The ScrumButt Test – Update

Next week I will be speaking to Agile Midlands about the ScrumButt Test.  And the following day, I will be doing a Webinar on ScrumButt.

In part, this is because to me the ScrumButt Test is fun.

Here are some key statements:

• The test enables you to get a reading on a Team quickly
• It tells you where the Team is
• It implies where the Team should be (on certain things)
• It focuses on things that Jeff Sutherland (and others) think are important for higher success
• It is based on lots of experience
• It does not cover everything

The ScrumButt Test also does not provide solutions and certainly does not implement a solution.

But, as I said, it does imply some solutions or “things to fix”.

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We find, that as you score better on the test, the Team will become (a) happier, (b) more productive, and (c) deliver higher business value.

These are things that are, I hope, important to virtually all of us (that is, people who would read this blog).

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Is it always comfortable going to a doctor for a diagnosis?

In my opinion, no. Although, as in that Woody Allen movie, some of us feel great relief to find out that we do not have a brain tumor.

The point of the diagnose is not to make you feel uncomfortable.  Although there may be a related point, that the discomfort leads the patient to take better action (we hope).

Don’t feel bad about where your Team is.  We must accept the fact that they are at this spot.

But equally, do not be complacent and just accept everything.  Change may be hard and may come to slowly, but almost everywhere some change is possible.  And, as Buddha said, “everything changes, nothing remains the same.”  That is, even where you think change is impossible, it is still possible.  And will indeed, in some way, happen.

(Again, you must judge for yourself how much patience each person, each Team, and each Company deserves.  Your life, too, is a timebox, and your energies and love might be better spent elsewhere.)

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I recommend the ScrumButt Test.  Have fun with it.

Think about the improvements the ScrumButt Test implies for you and your Team.

You do not have to agree or accept them.  But probably you will find them worry of acting on.

 

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