge, a team must constantly seek to discover and evolve its identity.
    • Developing a team identity enables effective self-management and collaboration.

2-Team Process

  • As a team figures out who they are, they are also figuring out how best to work together.
  • Scrum framework
    • Scrum is not a process nor a methodology; it is a framework.
      • Scrum provides boundaries and guidance through accountabilities of the Scrum roles, transparency with the Scrum artifacts, and opportunities to inspect and adapt with the Scrum events.
    • A Scrum Team defines its process within the Scrum framework, including practices, tools, and how people work together.
  • Improvement with the 3 pillars os the Scrum framework
    • Transparency
      • In order to improve team process, there must be transparency to the process.  
        • Teams must understand how their process is affecting their outcomes.
        • Teams must inspect aspects of the process to look for opportunities to improve.
    • Inspection and Adaption
      • They must also realize when the circumstances around them are changing, and they need to adapt their process to meet new challenges.

3-Product Value

  • The product is the purpose of what you are doing.  
    • The product is why you create teams.
    • The product is why you do Scrum. 
  • Value
    • Therefore, you must focus on understanding and growing product value.
    • This includes understanding the different motivations, needs, and behaviors of users and customers.
    • You must know what defines value for your product and actually measure the value realized.
  • EEF
    • Stay aware of Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEF) and trends that impact the Product.
  • Alignment
    • Consider how you are ensuring alignment between what you are building and how it creates value for the organization, evolving this over time.

4-The Organization

  • Organizations provide both structure and culture, which will impact the teams and products that live within the organization.
    • Structure includes the business model, which is essentially the design for successfully operating the business. 
    •  It also includes how employees, partners, and service providers are organized. Structure often influences organizational processes and policies.
  • Culture
    • Culture is a body of habits that bind people together into a cohesive.  
    • Culture is a way of seeing things, of knowing what to do in specific circumstances. 
    •  Culture evolves from the sum of all human behavior within an organization.
    • It is often influenced by the organizational structure and processes, including roles, goals, and incentives.
  • Benefits of Scrum
    • Maximizing the benefits of Scrum often means evolving organizational culture, processes, and possibly structure.  
    • You must know how the organization is enabling or inhibiting the success if your Scrum Team in order to influence the organization.

Summary

  • While Scrum is simple, Scrum Mastery is about what you bring to the journey.
    • You must bring your creativity and wisdom, but also your curiosity, determination, and skills.
    • These four dimensions can help you simplify by giving you a lens through which you can observe outcomes and behaviors.
    • This lens creates focus and clarity so that you can reflect and take action.
  • When you feel stuck in the weeds and overwhelmed, come back to the simplicity of these four dimensions : Team Identity, Team Process, Product Value, and Organization.
    • Apply an agile mindset as you look through the lens.
    • See where your team is thriving and where they need support.
    • Use the stance of a servant-leader to guide your actions (and sometimes intentional non-action).
  • How will you use these four dimensions help you on your journey towards Scrum mastery? 

Read all posts in this series :

  • 4 Dimensions for Scrum Mastery
  • Scrum Mastery: 5 Steps to Grow a Strong Team Identity
  • Scrum Mastery: 5 Steps to Improve Team Process
  • Scrum Mastery: 4 Steps to Optimize Product Value
  • Scrum Mastery: 5 Steps to Leverage the Organization

And now, it’s your own …

Versioning

  • Created on 01/04, 2023.
  • Updated : 01/16, 2023.

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